TECLA X 10401
Giuliani | 12 Monferrine, op. 12 for solo guitar
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These twelve Monferrine op. 12 were first published in Vienna in 1810, when the young Giuliani had just arrived in that city from Italy. They are lively dances, different in style from most of Giuliani’s later work, and suitable for beginners as they mostly have just a single line of melody plus a good many open basses. The melodies often lie high up on the top string, thus giving good practice for beginners in playing at those higher positions.
The monferrina is an Italian folk dance, probably from Monferrato which is an area in Piedmont not far from Turin. We can imagine, perhaps, fine local costume. So Giuliani, who was Italian, would have known it well; but we also know that it was commonly danced in Vienna at this time, and Hummel wrote a set of variations on it for cello and piano, op. 54. A Vienna dance teacher in 1838 gave a tempo for the monferrina of dotted crotchet (dotted quarter-note) = 60-64. But that figure is most probably on the slow side compared with the reality of the dance floor, so players of these pieces today might try them at a higher speed. The keys of the twelve monferrine are carefully varied to make a set: E, A, D, G, C, F, d, D, A, D, G, C. All of them start on the second beat of the bar and are in the form ABB.
These Monferrine have many effervescent details: for example no. 5 which is all low but then a couple of higher snatches vary it; or no. 6 with its drone bass, or the glissandos in no. 9.
If you like these Monferrine you may also like four other sets of dances which Giuliani published at that same period and which are in a book which I have published called Dances of 1810 which gives more details about the context and about dancing in Vienna at that time. The contents of Dances of 1810 are:
12 Monferrine, op. 12
12 Waltzes, op. 21
12 Neue Wald-Ländler, op. 23
14 Balli Nazionali, op. 24
12 Ecossaises, op. 33
Brian Jeffery
