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.
Spanish violinist, double bassist, and composer. After receiving his
studies in composition in Barcelona, he was appointed as a violinist at
Girona Cathedral, where his tenure spanned more than forty years.
Notably, he was the first lay musician to secure a permanent position
within the cathedral's musical chapel (capella de música), frequently
performing on both the violin and the double bass. His career was
severely disrupted in 1809 by the Siege of Girona during the Peninsular
War. As liturgical music was marginalized, lay musicians faced acute
financial hardship due to the chapter's inability to provide regular
stipends. Following the French occupation, he petitioned for readmission
in 1811; initially granted only charitable alms, he was formally
reinstated in December of that year under a severely diminished annual
salary of twenty pounds. Upon his retirement in 1826, the cathedral
chapter permitted his grandson, Carles Sipiera Quilmetes, to act as his
substitute, though the youth was denied a permanent chair owing to his
age. As a composer, he belonged to a prominent multi-generational
lineage of cathedral string players that also included his son, the
priest and long-standing chapel violinist Josep Quilmetes. While the
vast majority of his works are lost, his surviving output is
distinguished by a three-movement work, the Symphony No.1 (1804).
Italian composer and violinist. A student of Gaetano Pugnani, he moved
to London in 1769 at the behest of William Hamilton. A prominent
orchestral violinist, he was leader of the second violins at the Handel
Commemoration of 1784 and at the Professional Concert from 1785 until
1792. He composed ballet music for the Italian opera, was assistant
manager of O’Reilly’s opera company at the Pantheon in 1791 and, shortly
afterwards, married the prima donna Anna Casentini (fl. 1787-1796). The
bulk of his music was published during his lifetime and includes six
violin concertos, six symphonies-overtures, two ballets, 12 violin
sonatas (titled “solos”), nine duos for two violins, 12 duets, 64
cadenzas, and a sonata for viola d’amore. His music is representative of
the 'Empfindsamkeit style', with good contrast and lyrical motivic
lines. He was not related to Giovanni Battista Borghi (1738-1796).
Austrian composer, organist, music theorist, and instrument maker. The
son of a miller, bell founder, and instrument maker, he attended the
gymnasium in Hall in Tirol from 1824 to 1830 before entering the
Franciscan Order in Salzburg in 1829, where he took his simple vows in
1830, solemn profession in 1833, and was ordained a priest in 1834. He
pursued theological studies in Salzburg, Schwaz, and Bolzano until 1837,
subsequently serving as organist and choir director in Bolzano and
Innsbruck between 1837 and 1840. From 1840 onward, he resided at the
Franciscan monastery in Salzburg, where he also held the position of
master of novices. In addition to developing a harmonium and several
physharmonica variants, he constructed the Pansymphonikon in 1845, a
reed-based keyboard instrument designed to emulate a full orchestra that
drew widespread admiration from notable contemporary figures, including
Franz Lachner, Franz Liszt, and Richard Wagner. In his theoretical
treatise 'Metaphysische Blicke' he drew upon the traditions of
Jean-Philippe Rameau and Anton Reicha to argue that all music derives
from the tonic triad, a concept he termed the "primal harmony"
(Urharmonie) and associated with the Holy Trinity, alongside its
auxiliary harmonies, namely the dominant seventh and the subdominant
with an added sixth. As a composer, he adhered to the standard
Franciscan scoring for organ and choir, occasionally utilizing vocal
soloists; however, his orchestral style of organ accompaniment, rich
harmonic language, and unconventional text setting (characterized by
omissions and rearrangements) stood in stark contrast to the aesthetic
tenets of the Caecilian movement. Conversely, his virtuosic organ
performances, particularly his pedal technique, were highly acclaimed by
both Franz Liszt and Anton Bruckner.
German composer and theorist. He was the son of David Heinichen who,
after an education at Leipzig's Thomasschule and the university, moved
to Krössuln for a lifelong career as pastor. Johann David also attended
the Thomasschule Leipzig. There he studied music with Johann Schelle and
later received organ and harpsichord lessons with Johann Kuhnau. The
future composer Christoph Graupner was also a student of Kuhnau at the
time. Heinichen enrolled in 1702 to study law at the University of
Leipzig and in 1705-06 qualified as a lawyer (in the early 18th century
the law was a favored route for composers; Kuhnau, Graupner and Georg
Philipp Telemann were also lawyers). Heinichen practiced law in
Weissenfels until 1709. However, Heinichen maintained his interest in
music and was concurrently composing operas. In 1710, he published the
first edition of his major treatise on the thoroughbass. He went to
Italy and spent seven formative years there, mostly in Venice, with
great success with two operas, Mario and Le passioni per troppo amore
(1713). Mario was staged again in Hamburg in 1716 with the German title,
Calpurnia, oder die romische Grossmut. In 1712, he taught music to
Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen, who took him as composer. The same
prince would appoint Johann Sebastian Bach Kapellmeister at the end of
1717. In 1716, Heinichen met in Venice Prince Augustus III of Poland,
son of King Augustus II the Strong, and thanks to him was appointed the
Royal-Polish and Electoral-Saxon Kapellmeister in Dresden. His pupils
included Johann Georg Pisendel. In 1721, Heinichen married in
Weissenfels; the birth of his only child is recorded as January 1723. In
his final years, Heinichen's health suffered greatly; on the afternoon
of 16 July 1729, he was buried in the Johannes cemetery after finally
succumbing to tuberculosis.
