Duels in Sound: Pietro Antonio Locatelli vs Jean-Marie Leclair

Abstract

The tradition of musical duels harkens back to the days of ancient Greece. One of the earliest examples of musical rivalry is the myth of Marsyas and Apollo, which ends tragically for the satyr. Without doubt, the tournaments of the ancients served as an inspiration for later generations of musicians. In each epoch they took a different form, tailored to the current norms and customs. In the sixteenth century the singing contests of the Meistersingers became extremely popular. With the development of instrumental music in the seventeenth century, duels, in which the main subject of the dispute was the superiority of one of the performers in terms of interpretation and mastery of playing a given instrument, were increasingly growing in importance. The eighteenth century, in which public concert life flourished and demand for virtuoso instrumentalists consequently grew, brought a genuine boom in musical duels. During that era, musical duels were not only confrontations between individual musicians or their patrons, but also important contributions to the exchange of experiences between artists, the spread of musical novelties and dissemination of the works themselves. Additionally, such ‘battles’ symbolised a confrontation of musical styles, in particular the Italian and the French one. Jean-Marie Leclair, known as the French Corelli, is considered by many researchers as the founder of the French violin school. Pietro Antonio Locatelli, an heir to the legacy of Arcangelo Corelli, is justifiably considered as the Paganini of the eighteenth century. Despite shared roots in the Italian violin school, their music differs in both form and expression. At first glance, Locatelli’s typically Italian music goes far beyond the previously accepted norms as far as demands placed on the violinists are concerned, whereas Leclair’s French music bears the mark of Antonio Vivaldi’s models set in the latter’s violin concertos. We know that the first confrontation of the violinists took place on 22 December 1728 at Kassel court. Some authors speculate that it was not the only meeting of these two musicians. The surviving accounts suggest that both of them stirred strong emotions among the audiences with their playing. Despite their enormous importance for the development of violin music, both composers remain underrated. This article briefly outlines the history of musical duels and sheds light on the practice of violin performances in the first half of the eighteenth century. Additionally, I have attempted a comparative analysis of selected violin concerts, namely: Locatelli’s Violin Concerto in G major Op. 3 No. 9 and Violin Concerto in A minor Op. 7 No. 5 by Jean-Marie Leclair. These two come from a similar period in the work of both composers and are close in time of composition to the famous duel.