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. After training from his father,
Francesco Barbella, maestro di violino and composer at the Conservatorio
di Santa Maria di Loreto, he studied with Angelo Zaga and Pasqualino
Bini before completing his training in theory and composition with
Michele Cabbalone and Leonardo Leo. In 1744 he was taken to England by
Leo, where he had his debut as a violinist. After his return to Naples,
he was appointed to positions at the Teatro Nuovo in 1753 and the Teatro
San Carlo in 1761 in a post he held the rest of his life. Although
there is no evidence that Barbella ranked among the finest Italian
violinists, he was respected as a performer and admired as a teacher and
composer. Charles Burney, who became his friend and relied on his
knowledge, confessed to some disappointment in his playing, complaining
of lack of variety, ‘drowsiness of tone’, and ‘want of animation’. Yet
he found much to praise also, especially when hearing Barbella in a
small room, and spoke of his ‘taste and expression’ and of his
‘marvellously sweet tone’. His music, mostly in the style of Giuseppe
Tartini, includes two concertos, 33 trio sonatas, 29 violin sonatas, 33
duets for two violins, two operas, and several smaller works. He wrote a
number of pieces for the mandolin, including a concerto, sonatas and
duets. Many of his pieces were also published in England and France, so
that they were well known in Europe.
Romanus Pinzger (1717-1755)
- Missa in C-Dur aus 'Laus dei jucunda et sonora, ... cum vocibus
ordinariis canto, alto, tenore, basso, II. violinis et organo obligatis,
clarinis vero et tympano ad libitum ... opus II' (1750)
Performers: Choir und Orchester Seeon; Andrea Wittmann (conductor)
German priest and composer. Very few details are known of his life. Son
of Mathias Pinzger (1691-1729), he came from a family of violin makers
and musicians. In 1728, he entered the Gymnasium in Salzburg, where ten
years later he composed the music for the Benedictine theater. There he
probably received music lessons from Matthias Sigismund Biechteler von
Greiffenthal and Johann Ernst Eberlin. In 1738 he was novice at the
Seeon Abbey, where in 1741 was ordained a priest. As a composer, he
published two collections of sacred music; 'Sacrificium laudis in voce'
(1747) and 'Laus dei jucunda et sonora' (1750). Additionally, he wrote a
piece entitled 'Musik f. die Münchener Fastenmeditationen' (c.1749).
His brothers Willibaldus Pinzger (1720-1761) and Johann Paul Pinzger
(1722-1772) were also musicians and priests, mainly active in Salzburg.
French composer. Son of Jean-Bertrand Mouret and Madeleine Menotte, he
is believed to have received his musical training at the Notre Dame des
Doms choir school in Avignon. After settling in Paris (1707), he became
'maitre de musique' to the Marshal of Noailles; within a year or so, he
was made 'surintendant de la musique' at the Sceaux court. He was
director of the Paris Opera orchestra (1714-18), and became
composer-director at the New Italian Theater (1717), remaining there for
two decades. He was also made an 'ordinaire du Roy' as a singer in the
king's chamber (1720), and served as artistic director of the Concert
Spirituel (1728-34), where he brought out many of his cantatas, motets,
and cantatilles. In 1718 he was granted a royal privilege to published
his own music. Stricken with a mental disorder in 1737, he was placed in
the care of the Fathers of Charity in Charenton in 1738. Among his most
successful works were the opera-ballet 'Les Fetes ou Le Triomphe de
Thalie' (Paris, 1714), the comedie lyrique 'Le Manage de Ragonde et de
Colin ou La Veillée de village' (Sceaux, 1714), various divertissements
for the Italian Theater, and the Suites de simphonies (c.1729).
Austrian organist and composer. Although born into a musical family,
little is known about the details of his early life, save that he was a
chorister at Klosterneuburg, where he no doubt learned enough about
music to become an organist there around 1731. His other positions were
at the monastery in Melk and subsequently around 1736 at the Karlskirche
in the Viennese suburb of Wieden. He was also active at the Holy Roman
court, where his instrumental music was extremely popular. His life was
cut short prematurely by a lung ailment, probably pneumonia, although he
suffered from ill health his entire life. His most important student
was Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, probably for whom Monn created a
treatise titled 'Theorie des Generalbasses in Beispielen ohne
Erklärung', which remained unpublished. As a composer, his works include
16 symphonies, eight concertos (six for keyboard, one for violin, one
for cello, plus another arrangement of a harpsichord concerto for cello
or contrabass), partitas, three fanfares, and three preludes and fugues
for organ. His style represents the infusion of the homophonic texture,
contrasting themes of the early sonata principle, and fundamental
modulatory patterns that reflect the predominant style of the late 18th
century. He was also one of the first to create the fourmovement
symphony by adding a minuet in one of his works. His brother Johann
Christoph Monn (1726-1782) was also a composer and teacher.
