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.
Antonio Puccini (1747-1832)
- Miserere a quattro concertato (1771)
Performers: Adriana Cicogna (mezzo-soprano); Doina Palade (soprano);
Cappella Santa Cecilia della Cattedrale di Lucca; Teatro del Giglio di Lucca Orchestra;
Gianfranco Cosmi (conductor)
Composer, son of Giacomo Puccini (1712-1781). With financial help from the government of Lucca, from 1768 he studied under Carretti and Abate Domenico Maria Zanardi in Bologna, where he met his future wife, Caterina Tesei (1747-1818), an excellent keyboard player, teacher and copyist. In 1771 he became a member of the Bologna Accademia Filarmonica, through the offices of Padre Martini, to whom he had been entrusted by his father. He was invited to present his works for the feast of S Antonio, patron of the academy. Having returned to Lucca he worked with his father, preparing to succeed him in his post at the Cappella di Palazzo and as organist of S Martino, which he did, by decrees of 1772 and 1779. After the suppression of the Cappella di Palazzo (31 July 1805) by the new governors, he continued to produce and to organize the music for the feasts of S Croce and for other liturgical occassions. He was a loving and able custodian of the family’s rich library, and compiled the valuable Repertorio (1818) of its contents. Antonio’s sacred compositions consist of a free series of closed movements in various styles, some concertato with soloists, double choir and orchestra, some a cappella, in motet style, and some in aria style. His Messa da Requiem (1792) was greatly prasied for its ‘gusto patetico e capriccioso’. His tasche reveal a new and personal style: the opening symphonies, which are sometimes in sonata form, employ a harmonious Classical style and an orchestra larger than his father’s; the arias and the accompanied recitatives achieve variety and expression through unexpected interpolations from obbligato instruments.
German composer. The son of an oboist, he probably received music
instruction as a Dresden choirboy from Pantaleon Hebenstreit, to whom he
was referred by the court in 1742 to learn his teacher’s dulcimer-like
invention, the pantaleon. It was as a pantaleonist that he became a
court musician in 1751, but he also performed as a harpsichordist. In
1764 he became second organist to Peter August in the court’s Catholic
chapel, and he was first organist from August’s death in 1787; both were
active as harpsichordists in Dresden’s public musical life. Most of
Binder’s career took place in the reign of Friedrich August III, an
amateur musician, and his compositions reflect the court’s active
interest in keyboard and chamber music. His extant works show a mixture
of Empfindsamkeit and earlier Baroque elements, although they require
greater virtuosity. The intense slow movements and the concentrated
development of thematic material echo the style of C.P.E. Bach, but the
keyboard figuration and choice of genres hark back to J.S. Bach;
similarly, exact gradations of dynamics are interspersed with Baroque
echo effects. Although Binder was a prolific composer, his influence was
virtually confined to Dresden; few of his works were published in his
lifetime. Binder had two sons who were also musicians. August Siegmund
Binder (1761-1815) was an organist and composer who became first
organist of the electoral chapel on his father’s death in 1789; he
composed harpsichord sonatas, organ preludes, cantatas and sacred music,
but only the preludes have survived (D-Dl). Carl Wilhelm Ferdinand
Binder (1764-?) was an instrument maker in Weimar who specialized in
harps.
