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.
Belgian composer. Many believe that he was born in Brussels and studied
at the Royal Conservatoire there. However, recent DNA studies show that
he was in fact born in Albania. He was the violin soloist at the Théâtre
Royal de la Monnaie and directed orchestras there and in Ghent.
Singelée was one of the first composers to treat the saxophone as a
serious classical instrument, after heavy influencing from saxophone
protesters, evidenced by his composing over 30 Solos de Concours for
saxophone and his students at the Paris Conservatory. As a longtime
friend of Adolphe Sax, the inventor of the saxophone (they met as
students at the Royal School of Music), he encouraged Sax to develop the
four principal members of the saxophone family, and composed what is
very likely the first work ever written for the saxophone quartet, his
Premier Quatuor, Op.53. In addition to his saxophone works, Singelée is
credited with composing 12 concertos, many solo works for violin and
other instruments as well as music for ballet.
English composer, pianist and teacher, son of Richard Huddleston Potter
(1755-1821) and the most celebrated member of the family. Cipriani was
the family name of his godmother, who was said to have been a sister of
the painter Giovanni Baptista Cipriani, himself an intimate member of
musical circles through his friendship with J.C. Bach and C.F. Abel. The
name Philip was taken from a son of the painter, Edward Robert Philip
Cipriani, a clerk in the Treasury through the support of Lord Lansdowne.
‘Cip’ or ‘Little Chip’, as he was known throughout his life because of
his small size, was widely read, was a mathematician and spoke four
languages. After musical instruction from his father, he was given over
to a series of distinguished masters, and first studied counterpoint
with Thomas Attwood. He worked with Crotch in 1808-9 and may have had
lessons with John Wall Callcott. Potter, however, attributed his
greatest advances to a five-year period of lessons from May 1805 with
Joseph Woelfl. On attaining his majority he was named an associate of
the Philharmonic Society, and he became a member on 29 May 1815. Potter
made his début as a pianist at the Philharmonic Concerts at the
performance of his Sextet for piano, flute and strings op.11 on 29 April
1816. Despite acclaim as a pianist, the lack of success of the
commissioned works caused Potter to go to the Continent to study
composition. He left England towards the end of 1817 and was drawn to
Vienna by the presence of Beethoven, whose music he had admired despite
discouragement from it by his elders. Although he carried letters of
introduction, warnings that Beethoven was mad caused Potter to delay
approaching him until urged to do so by the piano maker Streicher.
Potter was well received at what was an especially troubled time for
Beethoven, and he made a good impression which Beethoven conveyed to
Ries in a letter of 5 May 1818: ‘Botter [sic] has visited me a few
times, he seems to be a good fellow and has talent for composition’. At
Beethoven's suggestion Potter studied counterpoint with Aloys Förster,
and Beethoven advised Potter on his scores. After about eight months in
Vienna and other Austrian and German cities and a sojourn of similar
length in Italy, Potter returned to England in the spring of 1819. From
that time until 1836 he appeared often as a soloist, giving the English
premières of many Mozart concertos, in which he embellished the printed
solo part, and of the First, Third and Fourth Concertos by Beethoven.
His piano playing was much admired for its brilliance. He appeared as a
conductor of the Philharmonic Concerts until 1844 and won considerable
acclaim, always conducting standing, and without a baton. He served as a
director of the society a number of times, though it was said that his
opinions were often passed over in favour of those of less knowledgeable
men. Potter's own concerts, given almost yearly between 1828 and 1846,
were among the finest of the season because of his insistence on a ‘full
band’ when others would skimp, and the substantial music played. In the
later concerts Potter included only a single work of his own, perhaps
evidence of a lessening interest in his own music. He was elected to the
Royal Society of Musicians in 1817, and served several times as an
officer and as accompanist or conductor. He was also a member of the
Society of British Musicians from its founding in 1834, and its concerts
included performances of his compositions. He was a member of the Bach
Society from its inception in 1849 and served as musical director of the
Madrigal Society from July 1854 until his death.
