Musica e religiosità in Boccherini

Some of the numbers within Boccherini’s output strongly call for an attentive consideration of the composer’s religious attitude. After briefly taking into account the early oratorio Giuseppe riconosciuto, the present article centers on some self-borrowings drawn from the Stabat Mater composed in 1781 for Boccherini’s patron Don Luis. If the recourse to some of the themes within the string quintet byc op. 42 n. 1 confirms the sense of their original destination, the string quartet byc op. 41 n. 1, a cyclical composition, displays a far more complex and puzzling context.  The author’s thesis is that the prestissimo which frames the Stabat quotations may evoke a topos going back to the fifteenth century, namely that of the Dance of Death, perhaps known to Boccherini through the chapel master Antonio Soler. To conclude, the article suggests Boccherini’s possible membership to the terziari francescani confraternity.