Riccardo Rognoni or Richardo Rogniono (ca. 1550 – before 20 April 1620) is the earliest known member of the Rognoni family which started one of the earliest of all violin schools, based in Milan. His treatise Passaggi per potersi esercitare nel diminuire ("Passages for practice in diminution"), Venice 1592,[1] is the first to mention the violino da brazzo, or violin. He was directly involved in taking the violin from a street instrument to court instrument in the Lombard area.[citation needed] Some of his excellent violin pupils include his sons Francesco and Giovanni Domenico.
The noble title Taegio or Taeggio was conferred on the Rognoni family by king Sigismund III of Poland, and appears on the title-pages of works of Rognoni's sons from 1605.[2]
Riccardo writes in the title of the Passaggi that he was expelled from the "Val Tavegia", or Val Taleggio. The records of bloody conflicts between Milan and Venice in the area explain why he arrived in Milan as a Ghibelline fugitive. Paolo Morigia reported that he was "much praised for his playing of the viol and judged among the finest of the City",[3] while Filippo Picinelli in 1670 described him as an "excellent player of the violin and other string and wind instruments, who became the Orpheus of his day."[4]
His Passaggi and only one instrumental work survived: a piece in an anthology printed by Gastoldi: Il primo libro della musica a due voci, Milan, 1598.[dubious – discuss]
References
edit- ^ Rogniono, Richardo (1592). Passaggi per potersi esercitare nel diminuire terminatamente con ogni sorte d'instrumenti et anco diversi passaggi per la semplice voce humana di Richardo Rogniono espulso di Val Tavegia (in Italian). Venezia.
- ^ Barblan, Guglielmo (1983) "La 'Selva dei varii passaggi' di Francesco Rognoni", preface to: Rognoni, Francesco (1620). La Selva dei varii passaggi [...] Milano: Lomarzo., facsimile edition, Bologna: Arnaldo Forni 1983
- ^ Morigia, Paolo (1595). La Nobiltà di Milano, divisa in sei libri... (in Italian). Milano: stamp. del quon. P. Pontio., p. 186, cited by Barblan in: Rognoni, Francesco (1620). La Selva dei varii passaggi [...] Milano: Lomarzo., facsimile edition, Bologna: Arnaldo Forni 1983
- ^ Picinelli, Filippo (1670). Ateneo dei letterati milanesi adunati dall' abbate Don Filippo Picinelli... (in Italian). Milano: stamp. di F. Vigone., p. 482, cited by Barblan in: Rognoni, Francesco (1620). La Selva dei varii passaggi [...] Milano: Lomarzo., facsimile edition, Bologna: Arnaldo Forni 1983