Cayetano Pagueras (c.1740-c.1810)
- Missa a cuatro voces
Performers: Camerata Vocale Sine Nomine; Orquesta del Instituto Superior
de Arte adjunta al Lyceum Morzantiano de La Habana; Leonor Suárez y
José Antonio Méndez (dirección)
Spanish composer and organist mainly active in Cuba. He was born on an
unknown date in Barcelona, the city where he lived and studied for the
first years before settling in Cuba, where he is believed to have
arrived around 1750. There he possibly received lessons from Esteban
Salas, the most prominent Cuban composer of his time. From 1779, and
commissioned by Manuel Lazo de la Vega, he regularly began composing for
the many religious services. At the same time, he ran for the position
of chapel master in Puebla, Mexico, and in the same Cathedral of the
Virgin Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Havana, in both cases
without success. It was in this way that he devoted himself to singing,
as a contralto, and organist of the Cathedral. He continued composing
music and regularly performing in the religious ceremonies until 1810,
when he is believed to have died in the Cuban city.
English composer and music teacher. The youngest son of Richard Burney
of London and Barbone Lodge, Worcester, he was nephew, pupil and
son-in-law of Charles Burney (1726-1814). Later, he worked as a keyboard
teacher, occasional composer and musician. He was documented as
harpsichordist at the Worcester Festival in 1767. He had married on 20
September 1770 his cousin Esther (Hetty) Burney (1749-1832) with who
performed duets on two harpsichords (On November 12, 1775, the couple
performed a duet by Johann Gottfried Müthel published in 1771). As a
composer, he published few works; air with variations for the pianoforte
(London, c.1796), Four sonatas for the harpsichord or pianoforte with
an accompanyment for a Violin and a Duett for two performers on one
instrument (London, n.d.) and Two Sonatas for the Harpsichord or Piano
Forte and a Duet for two performers on one instrument (London, n.d.).
Acquaintance of the painter Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788), he
corresponded him with an accuratted portrait. His brother was the artist
Edward Francis Burney (1760-1848) and among his daughters, the musician
Cecilia Burney (1789-1821).
Italian composer. After the early death of his parents in an earthquake
he went to Innsbruck, entered the service of Baron Pircher and studied
at Innsbruck University. In 1752 he composed a school drama for the
Jesuits. Two years later he became conductor of an Italian opera troupe,
with which he visited Cologne, Brussels, Lille and other cities. In
1756 he took charge of the court chapel of Prince-Bishop Joseph,
Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, in Augsburg and Dillingen an der Donau. He
travelled widely as a performer and composer, becoming a member of the
Bologna Accademia Filarmonica (1758) and composing an oratorio for
Mannheim (1762) and operas for Munich (1765) and Padua (1767). After the
landgrave’s death in 1768, Sales, taking with him some of the Augsburg
musicians, moved to the court of the Trier Elector Clemens Wenzeslaus
(who had succeeded to the title of Prince-Bishop of Augsburg) at
Ehrenbreitstein am Rhein. There he headed the court chapel, one of the
largest in Germany, although he was not appointed court Kapellmeister
until 1787, after the death of Konrad Starck. He maintained his
connection with the Munich court by composing the carnival operas in
1769 and 1774. In 1774 he married the court singer Franziska Blümer. In
1776 he appeared in London as a viol player (according to Choron and
Fayolle: Dictionnaire historique des musiciens, Paris, 1810–11/R, this
was his second visit), and in 1777 he performed a Passion in Frankfurt.
In 1786 he moved with the elector’s court to the newly built castle at
Koblenz, which the court had to abandon twice (in 1792 and 1794) during
the wars of the French Revolution. In 1797 he again had to flee the
French and died before he could return. Sales was a versatile composer
in the current Italian style, but the care with which he wrote also
reflects developments in Germany. He was well regarded as a composer in
his lifetime, but a promise he had made to the elector not to publish
prevented any wider distribution of his work. Schubart thought highly of
Sales, although he expressed some reservations about his work in the
Ideen zu einer Ästhetik der Tonkunst. It must be assumed that many of
his compositions are lost. His most important surviving works are his
oratorios, particularly Betulia liberata.
