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.
French organist and composer. He was organist of the collegiate church
of Saint Quentin from 1703 to 1710, and then of Laon Cathedral until
1719 when, weary of the chapter’s insistence on the letter of his
contract, he gave up his career as a professional musician and became a
civil servant. His only extant work is a Livre d’orgue contenant une
suite du premier ton (1708), dedicated to the chapter of Saint Quentin.
Another Livre d’orgue, presented to the chapter of Laon Cathedral in
1712, has never been traced. The extant Livre d’orgue contains eight
short pieces: Plein jeu, Fugue, Trio, Tierce en taille, Basse de
Trompette, Récit, Duo and Grand jeu. In his dedication, Dumage describes
these as his first compositions and says that he modelled them on the
examples of the renowned Louis Marchand, his former teacher. The pieces
are entirely representative of French organ music around 1700 in their
increasing emphasis on exterior expression and elegance, a tendency
which reached its musically most convincing statement in the Livre
d’orgue of Louis-Nicolas Clérambault of 1710.
German composer and organist. The eldest son of Johann Sebastian Bach,
he received his earliest musical training from his father, later
enrolling in the Thomasschule in Leipzig. In 1726 he was sent to
Merseburg to study violin under Johann Gottlieb Graun, returning in 1729
to enroll in Leipzig University. There he studied mathematics, but in
1733 he was appointed organist at the Sophiakirche in Dresden. In 1746
he was appointed as organist at the Liebfraukirche in the Pietist city
of Halle. Unfortunately, his relations with the town fathers and his
cantor Georg Mittag were problematic, and he began to apply for other
posts throughout Germany without success, although he was allowed in
1762 to style himself as Kapellmeister to the court of Hessen-Darmstadt
even though he did not obtain the position. In 1764 he simply quit his
position and began to support himself through private teaching,
eventually leaving for Braunschweig in 1770 and subsequently for Berlin
four years later. There, he continued to teach even though he was
initially welcomed at the court of Anna Amalia, the sister of Frederick
II of Prussia. His last years were spent in extreme poverty exacerbated
by alcoholism. Although active as a composer, his reputation during his
lifetime was primarily for his keyboard improvisation, no doubt due in
part to the rigorous training provided by his father.
His music, however, is often characterized by a mixture of older styles
(also inherited from his father) and a sense of harmonic and formal
experimentation that often created extreme contrast and jarring
dissonances. Not surprisingly, some of his earlier compositions were so
close in style to those of his father that they were misattributed. He
was a good teacher; his students include his brother Carl Philipp
Emanuel Bach, Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, and Johann Nikolaus Forkel, with
whom he also collaborated on that author’s biography of Johann
Sebastian Bach. His music, cataloged according to F (Falck) or BR
numbers, consists of 32 cantatas (two secular); an opera, Lausus und
Lydie; two Masses and several Mass movements; a German Te Deum; several
other smaller sacred settings; 15 keyboard sonatas; 18 works for musical
clockwork; around 40 polonaises; 10 keyboard fantasies; some 40 or so
miscellaneous works for the keyboard; 11 fugues/canons; three sonatas
for two keyboards (one titled “concerto”); eight symphonies; seven
concertos (five for keyboard, and one each for flute and two
harpsichords); a sextet; nine flute duets; three viola duets; and five
trio sonatas. The famous portrait by Wilhelm Weitsch is now known to
portray his cousin.
Italian cellist and composer. The dedication of his six trios for two
violins and bass (London, 1765) shows that he had given the Duke of
York, the dedicatee, music lessons in Italy (the duke had been in Italy
from late November 1763 to mid-1764). By 1767, the year of the duke’s
death, he had entered his service as maestro di musica, as shown by the
title-page of his trio sonatas op.2. He then apparently took up
residence in The Hague as a music master. He was still there in 1788,
according to the place and date of a manuscript Quartetto concertante
(in D-Bsb). He had a reputation among his contemporaries as a virtuoso
and he toured Germany in 1771, playing in Danzig and, on 22 September,
in Frankfurt. According to Mendel, he made another concert tour of
Germany in 1781 (though this may be an error for 1771). Zappa’s writing
is lyrical, but tends towards a seriousness of manner in which the
galant elements are tempered by a Classical dignity. His works with
obbligato cello demonstrate an easy familiarity with thumb position
fingerings, slurred staccato bowings and idiomatic string crossing
patterns.
