Maddalena laura lombardini sirmen biography graphic organizer
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By the late 1780s, she was able to retire to Venice, still with Terzi. (Although, as mentioned below, in 1795 Maddalena and Terzi jointly adopted a girl).
Regardless of personal details, Madame Sirmen continued her touring as a soloist from Paris to Liège, Amsterdam and London, where she made her début at the King’s Theatre in January 1771.
As Ludovico had a more established reputation than Maddalena, and a man’s compositions would probably be taken more seriously, the fiction may have been perpetrated either by the Sirmens to try and get a higher price from the publisher, or by the publisher in a bid to boost sales.
Also in 1769, Maddalena gave birth to a daughter, Alessandra.
There appear to have been several attempts (probably in her own early lifetime) to enhance her child-prodigy credentials by falsifying or confusing her date of birth, but this is now considered fairly well established as 1745, shortly before 13 December, when she was baptised.
Her parents were of the nobility, but impoverished; there is no evidence of them being musical, though a certain amount of musical training was normal as part of upper-class education at the time.
Here is one of those duets:
This Violin Concerto was published in London, probably in the early 1770s, under one of the variations of the spelling of her name: Madalena Laura Syrmen. Originally a lepers’ hospital, by the 17th century this institution had acquired a girls’ orphanage which specialised in teaching music, when Antonio Vivaldi’s father taught there.
However, when she died on 18 May 1818, her will (which survives) shows her to have been relatively poor. This was an equivalent of the journeyman’s licence obtained by craftsmen on completing their apprenticeships, and gave her the musicians’ guilds’ permission to work as a musician beyond the Venetian republic.
The second explores her music,and includes more detailed links to sources and recordings.
Maddalena Lombardini was born in Venice, at a time when the city was still an independent republic but in political decline. Similarly her repertoire was insufficiently modern for reviewers, and probably audiences.
Sirmen had remained financially shrewd, and managed to (productively) invest some of her earnings besides living off them and remitting money to Ludovico.
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Women Composing
Maddalena Sirmen (1745 – 1818)
Maddalena Sirmen was born as Maddalena Laura Lombardini in Venice. At this time, many soloists were writing much of their own repertoire (they would have carried the full sets of parts to all of it, written by them or not, and hired local orchestras, whether existing ensembles, scratch groups or somewhere in between, in each location).
However, by the end of 1770, Ludovico had returned to a position at Ravenna, taking Alessandra with him and soon openly linked with a Countess Zerletti or Zirletti (in the 18th century, Italy seems to have been more tolerant of mistresses than most of Europe). She was taken on as a pupil and mentee by Giuseppe Tartini at the age of 14, and apparently became his favourite pupil.
The slow movement is quite luscious:
Maddalena Laura Lombardini Sirmenaus classic
Sheet music
Score for chamber music
Sechs Duettefor Violaviola
for ViolaviolaSechs Duette.
The Amazing Mrs. Sirmen, aka Maddalena Laura Lombardini Sirmen
Taking up our #ThinkOutsideTheBachs challenge, London-based musician Martin Ash offers engaging insights on the groundbreaking and innovative violinist-composer (also singer and keyboard player) Maddalena Laura Lombardini Sirmen (1745-1818).
There is no reason to believe that this was the case, however.
During her time studying with Tartini and at the Ospedale, Lombardini fixed upon an aspiration of becoming a professional violinist. This should not necessarily be interpreted as Ludovico seeking credit for his wife’s work; chamber music, if not specifically commissioned, was generally written at this date for sale (one-off and outright) to a publisher, who would set up the title page of the edition chiefly according to their own notions.
Incidentally, from when she left the Ospedale, Maddalena was accompanied travelling and at home by a priest named Giuseppe Terzi, who died a few days after she did. She premièred her first solo (and sole credited) violin concerto there that year, and clearly found considerable success as she returned for performing seasons in the two following years.
The Sirmens were still in Paris in 1769 when six string quartets were published, again under their joint names; however, musical analysts conclude they are in fact Maddalena’s sole work and they are now referred to under her name alone.
The travelling virtuoso market was a crowded one and performers seem to have used whatever unique selling points (to use a modern phrase) they could to attract audiences and patronage; a husband-and-wife duo certainly provided the Sirmens with an obvious ‘hook’ and they often played joint concerts on this tour.