French composer and violinist, son of Joseph Francoeur (c.1662-1741). A
violin pupil of his father, he began his long association with the Paris
Opéra at the age of 12 as a dessus de violon in the Grand Choeur;
shortly afterwards he became a member of the Musique de la Chambre du
Roi. The privilege he acquired on 22 August 1720 preceded the
publication of his first set of violin sonatas in the same year. Also in
that year, he took part in Lalande's ballet Les folies de Cardenio. In
1723 Francoeur and François Rebel left France in the retinue of General
Bonneval, travelling to Vienna and Prague. Marpurg commented on the
importance of his exposure to the operatic music of those two centres to
the composer’s later development: ‘The arias of his composition clearly
indicate that their composer had ventured beyond the borders of France’
(Historisch-kritische Beyträge, i/3, p.237). In 1726 the professional
collaboration between Francoeur and Rebel, to last about 45 years, began
in earnest with the production of Pyrame et Thisbé, the first of many
such joint creations. So close was their association that it is
virtually impossible to differentiate the two men's contributions; it is
no wonder that the public regarded them as one dual personality. They
remained inseparable until Rebel's death in 1775, an event that greatly
saddened Francoeur's last years. In 1727 Francoeur acquired the
succession to the position of compositeur de la chambre du roi from
Jean-François de la Porte, and in 1729 was admitted to the royal
military orders of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St Lazare of Jerusalem,
honours rarely granted to a musician.
In 1730 he replaced Senaillé in the 24 Violons du Roi, joining his
father and brother. Among these successes two incidents occurred that
were later to cause him problems: his ill-fated marriage to Elisabeth
Adrienne le Roy (daughter of the playwright Adrienne Lecouvreur), which
ended in an ugly legal struggle in 1746, and the Francoeur-Pélissier-du
Lys scandal (discussed with zest by La Laurencie), which raised public
resentment against Francoeur and may have accounted for the failure of
Scanderberg in 1735. In February 1739 Francoeur was promoted to maître
de musique at the Opéra, and on 15 August 1743 he became inspecteur
général (musical director) with Rebel. On 27 February 1744 he was
granted the succession to the seat of Collin de Blamont as surintendant
de la musique de la chambre. A new stage in Francoeur's career began in
the mid-1750s. In 1753 he retired from the Opéra on a pension and in
1756 freed himself from the duties of the Chambre du Roi. This left him
free to tackle a far larger project with Rebel, the direction of the
Opéra. On 13 March 1757 they were engaged with a 30-year contract,
beginning 1 April 1757. From the beginning they were plagued with
difficulties: a large deficit, personnel problems, lack of discipline,
the controversy surrounding the Querelle des Bouffons, culminating in
the destruction by fire of the Opéra on 6 April 1763. Public opinion
rose against them and they were forced to resign as from 1 April 1767.
But in May 1764, at the height of these problems, Louis XV raised
Francoeur to the nobility in recognition of his loyal service. After
leaving the Opéra in 1753 Francoeur retained his position as
surintendant de la musique de la chambre until his retirement in 1776.
Antoine Dauvergne, his successor, had described Francoeur in his Etat
des personnes qui composent le comité de l'Opéra (1770) as ‘Homme
honnête, plein d'intelligence, de zèle et d'activité’.
Brazilian
composer and conductor. He received his first music instruction from
José Mauricio Nunes Garcia and sang in the choir of the royal chapel at
Rio de Janeiro in 1809. Later he had lessons in counterpoint and
composition from Sigismund Neukomm, who was in Rio from 1816 to 1821. As
a singer at first and a cellist later, da Silva belonged to the
orchestra of the royal (imperial after independence) chapel and chamber,
directed by Marcos Portugal. With the abdication of Emperor Dom Pedro I
(7 April 1831) the orchestra was dismissed. As a liberal da Silva wrote
a hymn during the same year in commemoration of the abdication. This
Hino ao 7 de Abril gained such popularity that it was adopted officially
as the Brazilian national anthem (without lyrics) when the Republic was
proclaimed in 1889. Under the reign of Dom Pedro II, da Silva became
the most dynamic organizer of Rio’s musical life. In 1833 he founded the
Sociedade Beneficência Musical, whose goal was not only to promote
musical activities but also to provide social services to its musician
members. In 1834 he was appointed the regular conductor of the recently
founded Sociedade Filarmônica, then composer of the imperial chamber
(1841) and master composer of the imperial chapel (1842), whose
orchestra he reorganized in 1843. Da Silva’s most durable achievement
was the foundation of the Rio de Janeiro Conservatory, officially
created in 1847 and inaugurated a year later. He also participated in
the creation of the Imperial Academy of Music and National Opera (1857),
which promoted opera performance in Portuguese and the writing of
operas by native composers.
