Файл:Domenico Colla and his brother.jpgDomenico Colla (front) playing a two string colascioncino, with his brother playing a guitar, c. 1752.[1] Domenico played in Rome during Carnival in 1749 at the Teatro Valle and at a salon or academy hosted by Pier Leone Ghezzi.[2][3] Ghezzi drew a head and shoulders caricature of him during that trip, and an image of the two brothers playing, which Matthias Oesterreich used to create the published engraving.[1][2]Файл:Domenico Colla.jpgDomenico Colla and his brother performed at Hickford's Long Room in London, shown in a February 1766 advertisement. The brothers' own benefits concert was on February 18, and they also performed in other musicians' benefits concerts, including: March 17, 1766 for Gabriele Leone[4] and April 11, 1766 for Polly Young.[5]
Domenico Colla was an 18th-century Brescian composer and performer who traveled Europe in the 1760s, performing in the most important theaters and salons.[6][7] Together with his brother Giuseppe, he was one of the Colla brothers.[8] The brothers played in royal circles; they performed before Frederick the Great in 1765 in the palace at Sanssouci.[2] They were in London in 1766, where it was advertised that they had performed before the British royalty, as well as other the royal families of Europe.[8] The brothers were also noted for being survivors of slavery in Algiers, rescued from it by the King of Poland.[8][9]
The brothers played the colascione and colascioncino and guitar.[7] Domenico's name is attached to six sonatas for the smaller colascioncino.[7]
The cocolascione was a long-necked lute (strings 100 –130 cm), possibly related to the dutar or tanbur.[7] The colascioncino was tuned an octave higher with strings 50–60 cm long.[7] The instruments can have two or three strings.[7] According to the advertisement, the brothers played the two string variety.[8]
Domenico composed music, and his six sonatas for the colascioncino may be the only works that have survived for that instrument.[6][10] Each sonata lists either the colascioncino or colascioncino of two strings.[10]
Works
Six Colascioncino Sonatas[10] The sonatas are set up with the colascioncino playing the melody, accompanied by a bass-ranged instrument, the colascione.[11]