German composer and violinist. He came from a family of musicians. From
1696 he was active in Berlin, where he was student of Johann Theile.
Also there, he was second violinist in the court chapel at Berlin by
1710. He visited London in 1721 and remained at least until winter
1724-25. After 1725 he became the first violinist in the opera orchestra
at Hamburg under the direction of Reinhard Keiser. During the season
1725-1726, he participated in performances of operas by George Frideric
Handel under the direction of Georg Philipp Telemann. In August 1728, he
became the ducal Kapellmeister in Mecklenburg-Strelitz. There, he led
the orchestra, which comprised at least 14 musicians, and was also
responsible for developing a music library. In 1742, Johann Christian
Hertel assumed direction of the orchestra, and Linike became the court
keyboardist. In 1752, the orchestra was disbanded, and it was not until
1761 that he received a pension. As a composer, he wrote the cantata
'Quando sperasti', four concertos and several chamber pieces. His works
show relatively conservative Baroque traits in the prevalence of
imitative entries at the beginning of movements, a pervasive two-part
texture, and a tendency towards consistent motivic extension within
individual movements. His brother Christian Bernhard Linike (1673-1751)
was a cellist and composer, active in Berlin and Cöthen.
German composer, keyboard player and music theorist. His intelligence
and musical talent were evident early on, so he was sent to study in
Dresden in 1670. By 1671, he was a chorister at the Kreuzkirche, where
he attracted the attention of the Kapellmeister Vincenzo Albrici.
Another member of the Kreuzkirche staff, Erhard Titius, who had become
cantor at Zittau, invited Kuhnau to continue his education at the
prestigious Johanneum school there. After Titius died in 1682, Kuhnau
filled in as cantor. He then moved to Leipzig, matriculated in law at
the university, and after an unsuccessful application in 1682, won the
post of organist at Thomaskirche in 1684. He published his law thesis in
1688 and began to practice. In 1689, he married and eventually had
eight children. Before the turn of the century, he published all his
keyboard music, built up his renown as an organist, and engaged in
literary and linguistic scholarship. When the Thomaskantor Johann
Schelle died on 10 March 1701, the authorities quickly elected Kuhnau as
his successor, and he took up his new and prestigious post in April
1701. His career as cantor was not without difficulties. The growing
Leipzig opera drew promising young singers away from enrolling at
Thomasschule. Then, in 1701, Georg Philipp Telemann arrived in Leipzig
to study law and immediately founded his Collegium Musicum, which also
attracted some of Kuhnau’s students, and Telemann even inveigled the
mayor, going over Kuhnau’s head, to allow himself to compose for
Thomaskirche. Frequent illness troubled Kuhnau during this period, and
in 1703, he learned that the city council had inquired of Telemann
whether he might wish to succeed Kuhnau should he die. In the end, such
intrigues counted as mere annoyances, and Kuhnau’s career at
Thomaskirche was generally characterized by the esteem of Germany’s best
musicians. Johann Kuhnau was a major figure in German music at the turn
of the 18th century, and the immediate predecessor of Johann Sebastian
Bach as cantor of Thomaskirche in Leipzig. Although Kuhnau composed at
least 62 church cantatas, 14 Latin motets, a Magnificat, a passion
according to St. Mark, and 2 masses, this considerable body of sacred
music remained unpublished, and his single opera and a few other early
stage pieces are lost, so he influenced his contemporaries principally
through his published keyboard music: 14 suites, 2 preludes, 2 fugues, a
toccata, and 14 sonatas, including the famous Biblical Sonatas for
harpsichord (1700, Leipzig). Unlike Johann Sebastian Bach, he exhibited
all the various talents and interests that the Leipzig city council
evidently desired in the Thomaskantor: Kuhnau was not only an esteemed
composer and organist but also had built a distinguished law career,
translated scholarly works from French and Italian into German, learned
mathematics, Greek, and Hebrew, and had written a satirical novel, 'Der
musicalische Quack-Salber'. These self-motivated studies allowed him to
carry out the multifarious teaching, administrative, and musical duties
of his post with distinction. Much information about Kuhnau’s life comes
from his autobiography published in Johann Mattheson’s collection,
'Grundlage einer Ehren-Pforte' (1740).