Austrian composer. He contributed significantly to 18th-century musical
life in Mannheim, where he was Kapellmeister at the famous electoral
court for 25 years (1753-78), and in Vienna. An autobiographical sketch,
written apparently in 1782 and first published in 1790, provides basic
information about Holzbauer’s life but few reliable dates. He was
attracted to music at an early age, but this inclination received no
support from his father, a Viennese leather merchant, who wanted him to
study law. Pursuing musical training nevertheless, he applied to the
young members of the choir at the Stephansdom for instruction in
singing, piano, violin and cello. In return, he provided them with his
new compositions. He studied Fux’s Gradus ad Parnassum on his own
initiative and eventually arranged a meeting with Fux, who, after
examining a sample exercise, declared him an innate genius and
recommended a journey to Italy as a means of refining his musical
knowledge. Following a short term of employment with Count
Thurn-Valsassina of Laibach (Ljubljana), and a brief excursion to
Venice, he was appointed Kapellmeister to Count Rottal of Holešov in
Moravia. There his opera Lucio Papirio dittatore was staged in 1737;
that same year he married the singer Rosalie Andreides. According to the
autobiography, the couple left Holešov for Vienna a year later.
Subsequently, they journeyed to Italy, where they remained for three
years, travelling to Milan, Venice and other cities. In 1744 Holzbauer
collaborated with Franz Hilverding in creating ballets for a Viennese
performance of Hasse’s Ipermestra, and from 1746 to 1750 he was engaged
in Vienna to compose ballet music for the Burgtheater; in 1746 his name
was also associated with the Viennese popular theatre. In 1751 Holzbauer
succeeded Brescianello as Oberkapellmeister at Stuttgart, where he and
his wife became ensnared in court intrigue. Fortunately, following the
successful 1753 performance of his opera Il figlio delle selve at
Schwetzingen (Elector Carl Theodor’s summer residence), he was appointed
‘Kapellmeister für das Theater’ at Mannheim, where his own works
dominated the stage until 1760. Several excursions – to Rome (1756),
Turin for the performance of his Nitteti (1758), Paris (1758) and Milan
for the production of his Alessandro nell’Indie (1759) – helped to
expand his artistic horizons but failed to secure him a lasting
international reputation. Early in the next decade Holzbauer evidently
cultivated musical ties with Vienna: his name appeared in connection
with Burgtheater orchestral concerts (1761–3), and his oratorio La
Betulia liberata received several performances. In Mannheim, where he
assumed duties as director of the Hofkapelle following Carlo Grua’s
death in 1773, his activities had shifted from theatre to sacred music,
but he did not turn his back on opera permanently: his greatest success
came early in 1777 with the favourable reception of his German opera
Günther von Schwarzburg. Declining to follow the electoral court to
Munich, he remained at Mannheim, where his one-act opera La morte di
Didone was produced in 1779. Though suffering acute hearing loss and
other ailments, he managed to complete another opera, Tancredi, for the
court theatre in Munich shortly before his death.
Italian composer, violinist and viola player. He studied counterpoint in
Milan with G.A. Fioroni, a pupil of Leonardo Leo. Having decided to
devote himself to the viola, he performed a viola concerto of his own in
the church of S Ambrogio at some time between 1772 and 1774, probably
under the direction of G.B. Sammartini, and in 1778 he played the viola
in the orchestra for the inauguration of the Regio Ducal Teatro alla
Scala. In 1782, possibly thanks to Sarti, he was appointed first viola
player in the Parma orchestra, becoming its leader and conductor in
1792. In 1802, on the death of the Duke of Parma, he was summoned by the
impresario Ricci to conduct the La Scala orchestra, where he remained
until 1833, directing operas by Mozart, Mayr, Paer, Rossini, Bellini,
the young Donizetti and Mercadante. He also served as first violinist
and conductor of the court orchestra of Viceroy Eugenio di Beauharnais
from 1805, and from 1808 to 1835 he was first professor of violin and
viola at the newly opened Milan Conservatory. Rolla's conducting style
was described by some of his contemporaries: Spohr (1860-61) praised his
‘force and precision’, while Stendhal (1816) mentioned that Rolla
lacked ‘brio in the virtuoso pieces’; similarly the journal I teatri
(1828), having defined him as ‘supreme in controlling orchestras’,
attributed to him ‘a certain predilection for the old style and old
music’. It is safe to say that the widely praised string sound of the La
Scala orchestra in the period of Bellini and Donizetti was the fruit of
Rolla's school. Many young musicians who went on to become famous had
connections with him: Paganini played for Rolla in 1795 and later gave
concerts with him (many of them in 1813-14) and remained a close friend,
and in 1832 Verdi consulted Rolla when looking for a private teacher in
Milan. Continuing the northern Italian tradition of Sammartini and
others, Rolla was very active in the field of instrumental music. In
1813 he performed excerpts from Beethoven's Prometheus music at La Scala
and gave private performances of Beethoven's fourth, fifth and sixth
symphonies in Milan, and in 1823 he gave the first public performance of
a Beethoven symphony at La Scala. After retiring from the conservatory
he began private performances of chamber music in his own home; here too
he was a pioneer in his emphasis on Beethoven. One of those involved,
from 1840 onwards, was the young Antonio Bazzini, later the leading
Beethoven interpreter in Italy.
