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 composer, organist, and cleric. Born in Peníscola, he belonged
to a family of musicians, including his brother Manuel Ciurana Ardiol
(fl. 1800-1842), who served as organist at Sant Nicolau in Valencia and
known for his 'Gran Salmodia de Misas' (1842). Tomás Ciurana Ardiol was
organist at the church of Morella before moving to the Collegiate church
of Xàtiva to occupy the same position. His tenure in Xàtiva included
the professional formation of successors such as Joaquin Aparicio
Ibáñez, who resided in Ciurana’s household on Sant Domènec Street. As a
composer, his output consists of works for keyboard instruments, ranging
from liturgical pieces like 'pasos y fugas' to sonatas influenced by
the European Galant style. Historical records in Xàtiva, including his
testamentary documents, provide evidence of his role in the city's
religious institutions and the continuation of local organ traditions.
English composer and organist. Born with a club foot (later corrected
somewhat by surgery), he showed remarkable musical talent at an early
age, being able to play the harpsichord at the age of four and
performing concertos in public at six. For a time he was taught by
Thomas Garland, the Cathedral organist, and before he was eight he had
composed songs and his first opera. This was considered by connoisseurs
as an ‘extraordinary instance of infantine genius’, but the music is
lost. From 13 November 1756 fairly regular advertisments appeared in the
Norwich Mercury for concerts at which Hook performed concertos, many of
which were benefit concerts. Hook employed his talents in various ways
at this time, including teaching, composing, transcribing music and
tuning keyboard instruments. By 1763 he had moved to London, where his
prowess on the instrument led to employment as a soloist in the
Marylebone Gardens public concerts. On 29 May 1766 he married Elizabeth
Jane Madden (?-1805) at St Pancras Old Church. In May 1767 he had
applied unsuccessfully for the post of organist for the united parishes
of St Matthew Friday Street and St Peter Westcheap, but before 6
September 1772 he had been appointed organist of St Johns Horselydown,
Bermondsey. In 1768 he was appointed organist and composer to Marylebone
Gardens. From 1774 to 1806 he also performed regularly at the Vauxhall
Gardens and participated in the English opera at Covent Garden. On 18
October 1805 Hook’s wife died, and a year later, on 4 November 1806, he
married his second wife, Harriet Horncastle James (?-1873). It is not
known why he suddenly left his position at Vauxhall after almost a half
century of service there. As a composer, he wrote over 2000 songs
(including catches and glees), as well as 52 operas-stage works, 21
concertos, 40 odes (and an oratorio), and a large number of sonatas. His
musical style was at once progressive and reflective of European
continental trends. His son Theodore Edward Hook (1788-1841) was a
writer, intellectual, prankster and civil servant, mainly known for his
practical jokes, particularly the Berners Street hoax in 1810.
German composer and organist of French birth. He studied with
Jean-Baptiste Lully and his contemporaries in Paris from 1663 to 1669.
He returned to Alsace to become a student, first at the Jesuit college
at Séléstat in 1669, then in 1671 at a similar institution at Molsheim,
where he was appointed organist to the exiled Strasbourg Cathedral
chapter. Then he held posts in Prague (1677), and Salzburg, where he was
appointed organist and chamber musician to the Archbishop Max Gandolf
in 1678. In the early 1680s, he was granted leave to study in Rome,
where he met Arcangelo Corelli. He returned to Salzburg in September
1682. In 1690, he became Kapellmeister for Johann Philipp, bishop of
Passau in a post he held the rest of his life. As a composer, his 15
orchestral suites model the French manner, while the 12 concerti grossi
(1701) bring out the typical Corellian textures and contrasts of small
and large groups. He also composed 5 sonatas for strings and continuo, a
single violin sonata, 3 lost operas, and a volume of organ music
containing 12 toccatas, a chaconne, a passacaglia, and an aria with
variations. His 1699 treatise, the 'Regulae Concentuum Partiturae', is
one of the best on continuo playing. He considered himself a German,
although his ancestors were Scottish and his family had settled in Savoy
in the early 17th century. He was a prominent composer of instrumental
music who was particularly important for the part he played in
introducing the French and Italian styles into Germany. Three of his
sons worked at the Hofkapelle in Vienna: Franz Georg Gottfried Muffat
(1681-1710), Johann Ernst Muffat (1686-1746) and Gottlieb Muffat
(1690-1770).
Augustinian friar, keyboardist, and composer. Few details of his life
are known. Associated with the Augustinian Monastery in Prague’s Lesser
Town (Malá Strana), he gained recognition as harpsichordist whose works,
characterized by a progressive style featuring virtuosic flourishes,
were preserved in contemporary manuscript copies alongside those of
notable figures like Antonín Reichenauer. Between approximately 1734 and
1737, he served the noble Morzin family, likely as a domestic tutor for
either Václav Morzin or his son Karl Josef. His tenure at the Morzin
court concluded around the time of Václav’s death in 1737.
Austrian organist and composer. Primarily active in Graz, where he
served as the city parish organist (Stadtpfarrorganist) starting in
1740. Although his exact dates of birth and death remain unconfirmed,
records of his family life suggest he was born before 1710, and his
professional trail fades after 1741, though he may have later joined the
court of Count Joseph Bernhard Attems at Schloss Dornau. As a composer,
he is historically significant for his five harpsichord concertos,
early Austrian examples of the genre that adhere to the Vivaldian formal
model, and a collection of six partitas. The modest range of the solo
parts in his concertos suggests they may have been originally conceived
for the organ, marking an important stylistic link in the development of
keyboard literature within the regional Baroque tradition.
