Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848), Credo a 4 voci inedito

The Credo was written by Donizetti presumably between 1818 and 1821, the period in which the author devoted himself more to sacred production during his studies and apprenticeship. Although not dated, stylistic considerations suggest a post 1817 position, ie after returning to Bergamo from the Bolognese studios with Padre Mattei. The manuscript is kept in the Archives of the Donizetti Museum (BG0385 - LO11061723). This file contains only the initial Allegro. A complete collection of the detached parts (conserved in the library of the Paris conservatory) was made by a copyist of the time (with some autograph work), certainly based on the original manuscript.
On March 31st 1893 the tenor from Brescia Francesco Pasini (1848-1911), formerly a treasurer of the Venturi Institute (today's Marenzio Conservatory of Brescia), sent the parts to the Biblioteca Civica di Bergamo. On July 3, 1909, the tenor sent a letter to the Paris Conservatory, in which he declared that he possessed the manuscript of the Credo, as well as others from Ponchielli, Cagnoni and an unpublished work by Bazzini. On October 24, 1909, the Pasini sent Donizetti's Creed to the Paris Conservatory for a sum of 150 francs.


Edition criteria
The edition, created together with Pieralberto Cattaneo, aims to provide a modern revision useful for the execution. Although we are based on the manuscript score, we often find errors and cancellations due to the great rush of writing. Numerous points reveal compositional layers, with canceled strokes, sketchy vocal parts, retouching to the instrumentation, notes. It was not considered useful to report typographically and in critical apparatus all the discrepancies and omissions between this edition and the autograph manuscript: it was instead preferred to point out the most important cases of the auditor's intervention.

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