Italian guitar virtuoso and composer. He studied the cello and
counterpoint, but the six-string guitar became his principal instrument
early in life. As there were many fine guitarists in Italy at the
beginning of the 19th century (Agliati, Carulli, Gragnani, Nava etc.),
but little public interest in music other than opera, Giuliani, like
many skilled Italian instrumentalists, moved north to make a living. He
settled in Vienna in 1806 and quickly became famous as the greatest
living guitarist and also as a notable composer, to the chagrin of
resident Viennese talents such as Simon Molitor and Alois Wolf. In April
1808 Giuliani gave the première of his guitar concerto with full
orchestral accompaniment, op.30, to great public acclaim. Thereafter he
led the classical guitar movement in Vienna, teaching, performing and
composing a rich repertory for the guitar (nearly 150 works with opus
number, 70 without). His guitar compositions were notated on the treble
clef in the new manner which, unlike violin notation, always
distinguished the parts of the music – melody, bass, inner voices –
through the careful use of note stem directions and rests. Giuliani
played the cello in the première of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony (8
December 1813) in the company of Vienna’s most famous artists, including
Hummel, Mayseder and Spohr, with whom he appeared publicly on many
subsequent occasions. He became a ‘virtuoso onorario di camera’ to
Empress Marie-Louise, Napoleon’s second wife, in about 1814. He returned
to Italy in 1819, heavily in debt, living first in Rome (c.1820-23) and
finally in Naples, where he was patronized by the nobility at the court
of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies until his death. Towards the end of
his life he was renowned for performances on the lyre guitar. Giuliani
had two talented children, Michel Giuliani (1801-1867), who became a
noted ‘professeur de chant’, succeeding Manuel Garcia at the Paris
Conservatoire, and Emilia Giuliani (1813-c.1840), a famous guitar
virtuoso who wrote a well-known set of preludes for guitar op.46.
German composer. His father was organist and schoolmaster at Olbernhau.
No documents concerning Endler's schooling are known, but many
circumstances, including his connections to Christoph Graupner, suggest
that he attended the Thomasschule in Leipzig. He enrolled at the
university there in 1716. Archival documents regarding the Neukirche
show Endler, still a student, substituting there as organist and
director of church music in 1720. From 1721 to 1723 he directed Fasch's
collegium musicum. While Graupner was in Leipzig in connection with his
application for the post of Thomaskantor, he evidently offered Endler a
post at Darmstadt, and the latter was installed at the court in 1723 as
an alto singer and violinist. He was promoted to Konzertmeister before
1740 and then (before 1744) to vice-Kapellmeister under Graupner. After
Graupner's death in 1760 Endler succeeded to his position, which he held
until his own death two years later. Three early church cantatas and
one secular cantata (the political satire Der Raritätenmann, written in
1747 for the birthday celebration of Landgrave Ludwig VIII) survive;
another secular cantata, Der Nachtwächter (1746), has been lost.
Endler's remaining extant works are orchestral. Two-thirds of the
sinfonias were written for special festivities and first performed
between 1748 and 1761 at the landgrave's favourite hunting castle,
Kranichstein. Often richly orchestrated, they exploit skilfully the
court's especially large group of virtuoso brass and wind players. They
consist of a modern Allegro movement followed by a suite of up to six
further movements with dance, tempo and, occasionally, character titles.
Concertante elements are apparent, except in the first movements. The
overtures are similar, except that the first movement is in the form of a
French overture, tonal unity is maintained throughout the cycle and a
larger selection of dance movements is found. The autograph manuscripts
of Endler's compositions, together with his excellent copies of other
18th-century works, are in the Hessisische Landes- und
Hochschulbibliothek, Darmstadt.
Vincent Lübeck (1654-1740)
- Kantate 'Ich hab hie wenig guter Tag' (1693)
Performers: David Cordier (contratenor); Graham Pushee (contratenor);
Harry Geraerts (tenor); Harry van der Kamp (bass); New College Choir
Oxford; Fiori Musicali; Thomas Albert (conductor)
German composer, organist and teacher. He was the son of another Vincent
Lübeck (?-1654), who had worked as an organist in Glückstadt and, from
1647, at the Marienkirche, Flensburg, where he was succeeded in 1654 by
Caspar Förckelrath. Förckelrath married the widow and was the younger
Vincent’s first teacher; according to Syré (1999), Vincent may also have
studied with Andreas Kneller, with whose keyboard music his own shows
parallels. Towards the end of 1674 Lübeck became organist of St Cosmae
et Damiani, Stade, near Hamburg, marrying, as was a custom, his
predecessor’s daughter, Susanne Becker. The fine organ that Arp
Schnitger completed there in 1679 was no doubt a factor that persuaded
him to remain until 1702. His brilliant reputation then won him the
appointment of organist of the Nikolaikirche, Hamburg, which he held
until his death. It too had a Schnitger organ, a four-manual instrument
of 67 stops, one of the largest in the world, that was considered the
best in a prosperous musical city. In his postscript to F.E. Niedt’s
Musicalische Handleitung (Hamburg, 2/1721), Mattheson summed up as
follows: ‘This extraordinary organ … also has an extraordinary organist.