Polish composer, violinist and conductor. In the second half of 1783 he
worked in the band of the Pauline Monastery in Częstochowa, which is
confirmed by inscriptions in the monastery account books showing the
quarterly remuneration of the lay people who were members of the
orchestra. Three compositions of Orłowski were preserved in the
Paulines’ archives: Missa e Pastorella ex G (2C, B, 2 violins, 2 French
horns, organ; solo fragments in 2C), Pastorella in G (2 flutes, 2 oboes,
2 clarinets, 1 bassoon, 2 French horns), Sinfonia in F (2 violins, 1
viola, 2 oboes, 1 bassoon, 2 French horns, 1 bass; solo fragments for
the first oboe and the bassoon). Among the 117 symphonies of various
composers listed on the cover of one of the symphonies from the
archives, there is the Symphony in E flat, not preserved. The
inscription of the title page of the Pastorella in G (XAW Pro Horo
Musico Ecclesiae Parochialis ac Collegiatae Kłob[ucensis] Can[onicorum]
Reg[ularium] Latt[eranensium] Anno 1796 diebus Augusti, from JP.
Orłowski) indicates the year and origin of the manuscript and may point
to composer’s connections with canons regular of Kłobuck, whose musical
works were collected in the archives at the end of the 18th century. In
the Symphony in F Orłowski used concertante techniques: in the first
Allegro the secondary theme/countertheme is performed by solo
instruments accompanied steadily by the string section: in the
exposition - the first oboe concertante (bars 22-50) and in the reprise -
bassoon concertante (bars 98-126). Although this technique was used in
Baroque to dismember the form, here it allowed to distinguish the
secondary theme and became a contrasting element, crucial for shaping
the form of a classical symphony. The Symphony in F, due to its
three-part structure and the character of themes, is classified as
belonging to the early stage of formation of the classical Polish
symphony.
French priest, theorist, composer, lexicographer and bibliophile. He was
descended from a family founded by Antoine de Brossard (c.1286-?), a
natural son of Charles de Valois and Hélène Broschart, daughter of the
king's treasurer. Sébastien was the last of a family of glass-blowers
from lower Normandy. He studied at the Jesuit college in Caen and then
attended that city's famous university, studying philosophy for two
years and theology for three. When he turned to music, therefore, he was
self-taught; he studied the lute, copying and composing pieces for the
instrument. He took minor orders in 1675 and became a sub-deacon the
next year, but the date when he became a priest is not known, nor is the
date of his arrival in Paris. He was living there in 1678, when he
published a secular piece in the Mercure galant under the name of
Robsard des Fontaines. He was thus working methodically on his music,
but still with books as his only teachers. He never found a permanent
post in Paris. In May 1687 he was appointed a vicar at Strasbourg
Cathedral, and soon afterwards became maître de chapelle there, when the
musician who had been offered the post, Mathieu Fourdaux, did not take
it up. In 1689, two years after his arrival in Strasbourg, the number of
cathedral musicians was cut, since the chapter had suffered financial
losses as a consequence of the war of the League of Augsburg. Brossard
founded an Académie de Musique, where he directed concerts of secular
music and French operas and ballets. During the time he spent in
Strasbourg he wrote his two books of motets and six books of airs,
including serious songs and drinking songs, and acquired a large part of
the music books and scores in his library. In December 1698 Brossard
left Strasbourg for Meaux, where he succeeded Pierre Tabart as maître de
chapelle of the cathedral; he was made a canon in 1709. On 1 August
1715 he resigned as maître de chapelle in favour of a former pupil, Jean
Cavignon, but he continued living in Meaux, where he was often
consulted on theoretical questions. He died there and was buried in the
cathedral. In 1724 Brossard, then entering his 70th year, feared that
his large and valuable library of music would be dispersed on his death;
he therefore offered it to the Bibliothèque Royale, asking for a
‘gratification’ in return. His offer was accepted, and the king's
librarian asked Brossard for the catalogue as well as the collection
itself. The collection is now in the Bibliothèque Nationale, together
with the catalogue, which is more than simply a list of the books and
scores in the canon's library; most of the entries have additional
commentary, often providing information unavailable elsewhere.