Italian teacher and composer. Following studies at the Conservatorio di
Santa Maria di Loreto under Pasquale Anfossi and Antonio Sacchini, he
was appointed as a violin teacher at Torre Annuziata in 1772. In 1781
his opera 'Montezuma' achieved success, allowing him to receive
commissions throughout Italy, where he became one of the leading
composers of opera. He attempted to achieve the same success in Paris in
1790, writing some works in collaboration with his pupil Isabelle de
Charrière, though these all failed and the Revolution forced his return
to Italy. In 1793 he was appointed maestro di cappella at the Cathedral
of Milan and in 1795 he assumed the same post at Santa Casa in Loreto,
Rome. By 1804 he was maestro di cappella at St. Peter’s in Rome, but a
conflict with the French occupiers landed him in prison. He was released
only at the special intervention of Napoleon. After Giovanni
Paisiello’s death in 1816 he was also appointed musical director of
Naples Cathedral. Zingarelli was an incredibly prolific composer
throughout his entire life, writing in virtually all genres. His works
include dozens of masses, eight oratorios, 57 operas, many Mass
movements and insertion arias, 15 Requiems, 55 Magnificats, 23 Te Deums,
541 Psalm settings, 21 Stabat maters, and 50 motets, as well as
numerous litanies, responsories, and sacred cantatas. He also wrote 20
secular cantatas, three large odes or hymns, 79 symphonies (mostly
singlemovement sinfonia da chiesa), eight string quartets, three duos,
eight sonatas, 11 pastorals, and 60 other works for organ. He was
considered the last great composer of opera seria, and he spent much of
his later years composing sacred music when his operas were overshadowed
by other Italians such as Giaocchino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini. His
music conforms to the late Italian style of the Classical period and,
thus, may have seemed anachronistic. He was renowned as a teacher,
numbering Bellini, Mercadante, Carlo Conti, Lauro Rossi, Morlacchi, and
Michael Costa among his students.
Italian composer and theorist. After being orphaned as a child, he spent
his early years as an apprentice silk merchant before going to Naples,
where he studied under Giovanni Paisiello and Gaetano Latilla. In 1787
he became a court musician at the Tuileries in Paris, and was active as
accompanist to the queen, voice teacher to the nobility, and maestro al
cembalo at the Theatre de Monsieur. After the French Revolution, he
settled in London in 1792 and pursued his career as a composer and voice
teacher; among his students was the Prince of Wales. His 'Complainte de
la reine de France' the following year is one of the most important
pieces of antirevolutionary music written. In England he was a
successful composer, theorist, and singing teacher with close ties to
George IV. His music, little studied, includes seven operas, two piano
concertos, 20 violin sonatas, six Italian ariettas, as well as a number
of works for harp, violin, and keyboard. He also published several
books, among them, 'Breve tratto di canto italiano' (London, 1818),
'Studio di musica teorica pratica' (London, 1830), and 'Anedotti
piacevoli e interessanti occorsi nella vita Giacomo Gotifredo Ferrari da
Rovereto' (London, 1830). His son Adolfo Angelico Gotifredo Ferrari
(1807-1870), a pupil of Domenico Crivelli, taught singing at the Royal
Academy. Adolfo’s wife, Johanna Thomson, and his daughter Sophia Ferrari
were also singers.
German teacher and composer. Born as the fifth child of the Franconian
musician family Küffner, his father Wilhelm Küffner (1727-1797) was a
court musician and composer and his mother Katharina Wassmuth was the
daughter of the court conductor Johann Franz Georg Wassmuth in Würzburg.
After the early death of his parents, he had to look after himself and
his two younger siblings. He earned his living as an auxiliary musician,
violinist and guitarist in the prince-bishop's court orchestra and also
appeared as a soloist. Self-taught, he learned to play the flute,
clarinet, trombone and French horn. In 1798, Prince-Bishop Georg Karl
von Fechenbach engaged him with the reform of the Würzburg military
music. With the secularization of the Duchy of Würzburg in 1803 and its
incorporation into the Kingdom of Bavaria, he temporarily lost his post
as court musician. Küffner successfully applied for a position as a
music teacher at the Electoral Bavarian Light Infantry Battalion "La
Motte" and trained the military musicians. A year later he got the same
job with the Electoral Bavarian 12th Line Infantry Regiment
"Löwenstein". For both associations he composed two-part military
marches in slow and fast pace. By 1825 he had written 36 compositions
for military music, including three overtures and 20 potpourris on
themes from operas by Daniel-François Esprit Auber, Gioachino Rossini
and Carl Maria von Weber, which were popular at the time. This made
Küffner the first German arranger for wind orchestras. As early as 1805,
the Würzburg chronicler Carl Gottfried Scharold reported: "When the
guard is relieved at noon around 12 o'clock, a well-cast band of
musicians usually plays some pleasant pieces and delights the audience."
The most demanding military music composition is likely to be his
"Symphony for Military Music" Opus 165. A gout ailment caused Küffner to
terminate his contract as "military music director" with the Bavarian
Army in 1825. Küffner was never a soldier and never wore a uniform. In
all documents in the Bavarian State Archives he is referred to as a
“court and chamber musician”. He was an employee of the army and had no
authority. The military superiors of the military musicians were the
Regimentstambours until 1811, and from 1811 to 1818 the music masters
with the rank of sergeants, whose musical training Küffner also took
over. As a member of the royal court orchestra from 1806 to 1814 of
Grand Duke Ferdinand III von Toscana composed Küffner mainly for string
instruments, but also for wind instruments. He often used the guitar as
an accompanying instrument. As a composer, he wrote over than 360 works,
36 of them for military music.
