Raccolta Di Sonate Diverse

The guitar music of Ferdinando Carulli (1770-1841) is often associated with didactical material and with a large number of editions destined for home music making by amateurs. This small anthology of sonatas by Carulli comes from a manuscript dated 1805, which was compiled for the personal use of one such amateur, a certain Italian nobleman named Niccolò Mancini. This manuscript may be an autograph, or it may be a compilation made by a copyist on order from Signor Mancini, whoever he may have been. Not destined for commercial distribution, the choice of music made by the compiler indicates that the customer for whom they were copied was a fairly competent dilettante. The music includes some of the better known formulaic clichés that Carulli often used. At the same time, we find here surprising sleight-of-hand that almost border on virtuosity. Some of the music in this collection comes from known published works by Carulli. Other pieces do not lend themselves to easy identification. They may turn out to be part of other known works by Carulli, perhaps those without opus number, or they may have to be considered as heretofore unknown and undocumented works. This collection was evidently meant to provide the dilettante customer with some hours of diletto — joy. It can provide students and amateurs today with delightful miniatures in support of any teaching program, private or public.