But how to extol someone who is already greatly renowned? I need only
give his name, Vincent Lübeck, to complete the whole panegyric’.
Numerous contemporary documents attest to his wide reputation as an
organ consultant throughout north Germany. He attached particular
importance to reed choruses, even in smaller organs. On several
occasions he passed judgment on Schnitger’s work, not only in the
churches of large cities such as Hamburg (Nikolaikirche, Georgenkirche,
Jacobikirche) and Bremen (St Stephani Cathedral), but also in those of
Oberndorf (Georgenkirche), Hollern (St Mauritius), Sittensen (St Dionys)
and other smaller places. As a teacher he was much sought after and
commanded as much as 20 thaler a month from articled pupils, more than
he received in salary as organist. His most important pupils included
C.H. Postel and M.J.F. Wiedeburg; he also taught two of his sons, Peter
Paul Lübeck (1680-1732), who followed him at Stade, and Vincent Lübeck
(1684-1755), also composer and organist.
German organist and composer. Records describe him as organist at the
Dresden court in 1697. From 1703 he was organist at the Sophienkirche in
Dresden, and in 1720 he wrote a cantata for the consecration of the
Silbermann organ recently built there; it was first performed by the
Dresden Kreuzkirche choir. In 1709 he was appointed court chamber
composer and organist. Concert journeys took him to Paris in 1714, and
to Venice in 1716. He also wrote a piece for the consecration of the
Silbermann organ in Rötha, near Leipzig. His death date is usually given
as 2 July 1733, but Schaffrath’s letter of application for his post is
dated 2 June and the competition for the vacancy was held on 22 June.
Mattheson (Der vollkommene Capellmeister, 1739) described Pezold as one
of the most famous organists, and Gerber reckoned him ‘one of the most
pleasant church composers of the time’. C.H. Graun was among his pupils.
His few surviving instrumental works include three trios, two partitas
for viola d’amore, 11 fugues for organ or harpsichord, a suite and
single pieces for harpsichord, an Orgeltabulatur (two- and four-part
chorales, 1704) and a Recueil de 25 concerts pour le clavecin, dating
from 1729 (all in manuscript, D-Dlb). The works for harpsichord and
organ have a distinctive virtuoso brilliance, with much use of scale and
arpeggio figuration. A cantata, Meine Seufzer, meine Klagen (Bsb),
contains free forms, independent of the da capo scheme.
German-Dutch oboist, viola da gamba player and composer. He, and at least two other musicians named Riehman (Jan [Johan] Frederick (?-1778) and Johan Daniel (fl. c.1738-1757)), served the house of Orange-Nassau between about 1702 and about 1778. It is unlikely that any of these musicians served Karl, Elector of Hessen-Kassel (1654-1730), as has previously been suggested. Of Riehman's opp.2 and 3 only a single incipit survives. His six op.1 sonatas (Amsterdam, 1710), all of five movements in the order Preludio–Allemanda–Corrente–Sarabanda–Giga, are written in an idiomatic style that shows evidence of both Italian and French influence. Most exhibit thematic resemblances between the Allemanda and Corrente, and some show thematic linking of all the movements reminiscent of the variation suite. The preludes sometimes display the free multi-tempo sonata scheme seen in the preludes of composers such as Kühnel and Schenk. Technically his sonatas are not as difficult as Schenk's, but they do require considerable facility. His Davids Harpzangen is notable as the first Dutch publication to provide figured basses for the complete Genevan psalter and for a rich harmonic sense throughout.