Austrian organist and composer. He was born in Spital am Pyhrn as the
son of a collegiate conductor and received his first music lessons from
his father. From 1734 to 1737 he worked as an organist in the
Benedictine monastery Seitenstetten and then took over the post of
organist and choirmaster in the Augustinian canons in St. Pölten, which
was later repealed under Joseph II. Occasionally, he also was
commissioned by the Piarists. As a composer, he wrote at least 22
masses, three requiems, numerous smaller church pieces, ballets,
symphonies, divertimenti as well as a harpsichord concerto and keyboard
parthien.
German composer of international stature. Although little is known about
his youth, Gluck reported that he came from a musical family; his
father, a forester, was adept at various instruments. In 1731 he
attended Prague University studying logic and mathematics before moving
to Italy to study music under Giovanni Battista Sammartini in Milan. His
first opera, Artaserse, was performed there in 1741, followed by
Demetrio in Venice a year later. Thereafter, he composed works
throughout Italy before moving to London in 1746. Despite disparaging
remarks by George Frederick Handel, he achieved some success there, and
joined the Mingotti troupe as their Kapellmeister. He toured with them
for several years until 1750, when he married the daughter of a wealthy
Viennese merchant, thus allowing him economic stability. He then began
to write operas for both Prague and Vienna, the latter beginning in 1754
with Le cinesi. In 1756 he was invested as a Knight of the Golden Spur
by Pope Benedict XIV, thus allowing himself to be known by the title
Chevalier von Gluck. By 1758 he had turned toward the opéra comique,
beginning with La fausse esclave. During this period he also became
acquainted with the director of the opera, Count Giacomo Durazzo,
choreographers Gasparo Angiolini and Franz Hilverding, as well as
librettist Raniero Calzabigi. Discussions on the dramatic ballet led to
the 1761 premiere of Don Juan, followed the next year by the opera Orfeo
ed Euridice, leading to an important work, Alceste, of 1767, which
contains a seminal preface describing the concept of opera reform. In
1774 Gluck was called to Paris around the same time as he was named
hofKapellmeister in Vienna. Here he produced a series of operas ranging
from French revisions of his Viennese works to original pieces such as
Iphigénie en Aulide and Armide. This led to the revival of the French
opera, as well as a controversy when the Théâtre Italien brought
Neapolitan composer Niccolò Piccinni to Paris to foment a rivalry
similar to the Querelle des bouffons two decades earlier. In 1779 Gluck
returned to Vienna following a stroke that occurred during his final
opera, Écho et Narcisse. A German opera, Hunnenschlacht, remained
fragmentary, and a further Parisian commission, Les Danïades, was given
over to Gluck’s pupil Antonio Salieri. Gluck wrote over 50 operas,
ranging from opera seria to opéra comique, as well as numerous additions
to pasticcios, at least 40 ballets, ranging from divertissements to
ballets d’action, 12 Lieder, nine symphonies, eight trio sonatas, four
Psalms/sacred works, and a number of miscellaneous works. Gluck can be
considered a seminal figure in the development and reform of opera in
the Classical period. His influence ranged from Italy to Scandinavia and
from Russia to France; moreover, he wrote in virtually all of the
styles of opera of the period, as well as being a major contributor to
the development of the 18th-century ballet. Of particular note is his
ability to orchestrate his operas, using timbre effectively to create
dramatic moments. His works bear Wq (Wotquenne) numbers.
