Ludovico Antonio Roncalli, also known as “Conte Lodovico” (b. 6 March 1654 in Bergamo; d. 25 August 1713 in the same city), came from a long-established noble family of his native city, Bergamo. As the younger son of Conte Giovanni Martino Roncalli (1626–1700) and brother of Francesco, Conte di Montorio (1645–1717), he was initially destined for a secular career; he first completed studies in law before turning to the clerical profession and being ordained a priest. In his hometown of Bergamo, Roncalli is likely to have been in contact with the guitarist and composer Giovanni Battista Granata (c. 1620–1687), who was active there — an encounter that probably shaped his own musical development considerably.
By 1695, Roncalli is documented in Rome, where he received financial assistance; the precise reasons for his stay there are unknown, but it is presumed that Cardinal Benedetto Pamphili — an important patron of numerous composers of the period, including Handel and Corelli — introduced him to Roman musical circles. This connection also explains the dedication of his sole printed work to that very cardinal. Roncalli died on 25 August 1713 in Bergamo; a surviving contemporary inscription honors him as “Comes Ludovicus Roncalius I.V.D.” (graduate in both civil and canon law) and describes him as a generous patron of spiritual exercises.
The Capricci armonici sopra la chitarra spagnola
Roncalli’s sole surviving work, the Capricci armonici sopra la chitarra spagnola, opera prima, was published in 1692 in Bergamo, printed by Sebastian Casetti, and is dedicated to Cardinal Pamphili. The collection comprises nine complete suites for the five-course Baroque guitar, following the conventional movement sequence of the Baroque dance suite — including preludes, allemandes, courantes, sarabandes, gigues, gavottes, and passacaglias. Stylistically, numerous pieces within the collection, particularly through their extended, arpeggiated chord-breaking, show a clear affinity with the French style, as found, for instance, in the works of Robert de Visée — already discussed in an earlier essay in this series in connection with Lully’s overture from La Grotte de Versailles. This stylistic kinship points to the intensive cultural exchange between the Italian and French guitar traditions at the close of the seventeenth century.
Transmission and Modern Reception
Roncalli’s work owes its preservation for posterity substantially to the Italian music scholar Oscar Chilesotti (1848–1916) — the same scholar already mentioned in earlier essays in this series in connection with Antonio Rotta’s Intabolatura and other sixteenth- and seventeenth-century lute and guitar sources. Chilesotti first transcribed the Capricci armonici into modern notation in Milan in 1881 and arranged them for the six-string guitar, thereby making the work accessible to the modern guitar community for the first time.
Since then, Roncalli’s music has enjoyed unbroken popularity: individual movements — above all the catchy Gigue and the artful Passacaglia — regularly appear in method books and anthologies for the classical guitar, including Frederick Noad’s influential collection The Baroque Guitar. The complete work has also been recorded in its entirety on several occasions, including in 2004 by the Italian label Tactus, as well as by performers such as Volta, Oraisón, and Savino, who used historical five-course guitars for their recordings.
Significance
Ludovico Roncalli exemplifies that type of noble, clerically bound occasional composer of the Italian Baroque whose musical legacy — much like the case of Antonio Rotta or other peripheral figures discussed in this essay series — rests on a single, but all the more significant, printed work. The Capricci armonici rank today among the undisputed highlights of the Baroque guitar repertoire and continue, not least thanks to Chilesotti’s pioneering editorial work, to form a firm and beloved part of the international concert and teaching repertoire for the classical guitar.