Italian composer, violinist and orchestra director, active in Spain. The
son of Stefano Brunetti (of Fano) and Vittoria Perusini, he probably
studied the violin in Livorno with Pietro Nardini. Having moved with his
parents to Madrid by 1762 (the date of a collection with one small
piece by him), he entered the service of Charles III in 1767 as a
violinist of the royal chapel. He also taught music and the violin to
the king’s son, the Prince of Asturias, and composed for the court. By
1771 his duties had expanded to include commissions for festivities at
Aranjuez, and in 1779 he was appointed music director of such
festivities. When Charles IV became king (1788) he appointed Brunetti
director of the newly formed royal chamber orchestra; Brunetti wrote
much for the group and selected a wide repertory from contemporary
European composers, with works of Haydn strongly featured. Brunetti was
also responsible for collecting and maintaining the royal library, and
he is partly responsible for the rich collection now housed in the royal
palace, Madrid. In spite of the social and governmental weaknesses of
his court, the king’s interest in art (as Goya’s patron), his
accomplishments as a violinist and his insatiable appetite for new works
provided a stimulating cultural atmosphere in which Brunetti
flourished. Brunetti was also a welcome and frequent visitor at the
court of the Duke of Alba, to whom he dedicated several works, and his
influence extended to numerous other courts in Madrid, including that of
Boccherini’s patron, the Infante Don Luis. He remained in Charles’s
service until his death, which occurred within a month of his second
marriage. He was survived by a daughter and a son Francesco (c.1770-?), a
cellist in the royal chamber orchestra.
Brunetti’s music has remained virtually unknown since the 18th century;
very little was published during his lifetime, and only a few pieces are
available in modern editions. Most of his 451 works are chamber pieces
written to be performed by and for the king and his ensemble. The
symphonies, mostly in four movements, form another important group. The
music found in the royal palace archives indicates Brunetti’s exposure
to a wide range of stylistic influences from composers of various
nationalities. The king’s preference, however, was for the style of the
early Classical composers, and Brunetti’s music, written with unusual
imagination in a blend of traditional and progressive styles, best fits
into that category. He most frequently wrote in Classical forms –
sonata-allegro, variation and rondo; he also used dance forms and
occasionally inserted a minuet into a final rondo. The sonata-form
movements have extended development sections (generally based on the
principal theme and favouring the minor mode) and abbreviated
recapitulations that may invert the order of thematic material or omit
the principal theme altogether; there is seldom a coda. The transitional
or developmental passages frequently make use of interesting and
original chromatic or enharmonic modulations, and the return to the
tonic is often intentionally unprepared. The symphonies feature
prominent wind parts, and some of the later works, particularly the
minuets and contredanses, use large-scale forces: flute, two oboes, two
bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani and strings. The third
movements are usually in a double dance form other than the minuet and
trio, with the first dance scored for a wind quintet and the second for
strings.
Composer and cellist, son of Giovanni Maria Bononcini (1642-1678). He was orphaned at age eight and moved to Bologna, where he studied at San Petronio with Giovanni Paolo Colonna. Owing to three instrumental publications by age 15, he was admitted into the Accademia Filarmonica on 30 May 1686. In 1687, he became maestro di cappella at the church of San Giovanni in Monte. In 1691, Bononcini went to Rome, entered the service of the Colonna family and the Spanish ambassador, and began working with the librettist Silvio Stampiglia. Bononcini’s opera Il Trionfo di Camilla (“Camilla’s Triumph,” 1696) was immediately brought to Naples and produced in 18 other Italian cities by 1710; in London, it was given 63 times between 1706 and 1710 in the very first years of Italian opera there. After Lorenzo Colonna died in August 1697, Bononcini joined the court of Emperor Leopold I in Vienna and remained until 1712. Then, he entered the service of Emperor Charles VI’s ambassador to Rome, Count Gallas. In the summer of 1719, the Earl of Burlington engaged Bononcini for the newly