Ivan Mane Jarnovic
Encyclopedia
Ivan Mane Jarnović (26 October 1747 – 23 November 1804) was a virtuoso violinist-composer of the 18th century whose family was of possibly Ragusan
Republic of Ragusa
The Republic of Ragusa or Republic of Dubrovnik was a maritime republic centered on the city of Dubrovnik in Dalmatia , that existed from 1358 to 1808...

 (today in Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

) origin. He had a European career, performing in almost all major centres including Paris, Berlin, Warsaw, St Petersburg, Vienna, Stockholm, Basle, London, Dublin, amongst others. It appears he was a pupil of Antonio Lolli
Antonio Lolli
Antonio Lolli was an Italian violinist and composer.- Life :Lolli, who was born ca. 1725 in Bergamo, Italy, was one of the foremost Italian violinists of the 18th century...

 and he was an acquaintance of Joseph Haydn
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...

, with whom he shared concert programmes in London.

Jarnović was seemingly born either in Palermo or at sea en route from Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea coast, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic, a seaport and the centre of Dubrovnik-Neretva county. Its total population is 42,641...

 to Palermo
Palermo
Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...

, Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

, where he was baptised in the church San Antonio Abate on 29 October 1747. He died in St Petersburg, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

 on 23 November 1804.

A bicentennial seminar was convened and a concert performed in his honour in St Petersburg on 23–24 November 2004, which was hosted by the St Petersburg Union of Composers
St Petersburg Union of Composers
The St. Petersburg Union of Composers, is a professional and creative musical association with its headquarters at the former mansion of the Princess Vera F. Gagarina at 45 Bolshaya Morskaya Street, St Petersburg, Russia...

. Apart from local musicologists and performers, it was attended by Jarnović specialists Vjera Katalinić and Stanislav Tuksar from Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...

, and by a descendant of one of Jarnović's daughters who travelled from Kimberley in South Africa.

Biographical gaps

Whole periods of his life - his youth and other interludes - remain unaccounted for, while details as to his origins and identity have proven to be remarkably elusive. There are plausible arguments to suggest that his family was from Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

, possibly from the Karlovac-Delnice region. Highlighting a further riddle concerning his identity, Schneider and Tuksar both point out that Jarnovic's (or Giornovichi's) first names, Giovanni Mane, do not appear in any literature about him until 36 years after his death, namely in Schilling's Enzyclopadie of 1840. These names become the form most usually cited in encyclopaedic and biographical works from then onwards, often rendered today in their Croatian form as Ivan Mane Jarnović. It is "quite incredible," Tuksar has remarked, "that one of the leading musicians of 18th century Europe could have lived for 64 years without his name and surname ever being given anywhere, not even in his printed works, in their full and proper form." Besides Jarnović, several variations in the rendition of his surname also occur: Jarnowick, Jarnovick, Jarnovichi, Jarnowicz, Garnovik, Giarnovicki, Giernovichi. It seems likely that shifts in the spelling and pronunciation of his name occurred according to the country in which he was living or performing or publishing his works at any given time.

At least one source does exist which indicates his first and last names, namely a register entry recording the baptism of Jarnović's daughter Sophia, in London, in 1795. The same document throws light on yet another area of uncertainty - that of Jarnović's family. Whereas little was previously known of the fate of his daughters "Mimi" and "Sofie", something of their lives and subsequent history is now on record.

Debut in Paris, 1773

Jarnović made a "sensational" debut in Paris, at a Concert Spirituel
Concert Spirituel
The Concert Spirituel was one of the first public concert series in existence. The concerts began in Paris in 1725 and ended in 1790; later, concerts or series of concerts of the same name occurred in Paris, Vienna, London and elsewhere...

on 25 March 1773, and appeared in three successive concerts in which he was billed as the "fameux violoniste". He was for some years "all the rage in that capital". The Mercure de France
Mercure de France
The Mercure de France was originally a French gazette and literary magazine first published in the 17th century, but after several incarnations has evolved as a publisher, and is now part of the Éditions Gallimard publishing group....

described his playing as brilliant, finished and mannered, at the same time that it was sensitive and animated; he was "celebre" for the "beau fini" and "l'elegance et l'expression" of his playing. There is reference to at least five concert performances in 1775, five in 1776 and one in 1777, in addition to private concerts in many Parisian salons. In Dec 1775 he had "amazed" his audience and "seemed to surpass himself in his new violin concerto and in the little airs varies that he played following it". The Mercure de France later described the Polish violinist Felix Janiewicz as his student on the latter's appearance at a Concert Spirituel.

