Un portal on escoltar i gaudir de l'art musical dels segles XVI, XVII, XVIII i XIX. Compartir la bellesa de la música és l'objectiu d'aquest espai i fer-ho donant a conèixer obres de compositors molt o poc coneguts és el mètode.
Italian composer and violinist. Born on the Adriatic coast, he received
his first instruction in violin from Carlo Tessarini in Urbino before
becoming a disciple of Pietro Nardini in Livorno. At the age of 16 or 17
he immigrated to Madrid as a violinist in the Real Capilla and was
later appointed in 1767 as instructor of the Prince of Asturia by Carlos
III. By 1779 he had become musical director in Aranjuez, but he was
recalled to Madrid in 1788 by Carlos IV to lead a family ensemble, the
musicos de la real camera, that played exclusively for the court. His
music includes incidental music to the comedy Garcia del Castañal, two
zarzuelas, an Italian opera buffa, two Masses, a Miserere, three
Lamentations, nine concert arias, 32 songs (canciones), 37 symphonies,
four concertos, five sinfonia concertantes, 109 pieces of dance music,
18 sextets, 68 string quintets, 62 string quartets, 59 string trios, 23
divertimentos, 78 violin sonatas (and one for viola), and 328 duos.
During his lifetime, Brunetti had a reputation for writing dramatic
instrumental works that often deviated from conventional formal
structures. He also incorporated Spanish melodies and rhythms
frequently. He can be considered one of the most popular and important
composers resident in Spain during the 18th century. He was survived by a
daughter and a son Francesco Brunetti (c.1765-1834), a cellist in the
royal chamber orchestra.
Johann Schobert (c.1720-1767)
- Concerto (I, F-Dur) pour le clavecin avec accompagnement de deux
violons, alto et basse et deux cors de chasse ad libitum... op. XI
Performers: Marcelle Charbonnier (clavecin); Orchestre de chambre de
Versailles;
German composer and keyboardist. Nothing is known about his origins or
youth; there is differing information on his birth date, which ranges
from 1720 to 1740. Gerber’s Historisch-biographisches Lexicon der
Tonkünstler, however, gives Strasbourg as his place of birth (though the
name occurs in no contemporary Alsatian records), and Schubart in his
autobiography claimed Schobert as a kinsman, supposedly from Nuremberg.
Schobert first appeared in Paris in 1760, where he began a career as a
keyboard virtuoso, eventually publishing 20 sets of works. In 1761 a few
of his pieces appeared in the pasticcio Le tonnelier, and in 1765 he
unsuccessfully attempted to become a composer of opéra comique with the
comedy Le garde-chasse et le braconnier. He found employment with Louis
François I de Bourbon, Prince of Conti, however. Throughout his career
he achieved some fame for his expressive performances and works, in
addition to being a rival of Johann Gottfried Eckard. He died along with
his family, a servant, and four friends as a consequence of eating
poisonous mushrooms. His musical style was influenced by that of
Mannheim, although he was noted for his expressive melodies. His works
include 21 violin sonatas, six symphonies, seven trio sonatas, five
harpsichord concertos, three keyboard quartets, and several sonatas and
miscellaneous works for harpsichord. Schobert greatly influenced
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who admired his music warmly. The work which
most impressed the seven-year-old composer seems to have been the D
major Sonata of op.3; imitation of this sonata and others can be traced
in Mozart’s subsequent Parisian and English sonatas. Movements from
Schobert’s sonatas also appear recast in Mozart’s earliest piano
concertos. His fascination for Schobert’s music was not merely fleeting:
when Mozart was in Paris in 1778 he taught his pupils Schobert’s
sonatas, and the A minor Sonata k310, composed in Paris, contains in its
Andante an almost literal quotation from a movement of Schobert’s op.17
no.1 that Mozart had already arranged years before in a concerto.
Italian writer on music, teacher and composer. His father, Antonio Maria
Martini, a violinist, taught him the elements of music and the violin
and he later learned singing and harpsichord playing from Padre
Pradieri, and counterpoint from Antonio Riccieri and Giacomo Antonio
Perti. Having received his education in classics from the priests of the
Oratory of Saint Philip Neri, he afterwards entered the novitiate of
the Conventual Franciscans at their friary in Lago, at the close of
which he professed religious vows and received the religious habit of
the Order on 11 September 1722. In 1725, though only nineteen years old,
he received the appointment of chapel-master at the Basilica of San
Francesco in Bologna, where his compositions attracted attention. He
established a composition school at the invitation of amateur and
professional friends, where a number of well-known musicians received
their education. As a teacher, he consistently expressed his preference
for the practices of the earlier Roman school of composition. Martini
was a zealous collector of musical literature, and possessed an
extensive musical library. Burney estimated it at 17,000 volumes; after
Martini's death a portion of it passed to the Imperial library at
Vienna, the rest remaining in Bologna, now in the Museo Internazionale
della Musica (ex Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale). Most contemporary
musicians spoke of Martini with admiration, and Leopold Mozart
consulted him with regard to the talents of his son, Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart. The latter went on to write the friar in very effusive terms
after a visit to the city. The Abbé Vogler, however, makes reservations
in his praise, condemning his philosophical principles as too much in
sympathy with those of Fux, which had already been expressed by P.