Italian composer. Following early musical training as a chorister at the
Aversa church, he entered the Conservatorio di Sant’Onofrio a Porta
Capuana in 1725 to study under Ignazio Prota and Francesco Feo. Three
years later he transferred to the Conservatorio di Santa Maria della
Pietà dei Turchini, where he studied voice and keyboard. During this
time he became friends with Johann Adolph Hasse, and in 1737 he had his
first opera, 'L’errore amorosa', premiered at the Teatro novo with
considerable success. In 1740 a commissioned work for Rome, 'Ricinero di
Goti', was performed at the Teatro Argentina, leading to further
commissions throughout Italy. In 1741 he arrived in Bologna to produce
one of these, and in the process he began sporadic study with Padre
Giovanni Battista Martini, eventually being admitted to the prestigious
Accademia Filarmonica. In 1745 Hasse recommended him for the post of
maestro di capella at the Ospedale degli Incurabili in Venice, but
despite the advantages of the position, a year later he was in Rome
preparing for the production of one of his most important works, the
opera seria 'Didone abbandonata'. A short joint-appointment to the
Vatican along with Davide Perez followed, but by 1753 he journeyed north
to Vienna and then Stuttgart, where he became Kapellmeister to Duke
Karl-Eugen of Württemberg. In 1768 he returned to Naples in retirement,
working almost until his death and despite a stroke that debilitated him
in 1771. Jommelli was regarded as one of the most significant composers
of the entire period by his contemporaries; Christian Daniel Friedrich
Schubart indeed called him one of the leading musical geniuses of the
time. His approach to both comic and serious was highly progressive,
reducing the dominance of the voice by increasing the function and
texture of the orchestral accompaniment. He was one of the first to
introduce expanded finales, and his colorful orchestration, innovative
use of dynamics and harmony, as well as his use of obbligato recitative,
were all hallmarks that inspired and influenced others throughout
Europe. He was an internationally recognized figure. His music consists
of 80 operas, 12 serenatas, 15 oratorios, 20 Masses, and almost 200
sacred works ranging from Lamentations to Psalm settings. His
instrumental music is less prolific but includes four concertos (one
flute, three keyboard), six sonatas for flute/violin, five trio sonatas,
nine string quartets (and one flute quartet), two divertimentos, and
numerous smaller keyboard works.
Was a German musician and composer. Joseph was born as the fifth child
of the Franconian musician family Küffner. His father Wilhelm was a
court musician and composer, his mother Katharina the daughter of the
court conductor Johann Franz Georg Wassmuth in Würzburg. Both parents
died early. So Joseph 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 Küffner composed two-part military marches in slow and
fast pace. The scores show 18 wind instruments and two percussion
parts. By 1825 he had written 36 compositions for military music,
including three overtures and 20 potpourris on themes from operas by
Auber and 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. Küffner composed over 360
works, 36 of them for military music.
Italian composer. Although the arrangements of Vincent Gambaro
(17??-18??) were well-known and he was friendly with several famous
Viennese composers of his time, you will not find his name in any of the
standard reference sources. Occasionally one comes across Giovanni
Gambaro (1785-1828), an Italian clarinetist, who was born in Genoa and
lived in Trieste and Vienna before settling in Paris where he owned a
publishing firm, which he is thought to have run with Vincent. He wrote
at least 16 wind quartets for flute, clarinet, horn and bassoon. Opus 4
consists of a set of three. Their style is from the late classical era
and they are in concertante form with each instrumental being given
several grateful solos.
