From the age of thirteen to the age of eighteen (the time when I went to study counterpoint in Milan) I wrote a hodgepodge of pieces: hundreds of marches for band, perhaps just as many small sinfonie that were played in church, in the theatre, and at concerts; five or six concertos and variations for piano, which I myself played in concerts; several serenades, cantatas (arias, a lot of duets, trios), and diverse pieces for church, of which I remember only a Stabat mater. In the three years I was in Milan I wrote very few free compositions: two sinfonie which were performed in a private concert in the Contrada degli Orefici though I do not remember in whose house, a cantata which was performed at the home of Count Renato Borromeo, and a variety of pieces, most of them comic ones, which the maestro [Lavigna] had me write as exercises and which were not even orchestrated. After returning to my hometown I began to write marches, sinfonie, vocal pieces, etc., an entire Mass and an entire Vesper service, three or four Tantum ergo and other sacred pieces that I do not remember. Among the vocal pieces there were three-voice choruses from Manzoni’s tragedies, and Il cinque maggio for solo voice. Everything is lost, and that is just as well, with the exception of a few sinfonie that they still play here [Busseto], but which I never again wish to hear, and the Inni di Manzoni which I have kept.