Jacques-Martin Hotteterre (1673-1763)
- Suite en Re majeur des 'Première livre de Pieces pour la
flûte-traversiere, et autres instruments, avec la basse-continue ...
augmentée de plusieurs agréments, et d’une démonstration de la manière
qu’ils se doivent faire; ensemble une basse adjoutée aux pièces de deux
flûtes' (1708)
Performers: Frans Brüggen (1934-2014, flute); Wieland Kuijken (cello);
Gustav Leonhardt (1928-2012, harpsichord)
French composer. Son of Martin Hotteterre (c.1635-1712), he was the most
celebrated member of the family, and had a brilliant career as a
player, teacher and composer. In about 1704, he succeeded his cousin
Jacques Hotteterre in the post of basse de hautbois et taille de violon
at the royal court. Hotteterre lived and studied in Rome early in his
career, and his nickname le Romain (the Roman) came from this period. He
spent two years (1698-1700) employed by Prince Francesco Ruspoli in
Rome, before adopting the nickname of "Le Romain" at some point between
1705 and 1707. By 1708, he became a musician to the King of France, in
the king's 'Grande Écurie, and in 1717, he inherited René Pignon
Descoteaux's post as Jouëur de Fluste de la musique de chambre. He owed
his fame largely to his talent for playing the flute, an instrument for
which he wrote a number of pieces, significantly extending the repertory
for the instrument. In addition, he played the bassoon, oboe, and
musette. Hotteterre was also an internationally celebrated teacher to
aristocratic patrons. He wrote one method for the transverse flute,
recorder, and oboe, published in 1707, as well as a method for the
musette, published in 1737. His 'L'Art de préluder sur la flûte
traversière' was published in 1719. It was Europe's first flute manual
and was used widely. He died in Paris in 1763.
Italian cellist and composer. Born into a prominent family, he trained
on the violin and cello during his youth before establishing himself as a
sought-after musician in Modena by 1696, where he likely developed his
affinity for the French style. In 1704, he joined the Bavarian court
orchestra as a cellist. Following the Elector Maximilian II Emmanuel’s
defeat in the War of the Spanish Succession, he accompanied the exiled
court through the Netherlands and France, during which time he married
Marie Clémence Bultinck. Upon the court's return to Munich in 1715, his
loyalty was rewarded with appointments as Konzertmeister and electoral
councillor. His subsequent compositions increasingly integrated French
stylistic traits, and he became a central figure in Munich's musical
life, hosting early academic soirées. However, following Maximilian's
death in 1726, the successor Karl Albrecht favored a more contemporary
musical style, leading to Dall'Abaco's gradual marginalization. His
final published work, '12 Concerti à più istrumenti ... opera VI',
appeared in 1735, and he retired on a pension in 1740. His son
Joseph-Marie-Clément Dall'Abaco (1710-1805) was a cellist and composer.
André Raison (c.1640-1719)
- Messe du huictiesme ton des 'Livre d'orgue contenant cinq Messes
suffisantes pour tous les tons de l'Eglise ou quinze Magnificats pour
ceux qui n'ont pas besoin de messe avec des elevations toutes
particulieres. Ensuite des Benedictus : et une offerte en action de
grace pour l'heureuse convalescence du Roy en 1687. Laquelle se peut
aussi toucher sur le clavecin' (1688)
French organist, composer and teacher. He was educated at the seminary
of Ste Geneviève, Nanterre. From about 1665 he was organist at the royal
abbey of Ste Geneviève, Paris; later he became organist at the church
of the Jacobins (rue St Jacques). A tax register of 1695 places him in
the top rank of Parisian organists, along with François Couperin,
D’Anglebert, Gigault, Marchand and Grigny. He taught L.-N. Clérambault,
who dedicated his Premier Livre d’orgue (1710) to Raison. Raison’s Livre
d’orgue constitutes a major portion of the extant organ mass repertory.
The masses follow the usual pattern of short organ versets for
alternatim performance of the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus and Agnus Dei.
Genres used include the traditional plein jeu, duo, trio, récit, basse
de trompette, fugue and grands jeux. Raison made no use of a plainchant
cantus firmus, but this was not unusual. These organ masses were
intended for use in convents and monasteries that had their own
contemporary mass chants (messes musicales); hence, the lack of
plainchant made the book more versatile and enabled Raison to claim that
the five masses could also be used to form 15 Magnificat settings. His
Deuxième Livre d’orgue commemorates the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) with a
setting of the Da pacem; this is followed by a fugue on the same theme,
several preludes and fugues, an offertory and an overture. The remainder
of the volume consists of an allemande and many noëls with variations.
Raison’s music is characterized by rhythmic vitality, consistent use of
imitative counterpoint and imaginative use of registration, often
requiring the full resources of a four-manual French Baroque organ.
