Babbi.

Italian family of musicians.

(1) Gregorio (Lorenzo) Babbi (i)
(2) (Pietro Giovanni) Cristoforo (Bartolomeo Gasparre) Babbi
(3) Gregorio Babbi (ii)
GLORIA EIVE
Babbi
(1) Gregorio (Lorenzo) Babbi (i)

(b Cesena, 16 Nov 1708; d Cesena, 2 Jan 1768). Italian tenor. Active

from 1729 to 1760, he was renowned for his powerful voice and wide
range (c to c'', full voice; c'' to g'', falsetto), his dramatic and
expressive manner and his mastery of the improvised bel canto
style. Babbi sang in the major theatres of Italy (notably in Florence,
Venice, Rome, Turin, Padua and Naples) and Portugal (Lisbon), in
heroic opere serie by Hasse, Vivaldi, Albinoni, Galuppi, Porpora,
Jommelli and Perez, among others. He made his dbut in Ravenna
in 1729 and shortly thereafter was appointed virtuoso to the Grand
Duke of Tuscany (c1730/31). For the next two decades Babbis
activities were concentrated in northern Italy, in Venice particularly,
and in the theatres of his native Romagna. In 1747 he entered the
service of Charles III, King of Naples and the Two Sicilies and
Palermo. Until his retirement in 1759, he performed almost
exclusively for Charless court in Naples and at the Teatro S Carlo. In
1759 he received a pension and returned to Cesena. His last known
performance was in 1760 in Faenza when he sang a Salve
regina composed for him by themaestro di cappella Paolo Alberghi.
Babbi was ranked with the foremost virtuosos of his era and was
included in the illustrious cast assembled for the production of
Perezs Alessandro nellIndie to inaugurate Lisbons Casa de Opera
in 1755 (the theatre was destroyed in an earthquake a few months
later). De Brosses, who heard him in his prime in 1741, described
him as the loveliest high-tenor [haut-taille] and a good actor, and
compared him with the French tenor Jlyotte. His range was a fifth
higher than most Italian tenors of the time and equal to Jlyottes and

Amorevolis ranges. Burney called him a dignified, splendid and

powerful performer, with the sweetest, most flexible, and most
powerful voice of its kind, that his country could boast at the time,
and P.L. Ghezzi considered him worthy of a caricature (I-Rvat Cod.
Lat. Ottoboniensis 3117, f.161). Babbis style in his later years is
represented by three arias identified as his: a setting of Fra sdegno
ed amore from Latillas Siroe (1740; in US-BEm), and two settings
(one incomplete) of Vil trofeo dun alma imbelle from
Galuppis Alessandro nelle Indie (second version, 1754, Naples; inIFZc). The latter two arias appear to have been part of a larger
collection of Babbis favourite arias that was prepared for use in
Faenza. These arias provide a modest suggestion of the vocal
dexterity and virtuosity that earned the singer unstinting praise from
his contemporaries and biographers. Babbis first wife Giovanna
Guaetti [Guaetta, Guaitti] (d before 1767), a soprano, sang in many
operas with him in Venice and Naples. Babbi is not known to have
composed; the pieces attributed to him by Schmidl are by his
grandson, (3) Gregorio Babbi (ii).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CroceN
DBI (A. Zapperi)
ES (E. Zanetti)
FtisB
GerberNL
RicciTB
SchmidlD
J.J. de Lalande: Voyage dun franois en Italie, fait dans les
annes 1765 & 1766 (Venice and Paris, 1769, enlarged 2/1786),
vii, 205ff
C. de Brosses: Lettres historiques et critiques sur
lItalie (Paris, 1799); ed. Y. Bezard as Lettres familires sur
lItalie (Paris,1931), ii, 344
C. Burney: Gregorio Babbi, Reess Cyclopaedia, iii
(London, 1819)
N. Trovanelli: Due celebri cantanti cesenati del secolo
scorso, Il cittadino (Cesena, 25 July 1897)
H.-B. Dietz: A Chronology of Maestri and Organisti at the