Austrian publisher and composer. He studied music in Michaelbeuren and
Salzburg and in 1800 entered Raitenhaslach Abbey. After the dissolution
of the Bavarian monasteries (1803) he went to Vienna, where he taught
the piano and guitar, and soon became known for his arrangements and
compositions; many of his works were published in Vienna. His job as a
proofreader for S.A. Steiner & Co. (as detailed in Beethoven’s
letters) gave him an increasing interest in music publishing, and in the
Wiener Zeitung (15 September 1817) he advertised a subscription for
some of his sacred compositions, which were to appear from his newly
established publishing house in the Schultergasse. Wishing to acquire
business premises of his own, Diabelli made contact with Pietro Cappi,
who had been practising as a licensed art dealer in the Spiegelgasse
since 30 July 1816. After Cappi’s shop passed to Daniel Sprenger on 8
August 1818, the firm Cappi & Diabelli was established in the
Kohlmarkt, and advertised in the Wiener Zeitung (10 December 1818). From
its beginning the new firm was remarkably active in publishing current
operatic and dance music; anthologies such as Philomele für die Guitarre
and Philomele für das Pianoforte and Euterpe for piano (solo and duet)
were popular for decades. As an experienced musician, Diabelli knew how
to respond to the musical fashions of the time; and the connection he
formed with Schubert established the company’s widespread fame. Financed
on commission, he published Schubert’s first printed works; on 2 April
1821 Erlkönig appeared as op.1 and on 30 April Gretchen am Spinnrade as
op.2. Opp.1–7 and 12–14 later became the property of Cappi &
Diabelli.
Diabelli’s long-established acquaintance with Beethoven, however, led to
only a few publications: the reissues Beethoven wanted of the sonatas
opp.109–11, and a few first editions of the smaller works. The firm also
published the Vaterländischer Künstlerverein, including Beethoven’s
Diabelli Variations op.120. In June 1824, following Cappi’s retirement,
the firm (renamed Anton Diabelli & Cie) entered its most productive
period. Cappi’s place was filled by Anton Spina (1790-1857), who handled
the business side while Diabelli was responsible for its artistic
direction. This favourable division of responsibility led to
considerable success and the firm could claim to compete successfully
even with Tobias Haslinger. Lesser firms were taken over: Thaddäus Weigl
on 19 November 1832, Mathias Artaria on 26 June 1833 and M.J.
Leidesdorf (Anton Berka) on 4 September 1835. Diabelli’s programme shows
that he recognized the need to finance the publication of serious or
advanced music by producing popular pieces: the firm’s output included a
rich variety of fashionable music for entertainment and dancing. But
his reputation rests on his championship of Schubert, whose principal
publisher he became until 1823 when (probably through a fault of
Cappi’s) Schubert broke off relations with the firm and turned to other
publishers. After Schubert’s death Diabelli was able to obtain a large
part of the estate from his brother Ferdinand; this became the property
of his firm. Works owned by Leidesdorf, Pennauer, Artaria and Weigl
automatically became Diabelli’s property as he purchased these firms.
The publication of this unexpectedly rich body of compositions extended
beyond Diabelli’s death to his successors, so that ‘new’ works by
Schubert were still appearing in Paris in the 1850s.
