Tomasi Vitali?

Has anyone heard of a composer with a name that sounds like this. My local station played a piece called 'Chaccone' and said it was written by the late 17th century composer by that name. It was an orchestrated piece and may have been a transcription. It sounded very 19th century Romantic. Anyone heard of him?

Tomaso Antonio Vitali (1663-1745) was the son of Giovanni Battista Vitali (1632-1692), who taught his son the violin. He spent most of his life in Modena where Dall'Abaco, among others, was a pupil. He published four collections of violin sonata's but has no recording in print devoted to his work.

About the chaconne in question, Grove has this to say, 'Recent research (by Reich among others) provides convincing evidence that the famous Ciacona for violin and continuo, long attributed to Vitali, is not by him, a conclusion supported also by a comparison of it with music definitely by him.'

A search on Amazon.com reveals a large portion of the 26 resulting recordings are by violinists of the past. This makes me suspect that once the piece's authorship was disproved, both the chaconne and Vitali sank further into neglect. An older performance would also explain why the piece sounded 'very 19th century Romantic'.

I hope that some musician is currently working to bring to CD some or all of T. A. Vitali's authentic publications.

Jeff Burton

Thank you very much for the information. I think it was lovely, whoever wrote it.

MIFrost

There's a modern French composer named Henri Tomasi and I believe I have heard of a composer named Vitali but can't recall his first name. Tomasi seems a rather unlikely first name.