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, active in Spain. A priest, he was apparently maestro
di cappella at Bergamo Cathedral when he was appointed to the equivalent
post at Santiago di Compostela in 1769. Besides numerous sacred works,
he wrote at least two operas, De las glorias de España, la de Santiago
es la mejor (1773) and La birba (1774). Nothing survives of the first, a
kind of oratorio or ‘poema sacromelodramático’ to a libretto by Amo y
García de Lois. La birba, in three acts, was composed for the feast of
St James the Apostle, and from surviving parts it was evidently a comic
opera, possibly the first ever performed in Santiago. The many arias and
eloquent duets are particularly brilliant and carry the whole action;
the few recitatives that survive are unusually elaborate for the time.
German composer and violinist, son of Alessandro Toeschi (before
1700-1758) by his second marriage. A pupil of Johann Stamitz and Anton
Fils, he soon became a good concert violinist, and from 1752 was a
member of the Mannheim court orchestra. In 1759 he became Konzertmeister
and in 1774 music director of the electoral cabinet. During these years
he directed performances of opera and ballet and frequently travelled
to Paris, where from 1760 most of his instrumental works appeared in
print, and where until 1783 his works were frequently performed at the
Concert Spirituel. In 1778 he chose to follow the Elector Carl Theodor
to Munich, as did most of the Mannheim orchestra. His French wife
Susanna (née Nayer), in Gerber’s estimation an outstanding singer, was a
member of the Munich court opera until 1802. As the composer of more
than 66 symphonies, about 30 ballets and numerous chamber works, Toeschi
is one of the foremost representatives of the second generation of the
Mannheim school. His style was based primarily on the works of Stamitz
and Fils, but also on Italian models such as Pergolesi and Jommelli.
After unconvincing early attempts in a severe Baroque-like style, and
other superficial efforts in the manner of Fils, in the 1760s he was
able to develop a personal style which, through the influence of the
French opéra comique, was distinguished by singable melodies and clarity
of form and instrumentation. His symphonies of this period are
noteworthy for their frequent passages of imitation and for their fusion
of single-motif and dualistic sonata form principles. By 1770 he was
regarded in Paris, along with Cannabich, as one of the leading German
symphonists; many striking characteristics of Mozart’s Paris Symphony
(k297/300a) resemble Toeschi’s symphonic style of the 1770s, of which
the Symphony in D (published 1773; in Riemann, 1902: thematic catalogue,
D major, no.11) is a particularly good example. He was no less highly
regarded as a composer of ballets, to which his style was particularly
well suited. With his quatuors dialogués (1762–6) Toeschi also played an
important role in the differentiation of instrumental roles in chamber
music, and his flute compositions, praised by his contemporary Junker as
‘epoch-making’, are among the earliest works for this instrument to
depart from Baroque style.
German lutenist. He was the son of Johann Christian Falckenhagen, a
schoolmaster. When he was ten he went to live for eight years with his
uncle Johann Gottlob Erlmann, a pastor in Knauthain near Leipzig. There
he underwent training ‘in literis et musicis’, particularly the
harpsichord and, later, the lute. He then perfected his lute playing
with Johann Jacob Graf in Merseburg, where in 1715 he is mentioned as a
footman and musician in the service of the young Count Carl Heinrich von
Dieskau. In the winter term of 1719 he entered Leipzig University; a
year later he went to Weissenfels, where he remained for seven years as a
lute teacher. From about 1724 he was also employed as a chamber
musician and lutenist at the court of Duke Christian, where his presence
is documented for 1726, together with that of his wife, the singer
Johanna Aemilia. During this time he undertook various tours and enjoyed
several months’ instruction from the famous lutenist Silvius Leopold
Weiss in Dresden. After two years in Jena, he was in the service of Duke
Ernst August of Saxony-Weimar from May 1729 to 15 August 1732. By 1734
he was employed at the Bayreuth court. In 1736 Margrave Friedrich
appointed him ‘Virtuosissimo on the Lute and Chamber Musician Second to
the Kapellmeister Johann Pfeiffer’. About 1746 he referred to himself as
‘Cammer-Secretarius Registrator’ of Brandenburg-Culmbach. Falckenhagen
was one of the last important lute composers. Although some of his works
are rooted in the Baroque tradition like those of his teacher, Weiss,
they show a progressive tendency towards the galant style. His
keyboard-influenced lute writing is freely contrapuntal and usually
limited to two voices. His output ranges from modest pieces suitable for
amateurs to others (e.g. the Sonata op.1 no.5 and the concertos) of
much greater difficulty, exploiting virtuoso techniques. His Preludio
nel quale sono contenuti tutti i tuoni musicali, lasting over 20 minutes
in performance, contains labelled sections in the 24 major and minor
keys. There may be a more direct connection with J.S. Bach in the strong
possibility that the tablature version of the G minor Suite bwv995 was
arranged by Falckenhagen himself. The ornament signs and other technical
signs are the same as those used exclusively by Falckenhagen in his
printed works and found in a manuscript table of signs associated with
his Bayreuth period.