German organist and composer. Son of a clergy man, he probably received
his earliest musical education at the Court of Saxe-Meiningen. In 1714,
he was appointed court organist to the Prince of
Schwarzburg-Sondershausen in Sondershausen and in 1716, he was promoted
to the position of court Kapellmeister. Around 1719 or 1720 he became
director of the Hofkapelle in Sondershausen, where he wrote a St Matthew
Passion (performed in 1720 at Johanneskirche, Danzig), a cycle of
cantatas and a short opera. He was sent to Dresden for a year by his
employer, Prince Günther Schwarzburg. He went to Danzig about 1730 and
in 1731, on the death of his half-brother Maximilian Dietrich Freisslich
(1673-1731), he became Kapellmeister at Marienkirche, Danzig, remaining
in that position to the end of his life. As a composer, he played an
important role in the city's music life. He wrote several cantatas for
festive and solemn family occasions in Danzig as well as other
occasional works for anniversaries of historical importance and works in
honor of two Polish monarchs, King August II and King August III. After
his death, he was succeeded as Kapellmeister at the Marienkirche by his
son-in-law Christian Friedrich Morheim (1719-1780), a former pupil of
Johann Sebastian Bach.
Johann Wilhelm Hässler (1747-1822)
- Grand concert (G-Dur) pour le piano-forte avec accompagnement de
violons, alt, clarinettes, hautbois, bassons, cors, timbales,
violoncelle et contre-basse ... œuvre 50
Performers: Olga Martynova (fortepiano); Pratum Integrum; Pavel Serbin
(conductor)
German organist, pianist and composer. Son of a capmaker, he learned and
long followed his father's trade. Nephew, and pupil on the pianoforte
and organ, of Johann Christian Kittel, who had been a pupil of Johann
Sebastian Bach, at the age of fourteen became organist in Erfurt and
while leading a wandering apprentice's life gave concerts. After his
father's death, in 1769, he maintained for some years a manufactory of
fur muffs. A meeting in Hamburg with Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach gave him a
fresh impetus toward continuing his musical activities. He gave
concerts as a pianist, and published several piano sonatas. On 8
February 1779, he married his pupil Sophie Kiel (1761-1844). In 1780 he
opened public winter concerts in Erfurt; his wife appeared there as a
singer and choral director. In 1789 he played in Berlin and Potsdam; in
Dresden he took part in a contest with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as
organist and pianist, without producing much impression either on Mozart
himself or on the listeners. In 1790 he went to London, where he
performed piano concertos under the direction of Joseph Haydn. In 1792
he went to Russia, where he remained until his death. In Moscow he
became greatly renowned as a pianist, as a composer, and particularly as
a teacher. Most of his works were published there; these included
concertos, sonatas, preludes, variations, fantasies, and also pieces for
piano four-hands. His style represents a transition between Bach and
Beethoven, without attaining a degree of the imagination or
craftsmanship of either. However, his piano pieces in the lighter vein
have undeniable charm. His Grande gigue was well known. His daughter
Henriette Hässler (c.1790-1849) was a singer, later married to the
composer and conductor Carl Eberwein (1786-1868).
Flemish composer. Son of Jan Hacquart and his second wife Nicole Fleury,
he received his basic musical training as a choirboy at his parish
church of St Saviour and thereafter at St Bavo in nearby Ghent. On
leaving in 1662 he was awarded a scholarship to study an 'ars mechanica'
(viola and organ). Attracted by the growth of musical life of wealthy
citizens in the United Dutch Provinces, he moved first to Rotterdam
where in 1669 he married a local girl, Catharina van Boere and where his
first three children where born. He worked as an independent musician,
teaching members of the local bourgeoisie, among whom a future
burgomaster of Rotterdam, Willem van Hogendorp, the dedicatee of his
'Harmonia Parnassia Sonatarum' (1686). Just after leaving for Amsterdam
in 1674, he presented himself to the public as a composer with a set of
ten 'Cantiones Sacrae'. In the introduction to this edition, he
expressed hopes that once the war with France was over, music should
occupy a prominent place at the Dutch court. In 1678 the poet Dirck
Buysero, commissioned Hacquart to write music for his pastoral play
celebrating the Peace of Nijmegen. The resulting piece, 'De
triomfeerende Min', is now generally considered as the first opera with a
Dutch libretto. He also became choirmaster and organist at the hidden
Catholic church in the Idastraat for a few years, where he published his
viol suites 'Chelys' (1687). After a last attempt in 1689 to obtain the
money Buysero owned him for the composition of 'De triomfeerende Min',
Carolus Hacquart disappears from the musical records in Holland.
German soprano and composer. Daughter of Innocenz Danzi (c.1730-1798)
and elder sister of Franz Danzi (1763-1826), she made her debut as a
soloist in 1772 in Antonio Sacchini’s opera 'La Contadina in corte'. She
was a popular singer who won praise from Charles Burney for her talent.
