Giovanni Battista Cimador

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About Giovanni Battista Cimador

Long forgotten by the musical world, Giovanni Battista Cimador is nowadays remembered by double bassists for one work, and is sadly only the briefest of footnotes in the history books. Although known as Cimador, his true name was Cimadoro, which he anglicized when he arrived in London in 1791 and he was a successful composer and performer in both his native Italy and England. To make matters slightly more complicated, he was also known under a number of permutations of his name including Jean-Baptiste Cimador, Giovanni Battista Cimadoro and Giambattista Cimadoro. Giovanni Battista Cimador was born in Venice in 1761 and studied piano, violin and cello before setting up as a singing teacher in the city. He composed a number of vocal works, which were successful in Italy and beyond, and was friends with and would probably have worked with great double bassist, Domenico Dragonetti (1763-1846), at this time - Cimador was only two years older than Dragonetti. The musical life of Venice offered many opportunities for composers and performers, but even more compelling was the draw of great fame and wealth that could be found for Italian musicians in London at the end of the 18th century. Dragonetti settled there in 1794, Antonio Capuzzi in 1796, but before them both was Cimador who arrived in 1791, working as a singing teacher, composer and pianist. He appears to have been successful and a number of his works were performed including a performance of 'Ati e Cibele' at the King's Theatre on 14 May 1795. Warwick Lister, in his book 'Amico - The Life of Giovanni Battista Viotti', mentions Cimador and Dragonetti during their early years in London: "...Cimador was Venetian who had come to London in 1791. A letter from Viotti, written probably in the first half of 1795, reveals that Cimador and his housemate, Gaetano Bartolozzi (1757-1821), son of the famous engraver, himself an engraver, printseller, and talented amateur violinist, were acquainted with Viotti and attended, and probably played at, Margaret Chinnery's concerts. Viotti mentions that the address of Cimador and Bartolozzi is "no. 207 Piccadilly," St. James (Westminster), which was the address, as of April 1796 of the great Venetian double bassist Domenico Dragonetti, who arrived in London in the autumn of 1794. Dragonetti had been singled out in the King's Theatre advertisement cited above as the "double bass at the Harpsichord." He and Viotti became close friends, and he too frequented Margaret Chinnery's musical parties." Cimador obviously moved in illustrious circles and on 2 August 1794, Franz Joseph Haydn recorded in his diary that he visited the city of Bath with Mr Aster and "Mr. Cimandor, a young violin virtuoso and composer." From about 1800 Cimador formed a publishing company with the Italian flautist, Tybalt (Theobald) Monzani (1762-1839), who had settled in London in 1787, to publish music collections and works by Mozart. The publishing house of Cimador & Monzani was situated at 3 Old Bond Street, London and was probably the home of one, or possibly both of them. Warwick Lister writes: "Viotti's friend Giovanni Battista Cimador (1761-1805), the Venetian composer, singer, violinist, violist, and music publisher, was an admirer of Haydn's quartets and of Mozart's "Haydn" quartets and other works by Mozart. Beginning in about 1800, he published a great many of Mozart's works in London, including several of symphonies, which he popularized in England with his arrangements for flute and strings. At his benefit concert, 28 May 1803, in the Great Room at the King's Theatre, there had taken place what was apparently the first performance in England of a Symphony by Beethoven (which must have been No.1)." In the 18th and 19th-centuries the city of Bath was known for its mineral spa, but also for its cultural life and concerts, attracting many musicians away from London. The forty-hour ride must have been arduous, but obviously the attractions were great enough to warrant the discomfort. Bertil H. Van Boer in his book 'Historical Dictionary of Music of the Classical Period' writes: "In 1794 he [Cimador] had a position in Bath as a violinist and editor of the journal The Open Music Warehouse..." Cimador died in Bath on 27 February 1805 but there appears to be little or no information about his life there, apart from the visit with Haydn in 1794, and the dictionary entry by Van Boer. It is possible that Cimador worked both in London and Bath, as musicians of the day travelled widely, from city to city and performing at the leading festivals of the day. Apart from details of a few compositions and publications, there is scant documentation about Cimador except brief glimpses of his life in relation to other musicians and a copy of his Last Will & Testament. His Concerto for Double Bass has kept his name alive into the 21st-century, albeit only in the double bass world, but it is probably time for a reassessment of this elegant and accessible concerto which, on the whole, has now become a student work. Cimador's Concerto in G major for Double Bass was probably composed in Venice for his friend Dragonetti, although there is no documentary evidence to prove this and the manuscript, now held in the British Library, bears no date. The title page reads 'Concerto Per Contrabasso A tre Corde Del Sigr. Gianbatta. Cimador' - was it composed in London in the early 1790s when he had changed his name from Cimadoro to Cimador, or in Venice with his 'new' name in anticipation of his forthcoming move to England? It is unlikely to know unless more documentary evidence is found, but it doesn't change the fact that this is a charming concerto and is typical of the style of the period. Composed for a 3-string double bass and in orchestral tuning, it was almost forgotten until Yorke Edition's first edition in 1969. The editor writes: "...Caffi, in his 'Historia della Musica Sacra' (1855), records that Dragonetti and Cimador were close friends, and that it was largely through the success and encouragement of the latter, that the young virtuoso bass player came to London..."

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