Giuseppe Maria Jacchini

Giuseppe Maria Jacchini (yah-KEE-nee) was an important composer in the development of music for the cello in the Baroque era. His composition teacher was Giacomo Antonio Perti and his cello teacher Domenico Gabrieli, and it was said that Jacchini was his star pupil. On October 31, 1689, he became a regular cellist of the orchestra at the church of San Petronio in Bologna. It is likely that he was sometimes hired as an extra cellist on some occasions before that. He remained in that position for the rest of his life, except for a period from 1693 to 1701, during which the orchestra had been disbanded for financial reasons. He was made a member of the Accademia Filarmonica of Bologna on December 16, 1688. His interest in it was apparently musical only, for there were members who objected that he did not attend to the spiritual exercises and sacred functions of the organization. When his name was drawn to become its leader in 1709, he declined, saying he did not want such a dignified position. Thereafter, his name was excluded from the annual draw, although he was still allowed to enter his compositions in an annual competition for performance each year on the saint's feast day. He gained fame as an excellent cellist and as a composer of string sonatas and sonatas for trumpet. At the time, the cello primarily had an accompanying function, usually doubling the bass line on organ or harpsichord. Jacchini's sonatas for string or trumpet are unusual in that they sometimes assign solo passages to the cello. Six of the ten concertos of his Opus four have cello obbligato parts. Furthermore, Jacchini wrote some of the first works for solo cello, which require a high level of virtuosity for the time.