Uccelli [née Pazzini], Carolina Uccellini, Marco

Übergreifen

(Ger.).

See Reaching over.

Ubertus de Psalinis.

See Hymbert de Salinis.

Übung

(Ger.).

Exercise, Study.

Uccelli

(It.).

See under Organ stop (Vogelgesang).

Uccelli [née Pazzini], Carolina

(b Florence, 1810; d ?Paris, 1885). Italian composer. She made her début in Florence on 21 June 1830 with the successful performance at the Teatro della Pergola of Saul, a sacred opera in two acts, for which she wrote both libretto and music. Her two-act melodramma Anna di Resburgo (libretto by Gaetano Rossi) was performed in Naples two years later. The overture of her opera Eufemio da Messina was performed in Milan in 1833. Uccelli’s only other known work is a cantata for chorus and orchestra, Sulla morte di Maria Malibran. She was widowed in 1843 and moved to Paris with her daughter Giulia, a singer. They performed together on concert tours in Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

FétisB

FétisBS

SchmidlD

A. Bonaventura: ‘Le donne italiane e la musica’, RMI, xxxii (1925), 519–34

U. Manferrari: Dizionario universale delle opere melodrammatiche (Florence, 1955)

MATTEO SANSONE

Uccellini, Marco

(b c1603; d Forlimpopoli, nr Forlì, 11 Sept 1680). Italian composer and instrumentalist. After studying in Assisi he settled in Modena some time before 1639. In 1641 he became head of instrumental music at the Este court and in 1647 maestro di cappella at the cathedral there, a post he held until 1665. From 1665 until his death he was maestro di cappella at the Farnese court at Parma. None of the music of the operas and ballets he produced there has survived.

Uccellini is important as a composer of instrumental music, of which his extant output comprises seven printed collections; at least one other (op.1) is lost. Opp.2–5 are mainly devoted to sonatas, while the later prints contain shorter sinfonias and dances. Although the sonatas are early, they, together with his development of violin technique, represent his most notable achievements. Most of the sonatas are basically in ternary form; others are in as many as five sections. Variation and sequential repetition of themes and phrases are favourite methods of expanding sections; in an attempt to achieve thematic unity more than one subsequent section of several sonatas opens with a variant of the initial idea or even of an entire previous section. Uccellini’s use of triadic themes and lengthy sequences modulating through the circle of 5ths points towards a strong connection with the style later to be developed in Bologna by Cazzati, G.B. Vitali and G.M. Bononcini. His exploration of more distant keys such as B major, B minor and E minor, unusual in string music of the time, is notable. He also used piquant chromaticisms and false relations. The range of the violin is extended up to 6th position (g'''), and slurs, tremolo passages and wide leaps are frequent. The solo violin sonatas of opp.4 and 5 represent the highest point of development in the genre before J.H. Schmelzer and Biber. They are longer and in a patently more virtuoso style than those of Biagio Marini, and are clear counterparts to keyboard toccatas. The sinfonias, except for a battle piece in op.8, are less adventurous than the sonatas. The arie of the 1642 and 1645 collections are descendants of the older variation sonata; their thematic material includes an interesting selection of popular tunes of the time.

WORKS

published in Venice unless otherwise stated

Sonate, sinfonie et correnti, a 2–4, bc, libro II (1639)

Sonate, arie et correnti, a 2–3, bc [libro III] (1642)

Sonate, correnti et arie, a 1–3, bc, op.4 (1645/R); 2 sonatas, 3 correnti and 3 arias ed. L. Torchi, L’arte musicale in Italia, vii (Milan, 1907)

Sonate, over canzoni, vn, bc, op.5 (1649)

Salmi, 1, 3–5vv, bc, concertante parte con instrumenti e parte senza, con Letanie della beata virgine, 5vv, bc, op.6 (1654)

Ozio regio: compositioni armoniche sopra il violino e diversi altri strumenti, a 1–6, bc, libro VII (1660 abridged [lost]; Antwerp, 2/1668 as Sonate sopra il violino)

Sinfonici concerti brevi e facili, a 1–4, op.9 (1667)

Sinfonie boscareccie, vn, bc, 2 vn ad lib, op.8 (Antwerp, 1669)

Le navi d’Enea (ballet, A. Guidi), Parma, 1673, lost

Gli eventi di Filandro ad Edessa (op, G. Gaddi), Parma, Collegio dei Nobili, 1675, lost

Il Giove d’Elide fulminato (ballet, Guidi), Parma, 1677, lost

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BoydenH

MoserGV

NewmanSBE

G. Roncaglia: La cappella musicale del duomo di Modena (Florence, 1957)

E. Selfridge-Field: Venetian Instrumental Music from Gabrieli to Vivaldi (New York, 1975)

F.M. Pajerski: Marco Uccellini (1610–1680) and his Music (diss., New York U., 1979)

W. Apel: Die italienische Violinmusik im 17. Jahrhundert (Wiesbaden, 1983; Eng. trans., enlarged 1990 by T. Binkley)

P. Allsop: The Italian ‘Trio’ Sonata (Oxford, 1992)

THOMAS D. DUNN