Portrait of Antonio Bartolomeo Bruni by Cesarine Davin-Mirvault

Antonio Bartolomeo Bruni (28 January 1757 – 6 August 1821) was an Italian

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

ist,

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

and conductor. Bruni was born and died in

Cuneo Cuneo (; pms, Coni ; oc, Coni/Couni ; french: Coni ) is a city and ''comune'' in Piedmont, Northern Italy, the capital of the province of Cuneo, the fourth largest of Italy’s provinces by area. It is located at 550 metres (1,804 ft) in ...

, Italy. During most of his life he resided, played and composed in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. At the height of the French 'terror', c.1791, Bruni authored ''Un Inventaire sous la terreur'' which lists musical instruments recovered from

noble households ''Noble Households: Eighteenth-Century Inventories of Great English Houses'' presents transcripts of inventories of nine great country houses and four London town houses as a tribute to the late historian John Cornforth. Summary The inventori ...

. This inventory was published by J. Gallay, editor (Paris: Georges Chamerot, 1890). In the scholarly work ''The Hurdy-Gurdy in Eighteenth-Century France'' by Robert E. Green (Indiana University Press, 1995), where the Bruni text is footnoted, Green says of Bruni's inventory "from 111 noble households (it) lists six which possessed vielles (

hurdy-gurdies The hurdy-gurdy is a string instrument that produces sound by a hand-crank-turned, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar to those of a vio ...

)." p. 17. In the fictional novel ''

The Piano Tuner ''The Piano Tuner'' is a historical novel by Daniel Mason, set in British India and Burma. It was first published in 2002 when Mason was 26 and was his first novel.Barrett, Andrea (29 September 2002)"A Few Strings Loose" ''New York Times''. Retriev ...

'' by

Daniel Mason ''For the American composer, see Daniel Gregory Mason.'' Daniel Mason (b. ca. 1976) is an American novelist and physician. He is the author of ''The Piano Tuner'' and ''A Far Country''. He was raised in Palo Alto, California, and received a BA ...

where this affair is again referred to thus: "A Temporary Commission of Arts was set up and ... Bruni ... was named Director of the Inventory. For fourteen months he collected the instruments of the . In all, over three hundred were gathered, and each carries its own tragic tale." Mason goes on to say that 64 were pianofortes.

Works

* Metodo per viola seguito da 25 studi * Claudine, ou Le Petit Commissionnaire (1794) * La rencontre en voyage (Comédie en un acte) (1798) * L'auteur dans son ménage (Opéra-comique en un acte) (1799) * 6 Concertant Trios for 2 Violins and Viola or Cello, Op.1 * 6 String Trios, Op.2 * 6 Duets for Violin and Viola Op.4 * 6 String Trios, Book 4 (Op.4) * 6 Duets for Violin and Viola, Op.25 * 6 Duettini, Op.34 * 6 String Trios, Op.34 * 6 Trios for 2 Violins and Viola, Op.36 (La petite conversation)(6th Book of Trios) * 6 duos concertants pour 2 altos, * 6 Quatuors pour 2 Violons, Alto et Basse * 6 String Quartets

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bruni, Bartolomeo 1757 births 1821 deaths Italian classical violinists Male classical violinists Italian composers Italian male composers Italian conductors (music) Italian male conductors (music) Italian expatriates in France People from Cuneo People of the French Revolution