Maddalena Lombardini Sirmen, Eighteenth-Century Composer, Violinist, and Businesswoman (review)

Nigel Kennedy, Ida Haendel, Yehudi Menuhin, and Niccolò Paganini—these legendary violinists impressed the world with their musicality and brilliant performances. Another famed violinist, Giuseppe Tartini (1692–1770), attracted students from all over Europe to his home in Padua; his was "the first instrumental school of such fame."¹ One of his last pupils was the Venetian Maddalena Lombardini (1745–1818), who studied with him in the 1760s. She capitalized on Tartini's renown by adding on the frontispiece of a later publication of her six string trios "Élève du célèbre Tartini de Padoue" (110).

For centuries Maddalena Lombardini, later Sirmen, has been known as the recipient of a long letter written in 1760 by Tartini on violin technique in which he first and foremost emphasized the importance of complete mastery of the bow. This letter, included in Maddalena Lombardini Sirmen, Eighteenth-Century Com-poser, Violinist, and Businesswoman in a new translation by Barbara Graziosi, reveals other aspects he considered desirable to study, such as dynamics: "In order to save time, it is a good idea to start practicing a crescendo on an open string. . . . [P]ractice it at least one hour every day" (148). And of course he didn't forget to explain how one should study trills, central to his best-known sonata, "Il trillo del diavolo" (The devil's trill), inspired by a dream in which the devil played to him. This letter was rapidly disseminated all over Europe after its original printing in Venice in 1770. The following year Charles Burney translated it into English, and in 1773 a French translation appeared.

Besides being the recipient of Tartini's letter, Maddalena Sirmen was in her own right a musician of repute. She has been included in countless reference works, starting with E. L. Gerber's Historisches-biographisches Lexicon der Tonkünstler (1790–92) (141), quite an honor, as Gerber acknowledged fewer than a dozen women composers. Some twenty years before Gerber Charles Burney had compared her to Pietro Nardini, another of Tartini's pupils: "Whoever has heard the polished performance of the celebrated Signora Sirmen, may form a pretty just idea of Signor Nardini's manner of playing" (54).² She was also included in the nineteenth-century Dutch Lexicon der Toonkunst by Henri Viotta.³

With enthusiasm I began reading this biography on Sirmen. I first came across her name while delving into Dutch music for my dissertation and through a flyer in 1995 announcing various events in Zurich in honor of her 250th anniversary.⁴ In 1769 Sirmen had dedicated a private publication of six string trios to Princess Wilhelmina of Orange, who in 1766 had married the Dutch stadholder William V (56). As one of the illustrations in my dissertation I included a little-known portrait of Sirmen, published in 1776 on the frontispiece of her op. 4, Six Sonatas for Two Violins, by the Dutch publisher Burchard Hummel.⁵ The frontispiece has at its center a circular frame with a portrait of an oval-faced smiling young lady holding a violin and bow in her left hand and a feather pen in her right hand, indicating both her professions. By displaying this portrait Burchard Hummel clearly sought to exploit the novelty of a woman with the double profession of violinist and composer.

This biography includes two other portraits of Lombardini Sirmen, both of which strongly resemble the portrait described above. The one on the jacket is not included in the list of illustrations (vii) but is probably one of the two undated miniature pastel portraits described on page 42, one of Lombardini Sirmen, the other of her husband. The inclusion of his portrait would have been a welcome supplement. The second portrait of Sirmen, on page iv, shows her with an elaborate hairdo and a banner identifying her as a violinist and singer. The other three illustrations in this biography are of the Ospedale dei Mendicanti in Venice, a handwritten...