By 1777, the same year she married the oboist and composer Ludwig
August Lebrun (1752-1790), she was regularly touring Europe as a
soloist. In London she met Thomas Gainsborough who painted her portrait
in 1780. On 13 March 1785 she performed at an academy organized by
Mozart at the Burgtheater in Vienna. She spent the season of 1786-87 in
Naples, where she appeared at the Teatro San Carlo. The couple were
invited to Berlin for the carnival seasons of 1789-90 and 1790-91. Her
husband’s sudden death there affected her severely and led to a rapid
decline in her health, and she made only two subsequent public
appearances. As a composer, she published two sets of sonatas for the
keyboard and violin in London. François-Joseph Fétis also cites a set of
trios for piano, violin, and cello, which have been lost. Her daughters
Sophie Lebrun (1781-1863) and Rosine Lebrun (1783-1855) were musicians
and singers.
Marcos António Portugal (1762-1830)
- Missa de Mortos / com todo o instrumental para se cantar na Real
Capela no Rio de Jan / Composta mto. expressamente de novo para se
cantar nas exéquias da defunta rainha fidelíssima D. Maria Primeira
(1816)
Performers: Veruschka Mainhardt (soprano); Carolina Faria (contralto);
Antônio Pedro de Almeida (tenor);
Frederico de Oliveira (bass);
Coro da Cia. Bachiana Brasileira; Orquestra Sinfônica da UFRJ;
Portuguese composer. Son of Manuel António da Ascenção and Joaquina
Teresa Rosa, in 1771 he was admitted to the Seminário da Patriarcal of
Lisbon, where he studied organ and composition with João de Sousa
Carvalho. By 1787, he was sent to study in Italy, where he made a name
for himself writing opera buffa. By 1800 he had returned to Lisbon as
'mestre de capela' to the royal court and maestro of the Teatro de Sao
Carlos. When Napoleon’s troops entered Lisbon in November 1807, he in
spite of his court position did not flee to Brazil with the royal
family. During the ten-month French occupation he revised 'Demofoonte'
for Napoleon’s birthday in 1808. About this time, and until 1834, the
finale of his cantata 'La speranza' was adopted as the national anthem.
In 1811 he fled to Rio de Janeiro with his brother Simão Portugal, where
he composed music for the Teatro São João. When the court returned to
Portugal in 1817, he remained in Brazil the rest of his life. As a
composer, he composed a substantial amount of church music and 50
operas. He also left few instrumental works, among them, two symphonies.
Italian violinist and composer. A student of Giuseppe Tartini, he was
appointed as concertmaster of the cathedral orchestra in Padua in 1721.
In 1732 he was appointed violinist at the Basilica di Sant'Antonio in
Padua. In 1735, however, he and his brother Giuseppe Dall’Oglio, a
cellist, accepted an invitation of employment at the Russian court in
St. Petersburg, where for the next 30 years they both served. Court
records make frequent references to his activities as a virtuoso
violinist, composer and participant in court intrigue. He died in Narva
on his way back to Italy in 1764. He was known for his performance on
the lute and violin, as well as his collaborations with Francesco Araja.
His music includes a prologue, a concert aria, 34 violin sonatas,
around 12 symphonies (six published 1735 in Paris, as well as several
“Russian” symphonies), 17 violin concertos, a sonata for string quartet,
several pieces for viola and basso, as well as numerous ballets. His
string music reveals him as a master of the Italian 18th-century and
reminiscent of Antonio Vivaldi's virtuoso style. The music theorist and
Padre Martini student in Bologna, Giovanni Battista Dall'Oglio
(1739-1832), was not related to him.
Italian violinist and composer. Nothing is known from his youth. Charles
Burney heard him in Rome in 1770, and considered him the best Roman
violinist of the period. In 1776 he began to travel, and settled in 1781
at Ludwigslust where he became leader of the court orchestra of
Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and his English wife, Sarah Stanton (1749-1798),
became a singer at that court. Because of the ill-health of the
Kapellmeister Antonio Rosetti, he had occasionally conducted the
orchestra by late 1791. After Rosetti's death in 1792 he took complete
charge, until in 1803, also for reasons of health, he was replaced by
the assistant Louis Massonneau. He remained active as leader of the
orchestra until his death. When sixty years of age, he came to England
where he was hailed in London as the greatest violinist of his time. As a
composer, he published several sets of sonatas, solos and duets as well
as arias, overtures and symphonies.