Since Raison designed his first Livre d’orgue to assist secluded
monastic musicians, its preface contains a wealth of valuable
information about performing practice. His advice about observing the
metre of each piece to determine which dance movement is implied is
often quoted; however, it should not be inferred that Raison used dance
rhythm more than his contemporaries, or that his music is unusually
‘secular’ in nature. The book contains detailed information on
registration, ornamentation, notes inégales and fingering. A striking
example of Raison’s didacticism and attention to detail is his early use
of the double dot in the French overture-style offertory. Raison’s
influence is clear in Clérambault’s organ works; further it seems that
J.S. Bach borrowed the theme of his ‘Christe: Trio en passacaille’
(Messe du deuxième ton) for his Passacaglia in C minor.
Sophia Maria Westenholz (1759-1838)
- Thème | avec | X VARIATIONS | pour le Piano=Forte | composées |
par | SOPHIE WESTENHOLZ. | Oeuvre II. | Chez Rodolphe Werckmeister | à
Berlin ... (1806)
German singer, pianist and composer. Born into a musical family, she was
the daughter of Ferdinand Fritscher (?-1764), the organist of
Neubrandenburg. At a young age, she received private piano and voice
lessons from Johann Wilhelm Hertel. In 1775, she secured a position in
the Schwerin court orchestra. Her professional and personal life
intertwined in 1777 when she married Carl August Friedrich Westenholz
(1736-1789), the Kapellmeister of the Mecklenburg-Schwerin court in
Ludwigslust. By 1779, she became an official member of that court,
serving as both a singer and pianist. Her dedication to her musical
career continued alongside her personal life, which included raising
eight children. Following the premature death of her husband in 1789,
she assumed a more central role in the court's musical life. She
remained an active participant in court and church music for over three
decades, until her retirement in 1821. During this period, she also held
the esteemed position of piano instructor to the daughters of Duke
Franz Friedrich I and Duchess Luise, further solidifying her influence
within the Mecklenburg-Schwerin court. By the 1780s, she had established
a regional reputation as a formidable pianist. Her virtuosic skill was
praised by contemporaries, including the composer Ernst Wilhelm Wolf,
who in 1782, enthusiastically described her as a "powerful female piano
player" whose style was reminiscent of "the great Bach in Hamburg." This
admiration was echoed by Carl Friedrich Cramer, who, in a review of six
sonatinas dedicated to her by Wolf, celebrated her as "a true student
of the only true, the Bachian style." Westenholz’s concert career
flourished, and between 1792 and 1804, she performed as both a pianist
and a glass harmonica player in major European cities such as Leipzig,
Copenhagen, Hamburg, Hanover, and Berlin. From 1803 to 1837, Louis
Massonneau, a violinist and later concertmaster in Ludwigslust, recorded
the court concerts of the court orchestra in the so-called
Ludwigsluster Diarium. This shows that Sophie Westenholz performed not
only piano works by Mozart, Haydn, Pleyel, and other contemporary
composers but also her own works. After her husband died in 1789 and his
successor, Antonio Rosetti, died in 1792, she conducted the court music
from the piano. The last performance by the musician in Ludwigslust is
dated on 3 March 1813; she and her son, the pianist and composer Carl
Ludwig Cornelius Westenholz (1788-1854), played a Mozart sonata for four
hands. As a composer, in 1806 she published several works for piano and
a collection of songs. The published Rondo (Op.1), Variations (Op.2),
and Sonata for Four Hands (Op.3) were met with controversial reviews.
Italian composer. Almost nothing is known about him before 1722, but in
Venice his teachers might have included Francesco Gasparini, Albinoni,
Vivaldi, Lotti, Alessandro Marcello or Benedetto Marcello. His father
Carlo Platti (c.1661-after 1727), a violetta player in the orchestra of
the basilica of S Marco, may also have taught him. While he was still in
Italy (until 1722), he probably saw the recently invented fortepiano
and a few of his keyboard solo sonatas and concertos might have been
composed for it instead of the harpsichord but this point is debatable.
In the chamber works (duets and trios) the harpsichord is clearly the
instrument required. No "piano" or "forte" indications are on Platti's
keyboard parts in his concertos for harpsichord and strings, though.
Also, the extension of at least one of these concertos asks for a D that
is beyond Cristofori's instrument's compass (4 octaves CC to c4). In
1722, he was called to Würzburg to work for the prince-bishop of Bamberg
and Würzburg, Johann Philipp Franz von Schönborn. There he married
Theresia Langprückner, a soprano singer with whom he had at least two
children. Platti spent the rest of his life in Würzburg, working as a
singer, instrument virtuoso, composer and conductor. His duties included
finding musicians for the court , as one can read in one of his
autograph letters that are available. His music consists of three
Masses, a Requiem, a Stabat mater, three cantatas, an offertory, 48
concertos (many lost), 22 trio sonatas, and 20 keyboard sonatas.
