Life
His training took place in a context dominated by the Arcadian style and the rising gallantry of the Rococo, while his long career led him to reach maturity in an era in which, alongside the Rococo style and Enlightenment thought, the new and more severe ideals of Neoclassicism emerged.
Born in Forlì in 1711, Ignazio Cirri soon embarked on an ecclesiastical career, becoming a canon of the Cathedral in 1731. In 1759 he was appointed chapel master of the Cathedral of Santa Croce in Forlì, a role he held until his death. In the same year, he entered the Accademia Filarmonica in Bologna, a confirmation of his musical value.
He maintained friendly relations with Giovanni Battista Martini, and his name appeared among the portraits of men of merit collected by the famous Franciscan. In 1765 he called upon Andrea Favi as organist, who became the founder of the Accademia Filarmonica of Forlì. In his later years, he was assisted by his brother Giovanni Battista Cirri, then a famous cellist, as coadjutor.
His organ sonatas show a solid counterpoint hidden beneath the galant style, so much so that Luigi Torchi defined him as a transition musician between Bach and Clementi. He died in Forlì in 1787, leaving a production that combines rigor and inventiveness.
Aneddoto
A pen between Bach and Clementi
Modern musicologists, unable to escape the rite of Bachian citation, have defined these sonatas as a bridge between the complexity of Bach and the elegance of Clementi, as if no Italian composer worthy of crossing the river existed between the two extremes.Works
He published the Twelve Sonatas for Organ op.1 and the Six Sonatas for Harpsichord with Violin Accompaniment op.2. Many other compositions, including masses and motets, are preserved in manuscript in the Chapter Archive of the Forlì Cathedral. His works have been rediscovered and recorded in modern times.
Briciole di storia
Lest we forget
While the great history of Italy was being written by the powerful, in the provinces, local memory risked being lost. This was noticed by the greatest Italian historian of the era, Ludovico Antonio Muratori, who in 1732 was looking for unpublished chronicles for his work. Whom to turn to for Abruzzo? He was directed to a scholar from L'Aquila, Anton Ludovico Antinori. And so, for five years, Antinori immersed himself in the archives, unearthed forgotten parchments, and patiently copied the ancient chronicles of his land, sending them to Muratori. The latter, struck by that volume of work, praised him publicly. It was from then on that the vocation of a lifetime was born in Antinori: to dedicate himself heart and soul to the history of his region, a work that culminated in the monumental Annals of the Abruzzi, an immense work that saved centuries of history from oblivion.
Pubblico dominio (Commons)