French harpsichordist and composer. She came from a family of master
masons and musicians. She emerged as a musical prodigy and made her
debut as a singer and harpsichordist at the court of Louis XIV,
apparently at quite a young age. At about age 15 she was taken into the
court as a musician and placed under the care of the king’s mistress,
Madame de Montespan. Jacquet left the regular service of the court in
1684 and that year married Marin de la Guerre, an accomplished Parisian
harpsichordist, organist, music teacher, and composer from a
well-established family of professional musicians. The fact that she
dedicated nearly all of her published works to the king, however,
indicates that she retained connections to the royal circle throughout
her career. With Marin she had one son who died at age 10, having shown
promise as a musician himself. Marin died in 1704. Jacquet de la
Guerre’s first published collection of compositions was the Pièces de
clavessin (1687; “Harpsichord Pieces”), noteworthy especially because
publication of harpsichord music was still rare in France in the 17th
century, even for male composers. The work consists entirely of sets of
dance pieces grouped by key, with each group preceded by an “unmeasured
prelude,” a genre notated mostly in whole notes to indicate that it does
not adhere to a strict metre and thus approximates improvisation.
Jacquet de la Guerre’s next published instrumental work, a two-volume
set that juxtaposed the French and Italian instrumental styles, did not
appear until 1707. The first part of the set, entitled Pièces de
clavecin qui peuvent se jouer sur le viollon (“Harpsichord Pieces That
May Be Played on the Violin”), again consists of dance pieces in the
French tradition. The other part, entitled Sonates pour le viollon et
pour le clavecin (“Sonatas for the Violin and for the Harpsichord”),
employs idiomatic string writing that shows influence from the Italian
instrumental style; these Italianate features include quick passagework,
harmonic sequences, and imitation between parts. As was typical in the
18th century, the accompanying harpsichordist played from only a bass
line, improvising the harmonies and melodic figures to suit the violin
line; this practice was called basso continuo. Jacquet de la Guerre is
known to have composed other sonatas for one or two violins and basso
continuo. Some of these may be dated to about 1695, while the
composition dates of the others remain unknown.
Maltese teacher and composer. He was sent to Naples in 1713 to study
music under Gaetano Greco at the Conservatorio dei Poveri di Gesù
Cristo. He was the first of many Maltese musicians sent by the Cathedral
Chapter to Naples, breaking the previous tradition of studying in
Palermo. Returning to Malta in 1717, he was appointed maestro di
cappella at Mdina Cathedral, a position he held for the rest of his
life. His extant compositions include a Missa brevis and the psalms
Beatus Vir and Nisi Dominus. His most notable student was Benigno
Zerafa, who also served as maestro di cappella at Mdina Cathedral from
1744 to 1804.
German organist and composer. In 1732, he began his studies of Law at
the University of Innsbruck, but dedicated himself entirely to music. By
1747, he held the position of parish organist at St. Jakob, which later
became the Innsbruck Cathedral, a position he retained until his death.
He established a reputation as skilled organist, music teacher and
composer. His extant works are mainly sacred, among them a Mass, several
Salve Regina, motets, as well as an orchestral partita and keyboard
pieces. He married Marie Elisabeth Störzinger (1723-1795). Their son,
Josef Benedikt Falk (1757-1828), might briefly have been seen as a minor
rival to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He was presented to Empress Maria
Theresa as a child prodigy and was allowed to perform for Emperor Franz
I. The meeting of Mozart and Falk (and their respective fathers) in 1769
in Innsbruck was undoubtedly an exciting occasion. Although Josef
Benedikt Falk embarked on successful concert tours in Italy and Germany,
he decided to join the clergy and was ordained a priest in 1780. After
the death of his father, he succeeded him as organist at St. Jakob,
Innsbruck.
Spanish composer. His birth date is estimated to be around 1737, based
on his ordination as a priest in 1762, the minimum age for which was 25.
Son of Gregorio Valenzuela and Ana Valdivia, the details of his youth
and musical training are scarce, though he likely received musical
instruction at the Collegiate Church of Alcalá la Real. On 4 June 1760,
after the death of Antonio González Guerrero, he was appointed chapel
master of the Collegiate Church of Olivares in a position he held for
the rest of his life. Valdivia's tenure was marked by both prolific
composition (over 200 works, primarily sacred, including 148 villancicos
and cantadas in Spanish, and 73 Latin works) and documented
indiscipline and frequent absences.