Cappella Reale in Naples, 17451800, JAMS, xxv (1972), 379

406, esp. 390
G. Eive: Virtuosi del diciottesimo secolo: la famiglia Babbi, Studi
romagnoli, xxvii (1976), 287325
R.L. and N.W. Weaver: A Chronology of Music in the Florentine
Theater, 15901750 (Detroit, 1978)
P. Fabbri: Tre secoli di musica a Ravenna, dalla Controriforma
alla caduta dellAntico Regime (Ravenna, 1983), 87, 201
F. DellAmore: Il Settecento musicale a Longiano, Studi
romagnoli, xxxix (1988), 33561
P. Fabbri: Il teatro per musica a Rimini e in Romagna nel primo
Settecento, Studi in onore di Giuseppe Vecchi, ed. I. Cavallini
(Modena, 1989), 7793, esp. 78, 856
Babbi
(2) (Pietro Giovanni) Cristoforo (Bartolomeo Gasparre) Babbi

(b Cesena, 8 May 1745; d Dresden, 19 Nov

1814). Italian violinist and composer, son of (1) Gregorio Babbi. He
spent his childhood (174759) in Naples, where his parents were
employed in the Teatro S Carlo and in the royal chapel. After his
family returned to Cesena in 1759 he was sent to Faenza (about
1763 or 1764) to study the violin with Tartini's disciple Paolo Alberghi,
who also taught him counterpoint and composition. In Faenza he
was primo violino for the festa of 8 December 1766 and again in
1769, 1770 and 1772. In Rimini he was a violinist in the orchestra for
the 1773 opera season, and in the same year he was
appointed primo violino in the cappella at S Petronio, Bologna, a
position which he held until 1781. He became a member of the
Bologna Accademia Filarmonica on 4 February 1774. He served
as maestro di cappella in the Teatro Comunale, Bologna (17758),
and at the Teatro Zagoni as primo violino and capo
d'orchestra (17768).
On 3 March 1781 Babbi was engaged as provisional Konzertmeister
in Dresden; after the first year his contract was formalized and
extended. Under his direction the Dresden Kapelle was completely
reorganized, and the orchestra acquired international renown for its
accuracy, precision, discipline and brilliant, full sound. Babbi took

part in the selection of musicians (with the elector); although he was

officially only in charge of the violins, he actually directed the entire
orchestra, and was, in effect, equal in importance to J.G. Naumann,
the Kapellmeister. His administrative skills and leadership affected
even the soloists and vocal ensembles, raising the level of
musicianship in the church and opera choirs and generally improving
the discipline and organization. Babbi's musicianship was greatly
admired by the Dresden court. He is described as playing with fire
and exquisite taste, with a tone as full and rich as that of a cello
and although he could not sustain this tone in passages requiring
great agility, yet when he played an Adagio, not an eye was dry
(Mannstein). Although these comments are reminiscent of
descriptions of earlier performances of Tartini's pupils including
Alberghi, Babbi was incontestably modern in his approach and
achieved his originality through a synthesis of old and new
techniques. Tartini's style and aesthetic prinicples, acquired via
Alberghi, had been considered old-fashioned even before Babbi's
arrival at the Dresden court, yet in his teacher's style, Tartini's fire
and unrivalled bowing technique is recognisable in the new
orchestral brilliance and precision achieved by Babbi's orchestra.
Babbi served as Konzertmeister until shortly before his death, when
he retired with a pension. His compositions included symphonies for
the church, the theatre and the Hofkapelle (after 1786), theatre
pieces (1786), and entr'acte music performed during spoken dramas
(17923) and operas (1796), concertos, chamber works and
keyboard music for the Hofkapelle (18023), and arrangements of
concertos and symphonies by other Italian composers. Of these,
only one work has survived (keyboard version in D-Dl), a
cantata Augusta, to a text by C.E. Weinlig, written in honour of the
Princess Maria Augusta, and given on 21 August 1786. The cantata
is scored for small orchestra (strings, wind and horns) and is a
modest work consisting of a sinfonia, accompanied recitative,
bravura aria and closing coro. The introductory sinfonia is in the
three-movement cantabile style of contemporary Italian opera
overtures and is remarkable for its explicit tempo and dynamic
indications: sudden contrasts between fand pp or ppp, crescendos
and diminuendos, and even pianissimo ritardandos (mancando poco