established Royal Academy of Music in London, and his works dominated the inaugural season 1720-21. Despite this success, his ties to various Jacobite patrons who supported Stuart claims to the English throne and his Catholic religion apparently prevented him from being engaged for the following season. He mounted his opera Ermine in Paris in 1723, was reengaged by the Royal Academy for the season of 1723-24, went to France again in summer 1724, and entered the service of the Duchess of Marlborough, for whom he directed private concerts consisting mostly of his own music. He was caught out in an embarrassing case of unacknowledged borrowing from Antonio Lotti, a practice quite common at the time, at a meeting of the Academy of Ancient Music. The episode also besmirched the reputation of his friend, the composer Maurice Greene. Shortly after that, Bononcini left England and spent time in Paris (spring 1733), Madrid (December 1733), and Lisbon (until 1736) before returning to Vienna. The Empress Maria Theresa granted him a small pension, which allowed a modest retirement. He was one of the most successful opera composers of the Baroque, he and his works appeared in Naples, Rome, Venice, Vienna, London, Paris, Madrid, Lisbon, and countless smaller venues. He composed 31 opere serie, 21 serenatas, 7 Italian oratorios, 8 concerted Latin motets, an anthem, and a significant body of instrumental music, including 12 concerti da camera, 12 trattenimenti da camera, 48 sinfonie for various combinations of instruments, 12 trio sonatas, 8 divertimenti da camera, and 6 duos for violoncello, Bononcini’s principal instrument. Among his roughly 300 extant cantatas is Impara a non dar fede, cited by Benedetto Marcello as a standard audition piece for singers in the late Baroque.
Flemish carillonneur and composer. Known by 1729 as a carillonneur and
clockmaker in his home town, Le Blan appeared from 1743 in Veurne
exercising these two occupations. In 1746 he succeeded Pierre Schepers
as town carillonneur at Ghent, becoming town clockmaker in 1751. He
acted several times as a consultant in carillon building (Ghent, Bruges,
Dunkirk). In 1763 he gave a concert on a carillon with small glass
bells which he had invented. One work is known, a Livre de clavecin
(Ghent, 1752) containing six suites.
German organist and composer. Almost the whole biographic information
about Rudorff's career is documented in his own application letter for
the city cantor post in Göttingen. Rudorff grew up in a family of
lawyers; his father Johann Friedrich Rudorff was bailiff of the nobles
of Spiegel in Westphalia. The family lived in the office building of the
village of Cörbecke (now Körbecke) near Warburg. During the Seven
Years' War (1756-1763), Johann Friedrich Rudorff died in 1759,
presumably as a result of the Cörbeck dysentery epidemic. Carl Friedrich
Rudorff went to high school in Mühlhausen, Thuringia, where, according
to his autobiography, he took over the position of cantor at the main
church. Rudorff earned his living in Mühlhausen by giving musical
lessons. The early musical activities suggest a basic musical education
in Westphalia. Though it cannot be proven. On April 27, 1773, at the age
of 24, Rudorff enrolled in theology at Helmstedt University, after
which he worked as a private tutor in Rotenburg an der Fulda in Hesse.
The Rotenburg period must have been Rudorff's most important
compositional training period. Rudorff himself writes that he learned
from “the patterns of our good composers”. Rudorff's re-matriculation as
a student in Göttingen on October 16, 1778 is certainly documented. The
professor August Ludwig von Schlözer describes Carl Friedrich Rudorff
as an "uninterruptedly diligent listener." He hired Rudorff as a private
tutor for his children even before he began his studies. On July 10,
1780, the city cantor of Göttingen, Johann Friedrich Schweinitz, died
unexpectedly while on a spa trip in Bad Pyrmont. Rudorff immediately
applied for the vacant position. In addition to Schlözer, the professors
Christian Friedrich Georg Meister, Ernst Gottfried Baldinger and
Christian Gottlob Heyne, the university president himself, wrote a
recommendation. Rudorff had three competitors, including the experienced
Hildesheim cantor Heinrich Ernst Jordan, who himself had studied with
the late cantor Schweinitz. Rudorff won the post. His duties were
teaching at the Latin school, specifically in Latin, theology and music,
performing the cantor's duties at the main church of St. John's and, in
a fixed liturgical sequence, the other four city churches of St.
