Two forgotten manuscript sources provide new insights on the early history of cello repertory and performance practice in Naples. The first collection, held by the library of the Montecassino Abbey, dates from around 1699 and contains the only two cello sonatas attributed to Giovanni Bononcini, together with the largest set of passacaglias for cello by the Neapolitan virtuoso Gaetano Francone, and the twenty-eight sonatas for two “violas” and elaborations over antiphons by Rocco Greco, a prominent string performer and teacher. This remarkable source presents significant insights on the history, nomenclature, and function of bass violins in Naples and offers new evidence on the practice of continuo realization at the cello. The second source contains the earliest Italian cello method, written around the 1740s by the Neapolitan cellist Francesco Paolo Supriani, and presents examples of elaborate improvisations at the cello. Both sources demonstrate the technical advancement of the Neapolitan cello virtuosi and connect the cello repertory to the partimento practice. The chapter provides entirely new perspectives on the early history of the violoncello and illustrates the emergence of a celebrated generation of Neapolitan cello virtuosi of international repute, such as Francesco Alborea, in the early years of the eighteenth century.

The rapidly changing political landscape of the Neapolitan Viceregno had a significant impact on the professional path of artists and musicians. Driven by a growing awareness of their central place in artistic culture, the Neapolitan string virtuosi became in many cases cultural agents who played an active role in endorsing and shaping the political and cultural programs of dynastic powers. The career of violinist Angelo Ragazzi is emblematic of the close cultural and artistic networks established between the Neapolitan and Viennese courts and illustrates the musicians’ negotiations with political powers. Ragazzi’s sonatas offer a privileged viewpoint from which to investigate the blending of “old” contrapuntal and “modern” concertante styles. In the first quarter of the eighteenth century, the proliferation in Naples of sonatas for three violins and continuo, characterized by marked contrapuntal language, derives in part from the influence of the Viennese contrapuntal style. The sonatas for three violins published by Giuseppe Antonio Avitrano appears as a unique case of printed instrumental music in Naples, realized thanks to influential aristocratic patronage, in a market that suffered from the absence of a significant middle-class amateur performers.

With the passage of the Viceregno under the control of the Habsburgs in 1707, cultural and artistic exchanges between Naples and Vienna intensified. Sources related to the makeup of the Cappella Reale show two significant trends: the growth of the string section and the introduction and increasing relevance of wind instruments. New documents record the early career in Naples of Francesco Geminiani in connection with the beginnings of the operatic season at the Teatro de’ Fiorentini, where the virtuoso is employed as first violin. Following the outset of the War of the Spanish Succession, Neapolitan musicians were summoned to the Real Capilla of Barcelona, the splendid music chapel established by Archduke Charles of Habsburg to assert his claims to the Spanish throne. When Charles became emperor in 1711 some of these musicians joined the Imperial Chapel in Vienna. The lists of personnel of the Hofmusikkapelle show that a number of virtuosi from Naples formed the core of the string section and contributed to the cosmopolitanism of that ensemble. The prestige of the Neapolitan string school is confirmed by the appointment of Giovanni Antonio Piani, who moved from Paris to Vienna in 1721, at the helm of the Imperial Chapel.

Neapolitan instrumental music has been sidelined by modern scholarship. A focus on opera has for a long time completely obscured the existence of local instrumental traditions in Naples, usually considered peripheral to the main developments of the string repertory. The review of documentary evidence and discovery of new sources brings the reassessment of the central role that the string virtuosi had in the construction of the myth of Naples as music capital. The methodological approaches and criteria used in this study invite a reconsideration of the concepts of center and periphery and of the definition of Neapolitan instrumental “school.” Most of the composers considered were born in the provinces of the kingdom but were trained in the Neapolitan conservatories and thus participated in shared common pedagogical approaches and stylistic trends. A detail from a painting by Paolo de Matteis, which shows the mythical founder of the city, the siren Parthenope, rising from the ocean and accompanying her singing with a violin, is used as a metaphor for the emergence of string music in the early eighteenth century. The development of a distinct string tradition spans from the early career in Naples of virtuosi, such as Lonati and Matteis, after the catastrophic plague of 1656, to the appointment of Alessandro Scarlatti at the helm of the Cappella Reale in 1684.