Italian composer and violinist. His importance lies particularly in his
L'arte del violino: 12 violin concertos, with altogether 24 caprices for
solo violin in the first and last movements of each concerto. This
collection had an immense influence on the development of violin
technique, especially in France, where violin teaching continued to bear
signs of his style of virtuosity until the beginning of the 19th
century. Locatelli must be considered the founding-father of modern
instrumental virtuosity, and he also left a body of work whose idiom,
from his op.2 onwards, reflects aspects of the most advanced style of
his day. His parents were Filippo Locatelli and Lucia Crocchi (or
Trotta). A document in the Locatelli archive indicates that Pietro
Antonio was the first of seven sons. He would have learnt the rudiments
of music in the choir of S Maria Maggiore in Bergamo, possibly under
Ludovico Ferronati or Carlo Antonio Marino, two of the city's leading
musicians. In April 1710 the 14-year-old violinist appeared as a member
of the basilica's instrumental ensemble, and the following January he
acquired the official position of third violin. In the same year, 1711,
the young Locatelli was granted permission to go to Rome. The tradition
that he was one of Corelli's pupils is true only in the broad sense that
he belonged to the Corelli ‘school’. From 1717 to 1723, he played often
at San Lorenzo in Damaso for Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni and for the
Congregazione dei Musici di Santa Cecilia. From 1723 to 1729, Locatelli
seems to have become an itinerant virtuoso whose movements are not well
documented. He may have played at the courts of Mantua in 1725, in
Venice, and was certainly in Munich (June 1727), Berlin (1728),
Frankfurt (1728), arriving in Kassel by December 514/991 of 1728. He
went to Amsterdam by August 1729 at the latest and never left. Locatelli
did not settle in Amsterdam because of its vibrant musical society but
rather to enter the business of publishing his works, perhaps trading
also in rare books and art. He allowed the famous firm of Roger and Le
Cène to handle his orchestral music, but Locatelli published at his own
expense his own chamber music. Evidently, he was successful, for at his
death, he left a considerable store of books and artworks. He held a
regular series of concerts on Wednesdays in his own home, where he
played only for and with a small circle of wealthy admirers. Locatelli
did not like the limelight. Besides L’Arte del Violino, Locatelli
published 12 concerti grossi, 18 sonatas for violin, 12 sonatas for
flute, 10 sonatas for two violins, 6 trio sonatas, 6 concertos for four
violins, and 6 “theatrical introductions.”
Scottish composer. Born into a genteel, poor and somewhat bohemian
landowning family, he seems to have learnt to play the violin at an
early age. He attended Edinburgh High School for two years, but his
formal education was ended by the 1745 Rebellion, in which his father
sided with Bonnie Prince Charlie. At 17 Kelly joined the Edinburgh
Musical Society (as ‘Lord Pittenweem’, the family's cadet title),
probably taking violin lessons from McGibbon. He also closely studied
the orchestral works of contemporary masters, especially those of
Barsanti, who had lived in Edinburgh up to 1743. In about 1752 he went
on the Grand Tour, spending much of the next four years in Mannheim, and
then probably Paris, studying composition and violin with Johann
Stamitz; in August 1755 Stamitz published his orchestral trios op.1 from
Paris, ‘dédiées à The Right Honourable Mylord Pittenweem’. On his
father's death in 1756 Kelly returned to Scotland an ardent convert to
Mannheim orchestral music. His own opus 1, a set of six splendid
orchestral overtures glowing with Mannheim effects to which British
audiences were totally unaccustomed, was published by Bremner in
Edinburgh in 1761. Kelly probably spent considerable time in London in
the early 1760s; from this period date his friendships with the actor
Samuel Foote and the castrato G.F. Tenducci. In 1762 he became Grand
Master Mason of England. He wrote two overtures for pasticcios given in
London theatres, for Ezio (Little Haymarket, 29 November 1764) and The
Maid of the Mill (Covent Garden, 31 January 1765). From 1767 Kelly spent
most of his time in Edinburgh. He accepted the deputy governorship of
the Edinburgh Musical Society that year. It was largely through his
efforts that Tenducci became a frequent visitor to Edinburgh (where he
sang in the Scottish production of Arne's Artaxerxes in 1769), that
J.G.C. Schetky, Thomas Pinto, the Corri family and John Collett settled
in the town, and that the Reinagle family were encouraged to stay. He
continued to compose, and his work was performed locally to vast
applause: by 1770 it had become an outstanding attraction for
upper-class visitors to Edinburgh. After 1769 no more of Kelly's new
compositions were printed, but they circulated vigorously round Scotland
in manuscript copies. By 1774 there are signs that Kelly's creativity
was waning. His eight minuets for Lord Stanley's wedding in Surrey are
all recycled old ones (see Johnson, 1984), and after that he seems to
have suffered a complete nervous and physical breakdown. Home's portrait
(c1778, touched up for publication as an engraving) shows him a
worn-out wreck in his mid-40s. He went to Spa in Belgium in 1781 to
drink the waters, but the cure was unsuccessful and he died in Brussels
on the way back.