a poco).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BurneyGN
DBI(A. Zapperi)
EitnerQ
GerberNL
RicciTB
Indice de' teatrali spettacoli (Milan, 178096)
H. Mannstein [H.F. Steinmann]: Denkwrdigkeiten der
churfrstlichen und kniglichen Hofmusik zu Dresden im 18. u.
19. Jahrhundert (Leipzig, 1863), 456
R. Prlss: Geschichte des Hoftheaters zu
Dresden (Dresden, 1878), 234, 239, 246, 379
R. Englnder: Dresdner Musikleben und Dresdner
Instrumentalpflege in der Zeit zwischen Hasse und
Weber, ZMw, xiv (19312), 41020
R. Englnder: Die Dresdner Instrumentalmusik in der Zeit der
Wiener Klassik (Uppsala, 1956), 289, 34, 121, 1246
P. Fabbri: Tre secoli di musica a Ravenna, dalla Controriforma
alla caduta dell'Antico Regime (Ravenna, 1963), 87, 201
A. Righetti: Vita musicale e teatri a Rimini nel Settecento (diss.,
U. of Bologna, 1973), 519, 21920
L. Malusi: Musica e musicisti a Longiano, Studi romagnoli,
xxxvi (1985), 21729
F. Dell'Amore: La cappella musicale a Cesena dal 1773 al
1782, Studi romagnoli, xxxviii (1987), 26583, esp. 2678
O. Gambassi: La cappella musicale di S
Petronio (Florence, 1987), 199204
Babbi
(3) Gregorio Babbi (ii)

(b ?Bologna, c177075; d ?Bologna, ? after 1815). Italian bass

singer, violinist, composer and organist, son of (2) Cristoforo Babbi.
For most of his career Babbi was active in Dresden where he
maintained a dual position as supernumerary violinist (from 1788)
and bass singer in the Hofkirche. He was granted leave of absence
in 1790 and sang in Forl in 1791. By 1794 he had returned to

Dresden, where he continued as bass and violinist in the Hofkirche.

In 1805 he was appointed one of the two solo basses in the
Hofkirche, although he also retained his former salary as violinist. In
the same year he became Musikmeister (as assistant to the
Kapellmeister), replacing Frederick Gestewitz. In 1807 he received a
pension and returned to Italy, where he served as primo violino and
orchestra director in Bologna, first at the Teatro Comunale (18078)
and then at the Teatro Marsigli-Rossi. His last years were spent in
Bologna, where he served as organist in one of the churches.
Babbis four extant compositions (now in I-Bc) were originally written
for the Dresden Hofkapelle. The two sinfonias (1804) are the most
ambitious of the four works and contain several solo passages,
probably a concession to the many virtuosos in the Dresden
orchestra; he also wrote an orchestral pastorale (1798). Babbis
harmonic vocabulary is limited and constrained by his short phrases
and square rhythms; his melodies are rather unimaginative scale or
triad figures, and there is virtually no thematic development. His
polacca (1797) is a concert aria in rondo form and was evidently
designed to display the technical prowess of its dedicatee, his sister
Giovanna Babbi (b ?Bologna, c1780), an alto who, after making
opera dbuts in Trieste and Venice (17967) and scoring a striking
success in Dresden during Carnival 17989 (reported in AMZ, i,
1799, cols.3314), permanently damaged her voice in a vain attempt
to become a soprano; she left the stage in 1800. Another sister,
Teresa Babbi (fl 180010), was a soprano in the Dresden Hofkapelle
from about 1800 to 1806, and received the dedication of Paers
aria Ti riposa in questo seno.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
R. Prlss: Geschichte des Hoftheaters zu
Dresden (Dresden, 1878), 234, 239, 246, 379
R. Englnder: Zur Musikgeschichte Dresdens gegen
1800, ZMw, iv (19212), 199241
A. Mambelli: Musica e teatro in Forl nel secolo
XVIIIo (Forl, 1933), 2056
S. Paganelli: Repertorio critico degli spettacoli e delle
esecuzioni musicali dal 1763 al 1966, Due secoli di vita

musicale: storia del Teatro comunale di Bologna, ed. L. Trezzini

(Bologna, 1966, 2/1987), ii, 1517