Flemish composer. It is likely that he received his first musical
training as a choirboy at St Rombouts Cathedral in Mechelen. He was
employed early on as an instructor to the children of the Genovese
banker Domenico Pinelli, in Naples. He then went to Rome, where he
published his first book of madrigals (1554), and from Rome to Antwerp
in 1554, and then to England, where he served as 'chorus praefectus' in
the private chapel of Philip II of Spain, the husband of the Queen, Mary
Tudor. In September 1555 he left England and went to Italy again; in
1567 he was in Rome. On 1 May 1568, he became Imperial Court
Kapellmeister to the Emperor Maximilian II in Vienna; he held this
position until his death, which occurred while the court was at Prague
during the summer of 1603. In 1572 he was appointed treasurer of Cambrai
Cathedral, and in 1577, also a canon (residence was not required for
either position there). He was greatly esteemed as a composer, numbering
among his works some 1,000 madrigals, about 40 masses (mostly in cantus
firmus, paraphrase and parody masses), and many other works of sacred
music. He was an important representative of the last generation of
great Flemish composers of the Renaissance, and was one of the major
composers of Italian madrigals.
František Xaver Pokorný (1729-1794) - Concerto (F-Dur). Corno Primo | Corno Secundo Principale | Violino
Primo | Violino 2do: | Flauto Primo | Flauto 2do | Viola | Basso d: 30
Juli Di Pokorni (c.1750)
Performers: Hermann Bаumаnn (horn); Christoph Kοhlеr (horn); Concerto
Amsterdam;
Bohemian composer and violinist. Son of a bureaucrat, he was sent to
Regensburg as a youth to study under Joseph Riepel. In 1750 he obtained a
post as violinist at the court of Oettingen-Wallerstein, and in 1753 he
was given leave to further his studies in Mannheim, where his teachers
included Johann Stamitz, Franz Xaver Richter, and Ignaz Holzbauer.
Returning to Wallerstein he was also employed at the Thurn und Taxis
court in Regensburg, commuting back and forth for several years before
being offered a permanent position in the latter city in 1769. He was
appointed as court chamber composer, though his relationship with the
Kapellmeister, Baron Theodor von Schacht was not smooth, resulting in
much of his music being deliberately misattributed to others after (and
possibly before) his death in 1794. As a composer, he was one of the
most prolific symphonists of the period, noted for his particular use of
the orchestra. His works in this genre are mostly four movement, and in
his numerous concertos he was able to exploit the technical
capabilities of the instrumental solos. His works include at least 145
symphonies (with as many as another 100 still of possible attribution),
65 concertos (including 45 for keyboard), numerous
serenades/divertimentos, three quartets, a piano quintet, three string
trios, and five trio sonatas. Much of his music remains to be explored,
primarily due to von Schacht’s intervention.
Gessel (18th Century)
- Dominica Laetare "Schmecket und sehet wie freundlich der Herr ist"
Performers: Ingrida Gapova (soprano); Jan Medrala (alto); Krzysztof
Kozarek (tenor); Jacek Ozimkowski (bass); Goldberg Baroque Ensemble;
Andrzej Mikołaj Szadejko (conductor)
Jan Engel (?-1788) - SINFONIA (Es-Dur) | A | Violini, Oboe, Corni, | Alto, e Basso. |
[by hand with black ink: "Due Clarinetti"] | DEDICATA | A SUA ECCELLENZA
| II Sig|r: Conte | PRZEZDZIECKI. ... ANNO 1772
Performers: Capella Claromontana; Jan Tomasz Adamus (conductor)
Polish composer, printer and music publisher. He served as Kapellmeister
at the Cathedral of St. John in Warsaw between 1771 and 1772, during
which time he established a printing press on Ulica Krzywe Koło that
remained operational until 1776. In 1772, he independently published six
of his own symphonies, issued separately with uniform title pages and
distributed through the Warsaw booksellers M. Gröll and J.A. Poser;
while extant copies of the first three symphonies are preserved in the
Pauline Monastery in Częstochowa, the remaining works are known
exclusively through contemporary Warsaw press announcements and entries
in the Breitkopf (Leipzig) catalogs spanning 1772, 1777, and 1785-1787.
The following year, he compiled and published a collection titled
'Mélanges de Musique pour le clavecin par Monsieur Engel', which notably
featured works by M. Kamieński alongside what were highly probable to
be his own compositions and those of other contemporaries, though this
publication was regrettably destroyed during World War II. In tandem
with advertising this collection, he offered for sale various
manuscripts and prints, including Masses, motets, arias, duets, and
oratorios, alongside a novel, proprietary "music printing machine of his
own invention" before resigning from his cathedral post on September 1,
1773. A subsequent notice in the Gazeta Warszawska, dated February 14,
1776, documented the relocation of his printworks to the Wędrychowska
tenement on ul. Kamienne Schodki and publicized the release of "new
Polish dances arranged for the harpsichord" as well as twelve
forthcoming pieces. Ultimately, given the scarcity of surviving
historical data, evidence suggests that Engel’s publishing endeavors
were sporadic, representing the pioneering, independent efforts of a
single individual.
