By Nathaniel Hone the Elder - https://www.bmimages.com/preview.asp?image=01613694340, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=91309505
In the Grade 2 ABRSM piano examination syllabus for 2021 - 2022 there is a delightful Minuet written by Elisabetta de Gambarini. The foot notes state ‘she was an English composer, singer and keyboard player whose parents were Italian. As a singer she took part in performances of some of Handel’s oratorios. As a composer, she published six harpsichord sonatas, a book of keyboard pieces mixed with Italian and Englush songs and twelve songs for flute and continuo’. The Grade 2 Minuet in A, comes from Lessons for the Harpsichord, Intermix’d with Italian and English Songs, Op. 2.
Elisabetta Gambarini was baptised on 1st November 1730 at and she was born on the 7th September 1730. Her parents, both Italian, are Caroli Gambarini and Joanna Stradvotti. Her parents are listed as nobles. She was baptized at St Mary’s Church, Marylebone, London. Her name in the baptism records does not include the ‘de ’in her name.
Elisabetta was married at St Martin in the Fields on the 20th March 1764 to Stephen Chazall, esq. of St Ann Parish, Westminster.
By Church of St Martin-in-the-Fields by David Dixon, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=107569662
She died in 1765 and was buried at St James Churchyard, Westminster. She died or was buried on the 9th February 1765. There is no document online showing her burial in 1765. Possibly she died in childbirth because in her mother’s will in 1774 her mother mentions her dearly beloved granddaughter, Giovanna Georgiana Chazal. Her granddaughter appears to be her only living descendant.
English Composer, Singer, Musician, Conductor, and Artist. Her music is considered late Baroque and Classical music. She achieved distinction as an all-around musician, performing on, and composing for a variety of instruments as well as voice. Her compositions were known to reflect that of vocal work instead of instrumental patterns. She was the first female composer in Britain to publish a collection of keyboard music. The third of four children, her father was a nobleman from Lucca, Italy and her mother was of similar status from Dalmatia. Her formal musical education is not known but there is speculation that she may have studied with Francesco Geminiani, composer of "The Inchanted Forest." She began her career singing in George Frederick Handel's "Occasional Oratiorio" (1746 to 1747) and also performed as the First Israelite Woman at the first performance and sang in "Judas Maccabaeu" (1747) and "Joseph and his Brethren"(1747). Her name also appears in scores of Handel's "Samson" and "Messiah" however the exact dates are unknown. By 1748 her reputation allowed her to promote and perform her own benefit concert. She sang and played her own compositions with the organ and also issued her first two volumes of music. "The Six Sets of Lessons for the Harpsichord" was published while in her teens. Her music had many subscribers, among them were famous musicians, Handel and Francesco Geminiani, as well as various dukes, lawyers, barons, peers as well as captains. Later that year she published "Lessons for the Harpsichord Intermix'd with Italian and English Songs" followed by "XII English & Italian Songs, for a German flute and Thorough Bass…Opera III" in 1750. On 20 March 1764 she married Etienne Chazal at St Martin-in-the-Fields. She gave one concert as Mrs. Chazal in May, but died at her home of unknown causes at the age of 33 in Castle Court, Strand, in the parish of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster, less than a year later’. ‘From Wikipedia.