TECLA X 10404
Giuliani | 14 Balli Nazionali, op. 24 for solo guitar
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These 14 Balli Nazionali op. 24 were first published in Vienna in about 1810, when the young Giuliani had just arrived in that city from Italy.
In these Balli Nazionali Giuliani gives fourteen national dances, most of them with Italian titles, although there are also the fandango which is Spanish, an ecossaise, and La Miledi which is no doubt the English My Lady. La Tirolese is a song or dance of the Tirol in which it seems that we hear yodelling. But the gem of this collection is the tarantella, commonly danced with guitar and tambourine accompaniment. These 14 Balli Nazionali probably contain not so much dances from the ordinary life of Vienna at that time, but rather Giuliani’s recollection of dances, especially Italian ones, which he knew.
The Tarantella (no. 14) alone makes this collection worthwhile. Goethe was enthusiastic about the frenzied energy of this dance, and Emma Hamilton herself danced it. It doesn’t have a written-out ending but seems to go on and on.
If you like these Balli Nazionali 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