Leopold Strach (1699-1755)
- Missa Solemnis (c.1730)
Performers: Mieke van der Sluis (sopran); Bernhard Landauer (alt);
Wilfried Jochens (tenor); Wolf Matthias Friedrich (bass); Kammerchor des
Ferdinandeums; Concerto Armonico Budapest; Josef Wetzinger (conductor)
Bohemian composer and church musician. His early life and training
remain unknown. Born in Kolín, his documented career began in 1727 when
he was employed as a bassist and court composer under the Prince-Bishop
of Brixen. By 1728, he provisionally assumed the duties of
Vice-Kapellmeister for Prince-Bishop Kaspar Ignaz von Künigl, a
leadership position over the court and cathedral choir (Hof- und
Domkapellmeister) that he officially secured in 1730 and held for the
rest of his life. Strach was a prolific creator of sacred music, much of
which was performed at the Stams Abbey (Abbatia B. M. V. et Sancti
Ioannis Baptistae), but he also composed secular theatrical music for
the Brixen Gymnasium, including Conradinus (1737) and Genovefa (1739).
Following his death in Brixen in June 1755, he left behind an extensive
library of roughly 3,000 sheets of usable musical material, which the
cathedral chapter purchased from his widow for 100 florins on the advice
of his successor, Simon Judas Thaddäus Mayr.
Italian composer and violinist. Referred himself as Roman, he came from a
family of musicians active in Rome. His father, Bartolomeo Mossi, and
brother Giuseppe Mossi, and Gaetano Mossi, a tenor at the papal chapel.
Introduced into the musical circles of Rome by his father, he was active
as a violinist from 1694. His career there can be divided into three
periods. An initial phase as an instrumentalist for local courts and
churches, a highly productive middle period (1716-1733) during which he
published his entire instrumental catalogue in Amsterdam (comprising
three sets of sonatas and three of concertos), and a final phase of
gradual retirement. Though he briefly served Baldassarre Odescalchi,
Duke of Bracciano, his compositions, consisting of solo sonatas and
orchestral concertos, remain firmly rooted in the Roman tradition of
employing four violin parts, while increasingly favoring the first
violin as a soloist. Furthermore, while the long-standing claim that he
was a pupil of Arcangello Corelli lacks documentary proof, Corelli's
influence on his work is undeniable, even though Mossi maintained a
distinct originality and stylistic independence that aligned closely
with his contemporary, Giuseppe Valentini.
German organist and composer. The youngest son of a smith, after study
at the Jesuit Gymnasium in Ellwangen, he obtained his only position, the
organist and schoolmaster (later choirmaster and Kantor) at the parish
church of St Maria, which he retained for over 40 years. After the
secularization of the foundation in 1802-03, he remained in his post as
organist and Kapellmeister. As a composer, his works include 24 sonatas
for organ, chamber sonatas, six Requiems, 24 vesper Psalms, six Tantum
ergos, 26 Masses (six published as “simple country Masses” as his Op.
2), six symphonies, three Marian antiphons, and six Misereres. His
music, little studied, is characterized by a studied simplicity and
nearby to Michael Haydn on style terms. He was one of the most
successful composers of sacred music of his time. His music was
distributed throughout Europe, Russia and North America. His sons,
Heinrich Dreyer and Johann Baptiste Dreyer, were also musicians.
German composer. Son of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) and Anna
Magdalena Bach (1701-1760), he was known as the ‘Bückeburg Bach’. He
received his musical education from his father and his cousin Johann
Elias Bach (1705-1755) at the Thomasschule. After leaving the
Thomasschule, he is thought to have studied law briefly, but there is no
record of his matriculation at Leipzig University. In 1750, upon the
death of his father, he was offered a position as harpsichordist with
Count Wilhelm von Schaumberg-Lippe in Bückeburg. In 1759 he was elevated
to concertmaster, a position he retained for the remainder of his life.
He did not travel, save for a visit to his youngest brother, Johann
Christian Bach (1735-1782), in London in 1778, preferring the calm
surroundings of his small town. He was able to create music that was
different from his brothers, thanks both to the intellectual stimulus of
people such as Johann Gottfried Herder and his patron’s penchant for
Italian music. His son, Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst Bach (1759-1845), was
trained in this environment, becoming the third direct generation of the
family of Johann Sebastian to pursue a career in music. The arrival in
Bückeburg about 1793 of the Bohemian musician Franz Neubauer presented
Bach with unaccustomed competition in the last years of his life. It
inspired him to write new works (including a dozen large-scale
symphonies and several double concertos) but it also intensified the
latent depression from which he had been suffering since the death of
his half-brother Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788) and which may
have hastened the course of the chest ailment that brought about his
death on 26 January 1795. In his obituary his friend Karl Gottlieb
Horstig, superintendent at Bückeburg from 1793, described him as an
industrious composer, always ready to be of service, and praised his
upright character and ‘kindness of heart’. As a composer, his music,
cataloged by Hansdieter Wolfarth (and using BR numbers), includes eight
oratorios, a Miserere, nine sacred cantatas, 55 secular cantatas, odes,
or other similar works, 79 Lieder, 28 symphonies, 16 piano concertos,
three sinfonia concertantes (titled “concerto grosso” by Bach himself), a
septet, six flute quartets and six string quartets, 13 trio sonatas,
six piano trios, 22 sonatas (for flute, violin, or cello), 43 keyboard
sonatas, and around 92 miscellaneous pieces for the keyboard. He was
known for his ability to imbue drama into his works, particularly the
oratorios, as well as his adherence to sonata principles and a
progressive sense of harmony and orchestral color. Although much of his
music did not survive the Second World War, what is left demonstrates
that he was as innovative in his own way as his siblings. Among the
better known of his pupils, in addition to his son Wilhelm Friedrich
Ernst, were the future Thomaskantor August Eberhard Müller and perhaps
Adolf, Baron von Knigge. For teaching purposes he wrote a number of
pedagogically valuable keyboard works, including the 'Sechs leichte
Clavier-Sonaten', variations, concertos and sonatas for four hands.