Italian writer on music, teacher and composer. Referred to at his death
as ‘Dio della musica de’ nostri tempi’, he is one of the most famous
figures in 18th-century music. He had his first music lessons from his
father Antonio Maria, a violinist and cellist; subsequent teachers were
Angelo Predieri, Giovanni Antonio Ricieri, Francesco Antonio Pistocchi
and Giacomo Antonio Perti. In 1721, he was sent to the Franciscan
Conventual monastery in Lugo di Romagna. He returned to Bologna towards
the end of 1722 and played the organ at S Francesco. In 1725 he
succeeded Padre Ferdinando Gridi as maestro di cappella of S Francesco.
He occupied that post until the last years of his life, and lived in the
convent attached to the church. Martini received minor orders in 1725,
and four years later was ordained a priest. His first extant works date
from 1724 and the first publication of his music appeared in 1734,
Litaniae atque antiphonae finales Beatae Virginis Mariae; only three
other collections of his music, all secular, were published during his
lifetime. In 1758, he was made a member of the Accademia dell’Istituto
delle Scienze di Bologna. In the same year he was also admitted to the
Accademia Filarmonica. Martini’s relationship with the Accademia is a
matter of controversy. He was certainly not the author of the Catalogo
degli aggregati della Accademia filarmonica di Bologna, an important
manuscript long attributed to him but actually by O. Penna (c.1736). In
any case, Martini seems to have remained somewhat independent of the
Accademia and its members. In 1776 he was elected a member of the
Arcadian Academy in Rome, with the name Aristosseno Anfioneo. Martini
devoted himself assiduously to composing, writing and teaching, and he
seldom left Bologna. He visited Florence, Siena and Pisa in 1759, and
Rome. He was offered positions in the Vatican, but he chose to remain in
the city of his birth.
Although he lived to the age of 78, he
apparently suffered from poor health, which may account for the fact
that he travelled so little. According to contemporary accounts,
Martini’s pupil and successor at S Francesco, Padre Stanislao Mattei,
was alone with him when he died; Martini’s last words to Mattei were
reported to have been: ‘Muoio contento; so in che mani lascio il mio
posto ed i miei scritti’
Although the extent of his teaching activities with individual students
is not always clear, at least 69 composers learnt substantially from him
and 35 others received some less clearly defined instruction. Among the
former were J.C. Bach, Bertoni, Grétry, Jommelli, Mozart and Naumann;
Martini taught them primarily counterpoint, often preparing advanced
students for admission to the Accademia Filarmonica. He also devoted
some time to singing instruction, as witness a number of surviving
solfeggi. Martini’s network of students was important for his activity
as a collector of music and music-related documents; he probably used
income from teaching to increase his music library, which was estimated
by Burney at about 17,000 volumes in 1770. One of Martini’s most
important legacies is his extensive correspondence (about 6000 letters),
only a small part of which has been published. He was also famed for
his collections of music and portraits of composers, over than 300
portraits, many of whom were commissioned at his behest. As a
theoretician, his most famous work was the unfinished Storia della
musica, which purported to begin with Adam and end with an overview of
modern 18th-century composers and styles. Martini was considered the
model by Charles Burney, who consulted the theorist on his own
endeavors. As a composer, Martini was less well known with circa 1500
extant works; 32 Masses, five operas, two oratorios, a Requiem, a
litany, over 100 smaller sacred works, 24 symphonies, 94 keyboard
sonatas, a variety of smaller chamber works and hundreds of organ
canons.
German composer and organist mainly active in England. Smith arrived in
England in 1720, having been called to London by his father, who in turn
had immigrated there in 1716 to serve as George Frederick Handel’s
chief copyist and financial advisor. He received his musical education
from Johann Pepusch, Thomas Roseingrave, and probably Handel, serving
Handel as his private secretary after 1730. In 1733 he premiered his
first opera, Ulysses, which gave him a reputation as one of Handel’s
disciples. He eventually wrote three other opera serias: Dario, Il Ciro
rinconosciuto, and Issipile. In 1753, he took over conducting Handel’s
oratorio series when the elder composer was no longer able to do so,
eventually partnering with John Stanley after 1760. During this period
he also composed for Drury Lane Theatre three operas, two of which, The
Fairies (1755) and The Tempest (1756), were based upon Shakespeare.
David Garrick himself wrote the libretto for his last opera, The
Enchanter of 1760. Smith also served as the chief organist of the
Foundling Hospital, where many of the oratorios were performed. He
retired to Bath following the composition of a funeral service for the
Prince of Wales in 1772. Smith was one of the major composers of the
English oratorio; between 1760 and 1772 he wrote no fewer than seven,
beginning with Paradise Lost. The remainder consists of Tobit,
Jehoshaphat, Redemption, Nabal, Rebecca, and Gideon, the last three of
which are arrangements of music by Handel. He also published five
volumes of pieces for the keyboard (1732-1763). While this composer
influenced his use of counterpoint and vocal style, his style was much
more akin in his music to his colleague Thomas Arne.