Vallotti. His Elogio was published by Pietro della Valle at Bologna in
the same year. In 1758 Martini was invited to teach at the Accademia
Filarmonica di Bologna. He died in Bologna. Referred to at his death as
‘Dio della musica de’ nostri tempi’, he was one of the most famous
figures in 18th-century music.
Among Martini's pupils: Grétry, Mysliveček, Berezovsky, his fellow
Conventual Franciscan friar, Stanislao Mattei, who succeeded him as
conductor of the girls choir, as well as the young Mozart, Johann
Christian Bach and the famous Italian cellist Giovanni Battista Cirri.
The greater number of Martini's mostly sacred compositions remain
unprinted. The Liceo of Bologna possesses the manuscripts of two
oratorios as well as three intermezzos, including L'impresario delle
Isole Canarie; and a requiem, with some other pieces of church music,
are now in Vienna. Litaniae atque antiphonae finales B. V. Mariae were
published at Bologna in 1734, as also twelve Sonate d'intavolalura; six
Sonate per l'organo ed il cembalo in 1747; and Duetti da camera in 1763.
Martini's most important works are his Storia della musica (Bologna,
1757-81) and his Esemplare di contrappunto (Bologna, 1774-75). The
former, of which the three published volumes relate wholly to ancient
music, and thus represent a mere fragment of the author's vast plan,
exhibits immense reading and industry, but is written in a dry and
unattractive style, and is overloaded with matter which cannot be
regarded as historical. At the beginning and end of each chapter occur
puzzle-canons, wherein the primary part or parts alone are given, and
the reader has to discover the canon that fixes the period and the
interval at which the response is to enter. Some of these are
exceedingly difficult, but all were solved by Luigi Cherubini. The
Esemplare is a learned and valuable work, containing an important
collection of examples from the best masters of the old Italian and
Spanish schools, with excellent explanatory notes. It treats chiefly of
the tonalities of the plain chant, and of counterpoints constructed upon
them. Besides being the author of several controversial works, Martini
drew up a Dictionary of Ancient Musical Terms, which appeared in the
second volume of GB Doni's Works; he also published a treatise on The
Theory of Numbers as Applied to Music. His celebrated canons, published
in London, about 1800, edited by Pio Cianchettini, and his unpublished
set of 303 canons, show him to have had a strong sense of musical
humour.
Italian composer, organist and singer. He went to Venice and sang bass
in the choir of San Marco from 1674. He served as organist at SS.
Giovanni e Paolo (1676-79), where he was described as a pupil of Carlo
Grossi, as well as at San Marco during periods between 1677 and 1686. He
left San Marco on 1 May 1686 to take the post of maestro di cappella to
the Duke of Modena, which he retained, with interruptions, almost until
the end of his life. The duke had to order a large boat to transport
Giannettini and his family’s personal effects from Venice. At Modena he
was responsible for the selection and payment of musicians, as his
correspondence shows, and for organizing the performance of his own and
others’ works. He maintained his connections with Venice and during his
visits, often at Carnival, he recruited musicians for the duke. In
Modena he was called on to produce oratorios and small occasional works
more often than operas and he may have composed new music for the 1690
performance in Modena of Giovanni Legrenzi's 'Eteocle e Polinice'. When,
during the War of the Spanish Succession, the French occupied Modena in
1702, Duke Rinaldo fled to Bologna, and Giannettini accompanied him. He
soon moved on to Venice with his family. During this period he is
supposed to have returned to Modena twice as opera director. After the
war, in February 1707, he resumed his earlier activities at Modena. From
June 1721 was employed as a singer at the Bavarian court at Munich. As a
composer, he wrote about 10 operas, of which 'Medea in Atene' (1675)
became the best known. His other works included 9 oratorios, many
cantatas, 12 motets, a Kyrie a 5, and Psalmi a 4 (1717). He was among
the most talented Italian composers of his generation; his works were
fairly popular, and two of his operas circulated in Germany.
Bohemian composer, oboist, viola da gamba virtuoso, cellist, and
pedagogue. He began his professional career as an oboist in the service
of Countess Netolicka. In 1777, he moved to Munich to serve in the court
orchestra of Elector Maximilian Joseph. That same year in Munich,
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was highly impressed by the wind band Fiala
trained, helping him secure a position in 1778 after the Elector's
death. In 1785, he moved to Vienna, and in 1786, to Saint Petersburg,
where he worked in the court of Catherine the Great. By 1790, he had
relocated to Prussia, serving as a viola da gamba player in the court of
Friedrich Wilhelm II. Finally, in 1792, he became Kapellmeister in
Donaueschingen, where he spent the rest of his life.