Spanish composer. Born in Catalonia, he was trained as a choirboy at the
Cathedral of Sigüenza before moving to Madrid, where by 1707 he worked
as a composer and instructor for the Royal Chapel. After briefly
returning to Sigüenza as maestro de capilla following a competitive
examination (oposición), he was appointed maestro de capilla at the
royal monastery of Las Descalzas Reales in Madrid in 1711, working
alongside organist José de Nebra. In the musicological field, he
participated in the 'Valls controversy', writing a text that defended
Francisco Valls's use of an unprepared dissonance in the Missa Scala
Aretina. His surviving works, which include masses, villancicos, and
pastorelas, are preserved in Spanish archives such as Montserrat, El
Escorial, and the Sanctuary of Arantzazu, with some manuscript copies
dating up to 1751.
Bohemian composer, violinist and teacher. He received his early
schooling in Německý Brod, though his first musical instruction
doubtless came from his father. From 1728 to 1734 he attended the Jesuit
Gymnasium in Jihlava; the Jesuits of Bohemia, whose pupils included the
foremost musicians in Europe, maintained high standards of musical
education during this period. Stamitz is known to have spent the
following academic year, 1734-35, at Prague University. His activities
during the next six years, however, remain a mystery. It seems logical
to assume that his decision to leave the university was prompted by a
desire to establish himself as a violin virtuoso, a goal that could be
pursued in Prague, Vienna or countless other centres. The precise
circumstances surrounding Stamitz’s engagement by the Mannheim court are
unclear. The date of his appointment was probably 1741, for he remarked
in a letter of 29 February 1748 to Baron von Wallbrunn in Stuttgart
that he was in his eighth year of service to the elector. The most
likely hypothesis is perhaps that Stamitz’s engagement resulted from
contacts made late in 1741 during the Bohemian campaign and coronation
in Prague of the Bavarian Elector Carl Albert (later Carl VII), one of
whose closest allies was the Elector Palatine. In January 1742 Stamitz
no doubt performed at Mannheim as part of the festivities surrounding
the marriage of Carl Theodor. At Mannheim Stamitz advanced rapidly: in
1743, when he was first violinist at the court, he was granted an
increase in salary of 200 gulden; in payment lists from 1744 and 1745
his salary is given as 900 gulden, the highest of any instrumentalist at
Mannheim; in 1745 or early 1746 he was awarded the title of
Konzertmeister; and in 1750 he was appointed to the newly created post
of director of instrumental music.
The latter promotion came almost two years after the offer of a position
at the court of Duke Carl Eugen in Stuttgart with an annual salary of
1500 gulden, an offer that the Elector Palatine probably saw fit to
match, as Stamitz remained in Mannheim. In court almanacs for 1751 and
1752 Stamitz is also listed as one of the two Kapellmeisters, but after
the arrival of Ignaz Holzbauer in 1753 he appears as director of
instrumental music alone. Stamitz’s principal responsibilities at court
were the composition and performance of orchestral and chamber music,
although he seems also to have composed some sacred music for the court
chapel. As leader of the band and conductor Stamitz developed the
Mannheim orchestra into the most renowned ensemble of the time, famous
for its precision and its ability to render novel dynamic effects.
Stamitz was also influential as a teacher; in addition to his sons Carl
and Anton, he taught such outstanding violinists and composers as
Christian Cannabich, the Toeschi brothers, Ignaz Fränzl and Wilhelm
Cramer. In 1744 Stamitz married Maria Antonia Lüneborn. They had five
children: the composers Carl and Anton, a daughter Maria Francisca
(1746-1799) and two children who died in infancy. In 1749 Stamitz and
his wife journeyed to Německý Brod to attend the installation of
Stamitz’s younger brother Antonín Tadeáš as dean of the Dean’s church.
In February 1750, while the family was still in Bohemia, Stamitz’s
brother Václav Jan or Wenzel Johann (1724-after 1771), also a musician,
was in Mannheim. Johann Stamitz returned to Mannheim in March 1750, but
his wife remained temporarily in Německý Brod, where Anton Stamitz was
born on 27 November 1750. Probably in late summer 1754 Stamitz undertook
a year-long journey to Paris, appearing there for the first time at the
Concert Spirituel on 8 September 1754. He presumably returned to
Mannheim in autumn 1755, dying there less than two years later at the
age of 39.