Jacobi, St. Marien, St. Albani and St. Nikolai as well as the overall
supervision the Göttingen church music. Rudorff died on July 13, 1796
and was buried with an honorable burial in the Bartholomäusfriedhof.
Italian composer. He was born into a family of high social standing, his
father being a jurist. As a boy he learnt the violin and the cello,
possibly under Torelli until the latter's removal to Bologna in 1685. In
1696 Dall'Abaco went to Modena, where his services as a musician were
much in demand despite his not being attached to the court orchestra.
His noted penchant for the French style may date from his Modena days,
since the director of the orchestra, Ambreville, was French. After 19
September 1701 no further trace of Dall'Abaco exists in Modena, and the
next mention of him is early in 1704 as a cellist in the Bavarian court,
where one of his colleagues was J.C. Pez. The defeat of the reigning
elector, Maximilian II Emmanuel, in the War of the Spanish Succession
forced him to flee to the Netherlands, where he brought a large retinue
including many of his own musicians. Setting up court in Brussels,
Maximilian continued to patronize the arts extravagantly, but further
French reverses caused him to withdraw to Mons in 1706. The capitulation
of Mons following the battle of Malplaquet in 1709 sent the elector
back to France, and a relatively impoverished court was established in
Compiègne by grace of Louis XIV. Throughout these unsettled times
Dall'Abaco remained at the elector's side. He had married Marie Clémence
Bultinck in the Netherlands, and their son Joseph-Marie-Clément was
born in 1709 or 1710. Dall'Abaco must have deepened his acquaintance
with the French style after prolonged residence in the Low Countries and
France, though it was only after Maximilian's eventual triumphant
return to Munich in April 1715 that specifically French traits began to
creep into his published music. Dall'Abaco's loyalty and competence were
rewarded by his appointment as Konzertmeister in the reconstituted
court orchestra and his elevation to the rank of electoral councillor in
1717, a fact proudly advertised on the title-page of his fifth
publication, a set of concertos for various combinations. He also
participated as a soloist in ‘academies’, the precursors of the musical
soirées of the 19th century, some of which were held at his own house.
Dall'Abaco remained in the service of the Bavarian court after
Maximilian's death in 1726 and the accession of the new elector, his son
Karl Albrecht. Though a music lover like his father, the new elector
favoured a more up-to-date style of music than his Konzertmeister would,
or could, supply, with the result that Dall'Abaco's musical activities
became increasingly relegated to the background. A second set of
concertos, published by Le Cène in 1735 as Dall'Abaco's op.6, is the
sole proof of his continued creative work during this final phase. He
seems to have retired on a pension in 1740.
Brazilian composer. He was the son of a provincial bandmaster, from whom
he learnt the rudiments of music and to play several instruments. He
began composing at an early age and at 18 wrote a mass that was
performed in a local church by the Gomes family ensemble. In 1859 he
went on a concert tour with his brother Sant’Ana Gomes and had
considerable success with his Hino acadêmico in São Paulo. He then left
for Rio de Janeiro against his father’s will and entered the Imperial
Conservatory of Music, where he studied composition under Joaquim
Giannini. The conservatory experience reinforced his predilection for
opera, and he soon became acquainted with the works of Rossini, Bellini,
Donizetti and Verdi, whose music exerted a profound influence on him
throughout his career. In 1860 two of his cantatas attracted great
attention. The Spaniard José Amat, then the musical director of the
Ópera Lírica Nacional, gave him a copy of the libretto of A noite do
castelo by Antônio José Fernandes dos Reis, which Gomes set to music and
produced on 4 September 1861 at the Teatro Lírico Fluminense of Rio de
Janeiro. The success of this and of his next opera Joana de Flandres
(1863) prompted his nomination for a government scholarship to study in
Italy, and in 1864 he began his studies with Lauro Rossi, director of
the Milan Conservatory. Most of the rest of his life was spent in Italy
and his compositional ideals became thoroughly italianized. Gomes’s fame
in Italy began with two musical comedies, Se sa minga (1867) and Nella
luna (1868), which give clear evidence of his ability to write in a
popular bel canto style. But it was the triumphal success of Il Guarany
at La Scala on 19 March 1870 that brought him international fame. The
opera was produced at Rio de Janeiro on the emperor’s birthday (2
December 1870) as well as in almost all European capitals in the next
few years.
