A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Gordigiani, Luigi

by George Grove

GORDIGIANI, Luigi, the son of one musician (Antonio) and the younger brother of another (Giovanni Battista), has been called the Italian Schubert. He was born at Modena June 21, 1806. His musical education was most desultory, but his talent was great, and while still in his teens he had written three Cantatas. In 1820 his father died, and he was forced to make a living by writing pianoforte pieces under such German noms de plume as Zeuner and Von Fürstenberger. His start in life was due to two Russian princes, Nicholas Demidoff and Joseph Poniatowski, the latter of whom not only furnished him with the libretto of an opera, 'Filippo,' but himself acted in it with his wife and brother at the Standish Theatre, Florence, in 1840. Between the years 1835 and 1849 Gordigiani composed or produced nine other operas, all at different theatres in Florence. But it is by his 'Canzonette' and 'Canti populari' for voice and piano that he will be remembered—delicious melodies, of a sentimental, usually mournful, cast, in the taste or on the actual melodies of old Italian national tunes, and often set to words of his own. They are more than 300 in number, and were published in parts, usually of 8 or 10 each, with characteristic titles—'In cima al monte'; 'Le Farfalle di Firenze'; 'In rival al Arno'; 'Mosaico Etrusco,' etc. They have been republished everywhere and in all languages. He also published a collection of Tuscan airs with accompaniments in 3 books. Gordigiani was odd and fantastic in manners and disposition. He died at Florence in 1860 [App. p.652 "May 1"].

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