German organist and composer. He first learnt music with his grandfather
Johann Michael Agthe, Kantor at the Rathsschule, and his great-uncle
Andreas Agthe, a local organist; he later continued his musical studies
as a choirboy and as a member of the local Stadtpfeiferei. From 1776 to
1782 he was director of music with the Hündelberg theatrical company in
Reval (now Tallinn), where he composed his first Singspiele 'Martin
Velten' (1778). He then moved to Ballenstedt to join the court orchestra
of Prince Friedrich Albrecht of Anhalt-Bernburg as an organist and
harpsichordist. There he became known as one of the best organists of
his time and, after further studies with Friedrich Wilhelm Rust, as an
active composer of Singspiele, songs and instrumental pieces. His
best-known work is a setting of August Friedrich Ferdinand von
Kotzebue’s 'Der Spiegelritter' (1795), which was first performed by an
amateur society in Ballenstedt and several times revived. He also left
11 symphonies, two concertos, and 14 Dances. His son Albrecht Wilhelm
Johann Agthe (1790-1873) was a pianist, teacher and composer.
Italian composer. He was taken by his father at an early age to Naples,
where he studied violin under Nicola Fiorenza and composition under
Francesco Durante at the Conservatorio Santa Maria di Loreto. In 1756 he
composed his first opera, Fra Donato, which launched his career as a
composer of opera in Italy. Although he served for several years as an
assistant maestro di cappella at the conservatory, he abandoned his
teaching profession by 1763 to concentrate on commissions from
throughout the country, eventually establishing a reputation as a
dramatic and talented composer. In 1768 while in Venice he became
director of the Conservatorio dell’Ospedaletto, teaching singing to
students such as Nancy Storace. In 1772 he moved to London, where he
obtained a great success with his operas but was known for a dissolute
lifestyle. This forced Sacchini to travel to Paris in 1781, where he was
caught in the middle of the feud between Niccolò Piccinni and Christoph
Willibald von Gluck, both of whose partisans condemned him as a member
of the other’s faction. In 1786 he produced his most enduring work,
Oedip à Colonne, at the request of Marie Antoinette, but his early death
from his lifestyle and acute gout prevented him from realizing its
success. As a composer, Sacchini was known for his dramatic musical
style, particularly in serious opera. He was able to move fluidly
between both the Italian and French styles, often using varied forms and
progressive harmonic structures. His works include 47 operas, seven
oratorios, two symphonies, six string quartets, six trio sonatas, and 12
violin sonatas or lessons, in addition to numerous insertion arias,
Masses, motets, Psalms, and other sacred works.
Spanish teacher and composer. The eldest son of Francesc Viola's third
marriage, his mother's name was Maria Rosa Valentí. He trained at the
Escolania de Montserrat under Benet Julià and Josep Antoni Martí. On 20
March 1756, he began his novitiate at the Monastery of Montserrat, where
he took his vows in 1757. He then moved to Madrid, where he completed
his ecclesiastical and musical studies at the Church of Nuestra Señora
de Montserrat, coming under the influence of José de Nebra. He also
premiered many of his works there, achieving great success at the royal
chapel. Upon returning to Montserrat in 1768, he was appointed master of
the Escolania, teaching renowned students such as Fernando Sor, who
wrote memoirs detailing the life of his master Anselm Viola, and master
of the music chapel, positions he held until his death. As a composer,
he wrote instrumental works, sonatas, and other pieces for keyboard
instruments, as well as a classical-style concerto for bassoon and
orchestra. He composed two masses for voices and orchestra, two
Magnificats for six and seven voices (the second with basso continuo),
'Tèrcia i Completes' (both for seven voices with accompaniment), and a
Lamentation for alto and orchestra.
Italian priest and composer. He was initially educated in Trento and
Innsbruck in philosophical and humanistic subjects appropriate to the
clerical vocation he was to follow. In 1691 he was admitted to the
Collegium Germanicum in Rome, where he studied theology. While in Rome,
he also studied composition under the guidance of Giuseppe Ottavio
Pitoni and possibly violin (not documented) with Arcangelo Corelli.
Bonporti returned to Trent ordained as a priest and obtained a minor
office in the cathedral in 1697. There he published his first opus, a
set of ten trio sonatas and where on the title-page he called himself
‘gentiluomo di Trento’. He moved to Padua in 1740, lodging in the house
of a fellow priest. A final appeal to Empress Maria Theresa in 1746, in
which op.12 was enlisted, proved fruitless. He died three years later
and was buried in Padua. Bonporti regarded himself as primarily a priest
rather than a composer. His output consists in twelve opus, and the
foremost of them is his 'Concerti a quattro', Op.11 (c.1715). Such as
many italian composers of his time, he based his musical language on
Corelli.
