Mauro Giuliani, one of the greatest exponents of the Nineteenth Century guitar, a first rank virtuoso and a great composer for guitar, was born in Bisceglie on July 27, 1781. While still a child he began the study of harmony and composed some works of liturgical character. His center of study was in Barletta, where he moved, together with his brother Nicola, in the first years of his life.
His first instrumental training was on the cello, an instrument that he never abandoned completely during his life. He probably also studied the violin.
Subsequently he devoted himself to the guitar, becoming a very skilled performer on it in a short time. His teachers are unknown, nor do we know his exact movements in Italy.
He married Maria Giuseppe del Monaco, and they had a child, Michael, born in Barletta in 1801. After that he was probably in Bologna and Trieste for a brief stay; by the summer of 1806 he had moved to Vienna without his family.
Here he achieved great success and became a musical celebrity, equal to the best of the many instrumentalists and composers who were active in the Austrian capital city at the beginning of the 19th Century. He began a relationship with a certain Fräulein Willmuth, with whom he had a daughter, Maria, in 1807.
Gifted with much ability and singularly dedicated to his concert activity, Giuliani defined a new role for the guitar in the context of European music. He was acquainted with the highest figures of Austrian society, and cooperated with the best active concert musicians in Vienna. In 1815 he appeared with the pianist Hummel (followed later by Moscheles), the violinist Mayseder and the cellist Merk, in a series of chamber concerts in the botanical gardens of Schönbrunn Palace, concerts that were called the "Dukaten Concerte", after the price of the ticket, which was a ducat, a gold coin of the time. This exposure gave Giuliani prominence in the musical environment of the city. Also in 1815, he was the official concert artist for the celebrations of the Congress in Vienna. Two years earlier, on the 8th of December, 1813, he had played (probably cello) in an orchestra for the first performance of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony.
In Vienna Giuliani had minor success as a composer. He worked mostly with the publisher Artaria, who published the large part of his works for guitar, but he had dealings with all the other local publishers, who spread his compositions all over Europe. He developed here a teaching reputation as well; among his numerous students were Bobrowicz and Horetzky.
In 1819 Giuliani left Vienna, mainly for personal reasons: his property and bank accounts were confiscated to pay his debtors; he had become quite broke! He returned to Italy, spending time in Trieste and Venice, and finally settling in Rome.
He brought with him his daughter Emilia, who was born in 1813. She was educated at the nunnery "L'adorazione del Gesù" from 1821 to 1826, together with Giuliani's illegitimate daughter Maria. In Rome he did not have much success; he published a few compositions and gave only one concert. In July of 1823 he began a series of frequent trips to Naples to be with his father, who was seriously ill. In the Bourbon city of Naples Giuliani would find a better reception to his guitar artistry, and there he was able to publish other works for guitar with local publishers.
In 1826 he performed in Portici before Francesco I and the Bourbon Court. In this time period, which we could call Giuliani's Neapolitan period, he appeared frequently in duo concert with his daughter Emilia, who had become a skilled performer on the guitar. Toward the end of 1828 the health of the musician began to fail; he died in Naples on the 8th of May, 1829. The news of his death did not create much of a stir in the Neapolitan musical environment.
Giuliani left 150 compositions for guitar with opus number. These compositions constitute the principal nucleus of the guitar repertoire of the Eighteenth Century. Among his most important works we count the concertos for guitar and orchestra, Op. 30-36 and 70; a series of fantasias, Op. 119-124, entitled the "Rossiniane," for guitar solo; several sonatas for violin and guitar and flute and guitar; a quintet, Op. 65, for strings and guitar; and some collections for voice and guitar. There are further numerous didactic works, among which is a method for guitar that is used frequently by teachers to this day.
Bibliographic notes
- Mauro Giuliani: The Complete Works in Facsimiles in the original Editions edited by Brian Jeffery, London, Tecla Editions, 39 voll. 1984-88.
- Mauro Giuliani: Studi per chitarra. Edizione integrale. Edizione critica, revisione e diteggiatura di Ruggero Chiesa. Vol. I - opp. 1 & 48. Vol. II - opp. 50, 51 & 98. Vol. III - opp. 100, 111 & 139, Milano, Suvini Zerboni, 1986.
- The Complete Works in Facsimiles in the original Editions edited by Brian Jeffery, London, Tecla Editions, 39 voll. 1984-88.
- Ruggero Chiesa, Il repertorio chitarristico. Un punto sulla situazione. Parte quarta. Il periodo classico (1800-1840). Mauro Giuliani (1781-1829), in il Fronimo no. 79 p. 31, April 1992.
- Mario Torta, Le edizioni napoletane di Mauro Giuliani, in il Fronimo no. 87 p. 12, April 1994.
- Thomas F. Heck, Mauro Giuliani: Virtuoso Guitarist and Composer, Columbus, Editions Orphée, 1995.
- Thomas F. Heck, Giuliani in Italia (I-II-III parte) in il
Fronimo no. 8 p. 16-22, no. 9 p. 19-28, no.10 p. 13-19.
- Thomas F. Heck, Horetzky e la Giulianad in il Fronimo
no. 12 p. 23-26.
- Thomas F. Heck, Mauro Giuliani. Un omaggio in occasione del
bicentenario della nascita e un nuovo ritratto in il Fronimo no.37 p.
48-52.
- Marco Riboni, Mauro Giuliani. Un aggiornamento biografico in il Fronimo no. 81 p. 41-61.
- Marco Riboni, Gli Studi per chitarra di Mauro Giuliani, in il Fronimo no. 104, p. 30-37, 1998.
- For more titles, please refer to the Basic Bibliography