Bohemian composer. The son of a prosperous miller, and the elder of
identical twin brothers, he studied law and philosophy at Charles
University in Prague. By 1761 he had become a master miller but gave it
up to study music. His teachers were Franz Habermann and Josef Seger,
but in 1763 he obtained the patronage of the Waldstein family that
allowed him to travel to Venice to study with Giovanni Pescetti. His
first opera was produced in 1766 in Bergamo, but it was not until the
success of his 'Il Bellerofonte' in Naples the following year that he
was he commissioned by theatres throughout Italy. In 1771 he was
admitted into the Accademia Filarmonica of Bologna after befriending
Padre Martini. He made at least three trips to northern Europe after
establishing himself in Italy. The first, a triumphant return to Prague
in 1768, was probably occasioned by his mother’s death in 1767 and the
settlement of his father’s estate. His second trip, in 1772, may have
been intended to establish his reputation in Vienna. If so, the effort
clearly failed, but he did meet Charles Burney in September. Mysliveček
ventured north for the last time at the invitation of Maximilian III
Joseph, Elector of Bavaria, in 1777-78. While in Munich, he witnessed
successful productions of his opera 'Ezio' and his oratorio 'Isacco' and
sought surgical treatment for what is believed to have been venereal
disease, with the result that his nose was burnt off. On his return to
Italy in 1778, he enjoyed operatic successes in Naples and Venice, but
his final decline was signalled by the failure of both of the operas
that he prepared for Carnival 1780 ('Armida' for Milan and 'Medonte' for
Rome). He died in Rome, in abject poverty; his funeral at the church of
San Lorenzo in Lucina was paid for by a mysterious Englishman named
Barry, a former pupil. He was a versatile composer, whose music in
numerous genres influenced a generation of composers. His output include
26 operas, eight oratorios, 15 secular cantatas, 55 symphonies, 12
string quintets, 18 string quartets, three wind octets, 16 concertos, 17
violin sonatas, 20 string trios, and a host of smaller individual
works, including three notturnos. He was not a prolific composer of
sacred music. He was nicknamed 'Il Boemo' during the heyday of his
career, an appellation that was given him due to the popularity of his
operas, almost all of which are serious works. He had a firm grasp of
good lyrical melodies and progressive harmony.
Brazilian organist and composer. Son of the Afro-descendants Gabriel de
Castro Lobo (1763-1853) and Quitéria da Costa e Silva, he received music
lessons from his father and his uncle José de Castro Lobo (?-1782).
From 1811 to 1818 he was the Opera House conductor of Vila Rica and in
1812 he signed, with other colleagues, the request for the creation of
the Confraternity of Saint Cecilia of Vila Rica, the city where he was
working as musician until 1821. That year, he enrolled in the Seminary
of Boa Morte of Mariana where he was ordained deacon and later
presbyter. On 7 October 1825 he was appointed organist and chapel master
of the Mariana Cathedral, succeeding José Felipe Correa Lisboa. From
1826 to 1831 he also assumed the post of music director of the Third
Order of São Francisco de Mariana. As a composer, his extant output consists of 23
works, mostly sacred. His brothers Gabriel de Castro Lobo 'Filho'
(1798-1858) and Carlos de Castro Lobo (1803-1849) also pursued musical
careers, and when Carlos de Castro Lobo settled to Rio de Janeiro, he
had a prominent role, serving as organist of the Imperial Chapel of Rio
de Janeiro between 1830 and 1848.
Polish composer, teacher and conductor. He studied with his father,
Marcin Kurpiński, an organist, and in 1797 became organist in Sarnów. He
then was a violinist in the private orchestra of Feliks Polanowski at
his Moszków estate (1800-08), and subsequently music master to the
Rastawiecki family in Lemberg (1808-10). He settled in Warsaw, where he
became a theater violinist. He then was made deputy conductor of the
Opera, and also Kapellmeister of the Polish royal court (1819); was
principal conductor of the Opera (1824-40). He also taught music at the
schools of drama (1812, 1817) and voice (1835-40), which he founded. He
was founder & editor of the first Polish music journal, Tygodnik
Muzyczny (Music Weekly; 1820-21). His later life was given over mainly
to teaching, and by the time of his death he was largely forgotten. As
one of the leading Polish composers of his day, he helped to establish
the national Polish school. Although he composed in many genres,
Kurpiński's contribution was mainly to opera. Precisely, he wrote 26 of
them, including the operas 'Jadwiga królowa Polska' (Jadwiga, Queen of
Poland; Warsaw, 1814) and 'Zamek na Czorsztynce, czyli Bojomic i Wanda'
(The Castle of Czorsztyn, or Bojomic and Wanda; Warsaw, 1819). His other
works include several songs, secular cantatas, sacred pieces (6 Masses,
a Requiem, an Oratorio, a Te Deum, et al.), polonaises for orchestra, a
clarinet concerto, chamber music and piano pieces.
Danish pianist, organist, pedagogue and composer of German descent. He
studied with his grandfather, a cantor in Altona, and in 1789 went to
Copenhagen, where he studied with Johann Abraham Peter Schulz, and where
he remained the rest of his life. After establishing his reputation as a
pianist, he devoted himself to the organ. He was deputy organist
(1792-94) and principal organist (1794-1805) at the Reformed Church, and
then served as principal organist at the Cathedral from 1805 until his
death, winning great renown as a master of improvisation. He had an
unhappy love affair in 1801 and remained unmarried. In 1816 he was named
titular professor at the University and was awarded an honorary
doctorate in 1842, the year of his death. In 1819 he was appointed court
composer. Through the court conductor Friedrich Ludwig Aemilius Kunzen,
he became interested in a movement for the establishment of a national
school of Danish opera, for which his works (together with those of
Friedrich Kuhlau) effectively prepared the way. As a composer, he wrote
numerous singspiele, Christmas carols, a setting of the Te Deum and of
the Miserere, over 30 cantatas, and above all, lieder after poems by
Matthias Claudius, Johann Heinrich Voss and Ludwig Christoph Heinrich
Hölty. He also composed seven symphonies and numerous pieces for solo
piano. A conservative by nature, he was rooted in 18th-century musical
ideals, extending from Baroque to Classical but not beyond Mozart, and
he did not sympathize at all with the new trends in Beethoven's works.