Joseph Bologne de Saint-George (1744-1799)
- Symphonie concertante des 'Second œuvre de | deux | symphonies |
concertantes | Pour deux Violons principaux, | deux Violons ripieno,
Alto et Basse, | deux Hautbois et deux Cors, | ad Libitum ... Oeuvre IX'
(1777)
Performers: Miroslav Vilimec (violin); Radio Symphony Orchestra Pilsen; Frantisek Preisler (conductor)
Caribbean composer, violinist, swordsman, equestrian and military
commander. Son of a manumitted African mother and French plantation
owner (his last name was apparently taken from one of the plantations
his father owned), he grew up in the vicinity of Basse-Terre. His family
went to France in 1747 to escape difficulties with the law but returned
to Guadeloupe a few years later. In 1753 they moved permanently, first
to Bordeaux then to Paris, where he underwent his earliest musical
education, probably under Antonio Lolli and a few years later
François-Joseph Gossec. In 1769 he became a violinist in the Concerts
des amateurs, later becoming its director. During this time, beginning
with his debut as a soloist in 1772, he became famous for his technical
proficiency on his instruments, earning the epithet as the finest
violinist of the age. A proposal to make him musical director of the
Opéra in 1776 was blocked by four singers who refused to work with a
“mulatto.” In 1781 he founded the Loge Olympique orchestra sponsored by
one of Paris’s largest masonic lodges; he conducted the premieres of
Haydn’s so-called Paris symphonies, which he had helped commission. In
1787 he traveled to London, where his prowess as a violinist and
swordsman were thought legendary. A supporter of the Revolution, he was
given command of troops from France’s colonial domains in 1792, but a
year later he was denounced and spent 18 months in prison.
Disillusioned, he sailed to Hispanola to participate in the newly
independent Haiti of Toussant l’Ouverture. There the corruption and poor
living standards further eroded his health and state of mind. He
returned to Paris to conduct the Cercle d’harmonie orchestra, but was
unable to escape poverty. During his lifetime, Saint-Georges was a
remarkable bon vivant who freely interacted in the upper circles of
Parisian society. His music was known for its tunefulness and technical
brilliance, using devices such as bariolage that were extremely
uncommon. His 1778 opera 'Le partie du chasse' was well received. In all
he wrote six operas, 13 violin concertos, 10 sinfonia concertantes, a
bassoon concerto, two symphonies, nine violin sonatas, 18 string
quartets, and several other smaller pieces. His multifaceted personality
has been the subject of both literature (six novels) and a motion
picture. He is reckoned as one of the greatest Afro-Caribbean musicians
of the period.
German composer and conductor. He was the first child of the composer
Carl Ernst Daniel Nicolai (1785-1854) and his wife Christiane Lauber.
Because of his mother’s physical and mental illness, the marriage was
dissolved a few months after Nicolai’s birth. He grew up in the care of
foster-parents until 1820, when his father took on responsibility for
his education. He studied piano at home, and in 1827 went to Berlin,
where he took lessons in theory with Carl Friedrich Zelter. He also took
courses with Bernhard Klein at the Royal Institute for Church Music. On
13 April 1833, he made his concert debut in Berlin as a pianist,
singer, and composer. He then was engaged as organist to the embassy
chapel in Rome by the Prussian ambassador, Christian Charles Josias von
Bunsen. While in Italy, he also studied counterpoint with Giuseppe
Baini. In 1837 he proceeded to Vienna, where he became a singing teacher
and Kapellmeister at the Karnthnertortheater. In 1838 he returned to
Italy where he presented in Trieste his first opera, 'Rosmonda
d'Inghilterra'. In late summer 1841 he was appointed principal conductor
of the Hofoper at the Kärntnertor, and was able to concentrate on the
operas of Mozart and Beethoven, which he particularly admired. Required
by contract to compose German operas, he provided his first original
German opera, 'Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor'. In summer 1844 he
undertook a long journey via Prague, Dresden, Leipzig and Berlin to
Königsberg, where he performed the 'Kirchliche Fest-Ouvertüre' which he
had dedicated to his native town, as part of the festival to celebrate
the 300th anniversary of the university. King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of
Prussia was so impressed that he tried to tempt him to Berlin; Nicolai,
however, did not at first respond to the offer. October 1847 saw him
installed as Kapellmeister at the Königliches Opernhaus in Berlin and,
as Mendelssohn’s successor, artistic director of the cathedral choir.
Wishing to reform Prussian church services, he immediately began to
compose a series of large-scale religious works. Soon afterwards he
joined the Tonkünstlerverband, a society concerned with the
reorganization of Prussian musical life; 'Die lustigen Weiber'
eventually received its première, without huge success, on 9 March 1849.
Two months later, Nicolai died. On the same day he was elected a member
of the Akademie der Künste, but too late to receive the news.
Austrian composer and organist. Almost nothing is known about his youth
until he was documented as organist at the Benedictine abbey of Göttweig
in 1736, a post he held until 1746. That year he was appointed choral
director of St Veit, Krems an der Donau (1746-1753) while he was
studying philosophy and theology. In 1752 he was ordained priest and a
year later he was appointed to the charge of the Chapel of All Saints at
Stein an der Donau, in a post he held the rest of his life. As a
composer, he show the influence of his fellows Johann Joseph Fux and
Antonio Caldara, both active in Vienna, but evolving to early Classical
style in his later works. Despite he focused on sacred music, among
them, masses (the foremost was his Große Orgelmesse in C, 1761),
requiems, and many liturgical pieces, he also wrote instrumental music
very close to Georg Christoph Wagenseil and Georg Matthias Monn on style
terms.