Positions held in Prussia and Russia and extensive travels across Europe

Apart from other appointments he appeared from 1779 to 1783 in the service of the Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm II
Frederick William II of Prussia
Frederick William II was the King of Prussia, reigning from 1786 until his death. He was in personal union the Prince-Elector of Brandenburg and the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel.-Early life:...

 of Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...

. On 14 May 1783 he was granted a three year contract, in St Petersburg, in the service of Catherine II
Catherine II of Russia
Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great , Empress of Russia, was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia on as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg...

, Empress of Russia. Hereafter he returned westwards, performing inter alia in Vienna and Paris. He resided in England from 1790 to 1796, "and there met with much success". Principally he performed in London but also in Bath, Edinburgh and in Dublin, before returning to the concert platforms of Europe, performing in Hamburg, Berlin and elsewhere in Germany in 1797-1802. A correspondent for the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung
Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung
The Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung was a German-language periodical published in the 19th century. Comini has called it "the foremost German-language musical periodical of its time"...

reported that "since my last letter there have been three concerts here of very diverse nature. The first and indisputably one of the most superior ones of the entire winter, was given on March 21 by Herr Giornowich ... one admires in the two violin concertos composed by him the beauty and novelty of the ideas just as much as the dexterity, power and extraordinary subtlety in the playing."

Towards the end of 1802 he travelled to St Petersburg where he lived the few remaining years of his life.

Works

Jarnović composed about 50 chamber instrumental pieces, 22 violin concerts (17 preserved), and is known for having introduced the romanza
Romance (music)
The term romance has a centuries-long history. Applied to narrative ballads in Spain, it came to be used by the 18th century for simple lyrical pieces not only for voice, but also for instruments alone. During the 18th and 19th centuries Russian composers developed the French variety of the...

 as a slow movement into the structure of the violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

 concert.

The violin concertos and other works have been studied in detail by Vjera Katalinić.

Pupils and influence

While in England, one of Jarnović’s several pupils was the young Mulatto prodigy George Bridgetower
George Bridgetower
George Augustus Polgreen Bridgetower was an Afro-Polish-born virtuoso violinist, who lived in England for much of his life. He was born in Biala in Galicia, where his father worked for Hieronimus Wincenty Radziwill, in 1778. He was baptised Hieronimo Hyppolito de Augusto on 11 October 1778...

, for whom Beethoven subsequently composed the Kreutzer Sonata
Kreutzer Sonata
"Kreutzer Sonata" may refer to:*Violin Sonata No. 9 , a work by Ludwig van Beethoven*The Kreutzer Sonata, a novella by Leo Tolstoy, taking its title from the work by Beethoven**The Kreutzer Sonata , a film by Pyotr Chardynin...

.

Jarnović’s influence in terms of musical forms and performance is discussed by Katalinić and Milligan.

Fictional depictions of his life

Jarnović's life is fancifully described in a novel, Jarnović by G. Desnoisterres (pub. le Brisoys, Paris 1844), and in a collection Scènes de la vie d'artiste by P. Smith ("Une leçon de Jarnović" - pub. Paris, 1844).

See also

  • Republic of Ragusa
    Republic of Ragusa
    The Republic of Ragusa or Republic of Dubrovnik was a maritime republic centered on the city of Dubrovnik in Dalmatia , that existed from 1358 to 1808...

  • List of notable Ragusans
  • Dubrovnik
    Dubrovnik
    Dubrovnik is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea coast, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic, a seaport and the centre of Dubrovnik-Neretva county. Its total population is 42,641...

  • Dalmatia
    Dalmatia
    Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....

  • History of Dalmatia
    History of Dalmatia
    The History of Dalmatia concerns the history of the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea and its inland regions, stretching from the 2nd century BC up to the present....


External links

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