He composed seven symphonies (1795-99) that demonstrate Joseph Haydn's
influence, some of which were partly re-used for overtures and
incidental music in his theatrical works. He remains best known for his
fine songs though.
Flemish composer. He was a chorister at St Lambert’s Cathedral in Liège
at the age of nine. After studies at the Conservatorio di Sant’Onofrio a
Porta Capuana in Naples, he performed some operas, with success, in
Turin (1779) and Florence (1780). In 1786 he accompanied Gertrude Mara
to London where he was hailed by the press and probably enjoyed the
protection of the Prince of Wales. By 1794 he settled in Paris and
during the height of the Reign of Terror, he began his Paris career,
which was to continue with mixed success. Some of his works saw over a
hundred performances at the Théâtre de la rue de Louvois. In 1797, after
this theatre ceased performances, he devoted himself to concert and
salon works, but later wrote many opéras comiques using different scenes
of Paris. In 1799 his opera 'Le rêve' stirred considerable controversy,
and rumors that his death was caused by intrigues related to this opera
cannot be discounted. As a composer, his output include at least 19
operas, two concertos, a symphony and symphonies concertantes, several
large hymns, and a number of smaller vocal works. His music reflects,
among others, the style of François-Joseph Gossec, being simple and
homophonic. Although, he was a highly versatile talent adapted easily to
all genres.
Venezuelan organist, teacher and composer. Son of the chapel master of
the Caracas cathedral, Alejandro Carreño, and Rosalía Rodríguez, he
received music lessons from his father and his uncle, the organist
Ambrosio Carreño. He later attended the school of Pedro Palacios y Sojo.
On 7 August 1789 he was appointed as second organist in Caracas
cathedral. On 3 June 1796 he was promoted to choirmaster there in a post
he held the rest of his life. As a composer, his extant music includes
two masses and ten motets for chorus with orchestra or organ
accompaniment, and the 'Pésame a la virgen', a sacred piece with a
Spanish text that was set by other colonial composers. He also wrote a
set of 'Cuatro canciones patrióticas para el 5 de julio de 1824'. His
music shows the influence of the European Classical style. With simple,
largely homophonic vocal textures and a moderate orchestral
accompaniment, he often achieves music of great dignity and expressive
power. In 1793 he married to María de Jesús Muñoz with whom had eight
children, among them the musicians and composers Juan de la Cruz
Carreño, Juan Bautista Carreño, Ciriaco Carreño and Manuel Antonio
Carreño (1812-1874), whose daughter was the pianist and composer Teresa
Carreño (1853-1917).
Bohemian composer. Very few details are known about his life. He is only
mentioned as a composer of the 18th century in the “Lexicon of
Biographical and Bibliographical Sources” by Robert Eitner (1903). Based
on recent studies it is now assumed that he belonged to the socalled
“bohemian musicians”, who came in the 18th century to the German courts
in the region of the middle Rhine. Adam Bernhard Gottron listed (1971)
among the immigrant courtmusicians who composed in Mainz, Nikolaus
Stulick, who died in that city in 1732. Among his extant works, two
symphonies, six concertos, several trios and sonatas, and a pastorella.
Austrian organist and composer. He was born as the son of a judicial
procurator in Reichenhall, on the Bavarian side of the border. From the
fact that at his death in 1684 it was mentioned that he was 55 years of
age, we can conclude that he was born in 1628 or 1629. He was educated
at the Benedictine University in Salzburg. There he probably received
music lessons from Abraham Megerle or the cathedral organist Marzellus
Isslinger. He also studied theology and was ordained priest in 1653. His
first musical position was that of organist at the Benedictine
monastery of St Lambrecht near Murnau in Styria. In 1654 he was
appointed vice-Kapellmeister at the court in Salzburg and in 1679 was
promoted to Kapellmeister. From 1666 until his death he was also
Kapellmeister at Salzburg Cathedral. As a composer, his output include 4
masses, 2 Magnificat settings, 2 Te Deum settings, 12 offertories, 5
Psalms and 3 litanies. His pieces for solo voice suggest the influence
of Monteverdi and other Italian composers who cultivated monodic music,
whereas some of his larger works reflect the so-called ‘colossal’ style,
as seen in the Missa Salisburgensis by Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber.