Through the study of lists of personnel and records of appointments, the chapter looks at Neapolitan music institutions and illustrates in details the central place of the Cappella Reale, the ensemble that participated in all the official ceremonies and represented the sonic embodiment of the Neapolitan royal power. A remarkable example of the court’s representational culture, the Cappella was impacted by the rulers’ shifting political agendas. The chapter traces the evolution of this ensemble, considering in particular the expansion of the string section during the early eighteenth century. The career of violinist Pietro Marchitelli, leader of the ensemble for about thirty years, is emblematic of the opportunities for social mobility available to some string virtuosi. The ascending trajectory of Marchitelli’s professional path – from his birth in a small village in the province of the Neapolitan kingdom, to his training at the Pietà dei Turchini Conservatory, and finally to his appointment in royal ensemble – is retraced through documentary evidence, such as bank accounts and notary contracts, and demonstrates the social status and wealth attained by musicians, with the support of powerful patronage and of cultural and artistic networks.

The chapter describes the central place of the four Neapolitan conservatories in the development of string pedagogy. New archival evidence and a reassessment of known documents allow the analysis of the financial and administrative structure of these educational institutions, the reconstruction of the artistic networks, and the admission process and daily teaching schedule of students. While the conservatories could guarantee a professional future to the children enrolled, the figlioli in turn constituted the main economic resource for these institutions. The pedagogical methods applied in these institutes were based on years of absolute dedication that exploited child labor. This systematic, if arduous, approach to music education played a crucial part in the professional training of the Neapolitan musicians and fostered the emergence of virtuosi whose fame became widespread in Europe. The details of the career of Giovanni Carlo Cailò, a Roman violinist who moved to Naples with Scarlatti and became the most influential string teacher in two of the four conservatories, explain the role and influence of a famed string maestro. A generation of eighteenth-century violin and cello virtuosi formed under Cailò contributed to disseminate the fame of the excellence of the string school established in the Neapolitan conservatories.

The advent of the Bourbon dynasty in 1702 interrupted almost two centuries of Spanish dominion in Naples and opened up channels of artistic exchange between Naples and Paris. Arcangelo Corelli’s visit to Naples to celebrate the new king, Philip V, albeit allegedly ill fated, attests to the significance of the Neapolitan instrumental tradition and emblematically marks the start of the migration of Neapolitan musicians throughout Europe. The string virtuosi trained in the Neapolitan conservatories were the first players to familiarize French audiences with advanced Italian performance practices and had a crucial role in the dissemination of the Italian sonata in France. The initial resistance to the “eccentric” performances of these virtuosi, attested in the chronicles of the time, sparked debates on the respective merits of French and Italian music. Italian music became the expression of a new aesthetic and received the support of powerful aristocratic families and prominent members of the emerging French bourgeoisie, eager to distinguish themselves from the old regime. The new aesthetic approach appears in full display in the collection of solo violin sonatas published in Paris in 1712 by Giovanni Antonio Piani. In the preface to his collection, Piani provides examples of the advanced performance practices carried out by the Neapolitan virtuosi.

The final chapter summarizes the significance of the findings presented in the book and indicates future directions of research. Far from being an obscure aspect of the Neapolitan musical milieu, instrumental music formed a vital element in the artistic culture of the capital. It was used as a tool to display power in the rapid shifting of regimes occurred at the turn of the eighteenth century, and became the expression of the social and professional opportunities open to musicians. The circulation of music and musicians attested the fertile exchanges with other European centers and put Neapolitan music culture along the main political and economic routes. The cultivation of instrumental music in Naples was not interrupted with the creation of an independent kingdom in 1734. If King Charles of Bourbon gave to the opera a new venue with the construction of the San Carlo theater, instrumental music was still performed in the private salons of the aristocracy. The importance of these findings lies in their contribution in delineating neglected paths of research, pointing at common mechanisms of formation, practice, and patronage of instrumental music. Yet aspects such as concert life and venues, and the development of the concerto in Naples with its specific mechanisms of promotion, remain largely unexplored areas.

The Neapolitan string virtuosi who moved to Paris were among the protagonists of the early private and public concert series. The editorial success of Michele Mascitti – nephew and student of Pietro Marchitelli – is paradigmatic of the growing influence of the “public sphere”: revenues from his nine collections of sonatas allowed Mascitti to live for many years as a freelance musician while having a crucial part in the formation of a modern public. Together with Mascitti, Giovanni Antonio Guido, a student of Cailò in Naples, participated to the weekly soirées organized at the residence of the Crozat brothers in Paris. Guido’s presence at these splendid gatherings of the finest intellectuals and artists is attested by his portrait sketched by Antoine Watteau, also a protegé of the Crozat family, during one of these events. The aesthetic approach and performance practice imported in France by the Neapolitan string virtuosi became à la mode in the 1720s. The mixture of the Italian virtuosic approach with the French instrumental tradition that is found in the later sonatas by Mascitti and Guido was typical of the so-called goûts réunis, the “reunited tastes” of French and Italian music that would end up dominating the European scene in the second quarter of the eighteenth century.