Verdi heard it in Ferrara in 1872 and referred to it in a letter as the
work of a ‘truly musical genius’. But Gomes’s next opera Fosca, on a
good libretto by Ghislanzoni, produced on 16 February 1873 at La Scala,
was a failure, because the composer had become involved in a quarrel
between the defenders of Italian bel canto and the Wagnerian reformers
with whom he was included as a foreigner. A new version of Fosca,
however, had considerable success in 1878 when it was again staged at La
Scala. There followed Salvator Rosa (Genoa, 1874), on a libretto by
Ghislanzoni, written according to the prevailing taste of Italian
opera-goers, and Maria Tudor (Milan, 1879). Gomes accepted an invitation
to visit Recife and Bahia in 1880, and during this sojourn his friend
the Viscount of Taunay suggested the subject for his next opera, Lo
schiavo. He was indeed looking for another Brazilian subject, having
treated the Guarany Indians. At that time the abolition of slavery was
well under way in Brazil, and Taunay himself wrote the drama whose main
characters were to be black slaves. In spite of the librettist
Paravicini’s alterations (in order to satisfy the conventions of Italian
opera, Indians were substituted for the slaves, and the action was
transposed from the 18th to the 16th century), the première (Rio de
Janeiro, 27 September 1889) was a success. His last opera, Condor
(Milan, 1891), revealed Gomes’s orientation towards verismo. In 1892, on
Columbus Day (12 October), his last major work, the oratorio Colombo,
was presented in Rio. By then the new republican government had been
established and Gomes lost his previous official support. He accepted an
appointment to direct the local conservatory at Belém in 1896, but died
a few months later.
Alfons Albertin (1736-1790)
- Sonata (D-Dur) à 4 Organi con Stromenti (1787)
Performers: Rudolf Ewerhart (organ); Franz Lehrndorfer (1928-2013,
organ); Hans Haselböck (1928-2021, organ); Wolfgang Oehms (1932-1993,
organ); Brass Ensemble and Timpanist;
Rudolf Ewerhart (director)
German monastic composer. Nothing is known about his early years or training,
save that indications he may have been born in Italy cannot be
substantiated. He first appears as a Benedictine monk at Petershausen
around 1765, where he composed music. Among his works are a large Mass
and a Sonata à 4 Organi con Stromenti Clarini, Corni in D. è Tÿmpani per
la Festa di Pasqua (1787). The extremely complicated structure of this
Sonata, concentrated at a point to a canon of all four organs and all
instruments, can really be performed only on instruments which are
spatially divided.
Flemish composer, son of Pieter Loeillet (1651-1735). He was the eldest
son of Loeillet by his first wife, Marte (née Nortier). Loeillet de
Gant, as he styled himself on all his published compositions, went to
Lyons in the service of the archbishop, Paul-François de Neufville de
Villeroy, and died there at an early age – before 1729 and probably
about 1720. He has often been confused with his cousin Jean Baptiste
Loeillet (1680-1730). 48 sonatas for recorder and continuo, together
with some other works, were composed by Loeillet de Gant and published
in Amsterdam between about 1710 and 1717, and republished in London by
Walsh & Hare between about 1712 and about 1722. His sonatas are in
the Italian style of Corelli and are generally of the sonata da chiesa
type, although some (especially op.3 onwards) include several movements
with named dances such as allemanda, sarabanda, gavotta and giga and
have more than four movements. The bass parts are more independent than
those of John Loeillet of London, not only in the fugal second
movements, where they may play an equal part, but also in the slow
movements, where they often have their own rhythmic patterns throughout
the movement; his basses often start a movement with two or three bars
solo before the recorder enters. Loeillet de Gant had a stronger
contrapuntal sense than his two cousins; occasionally his fugal
movements have clearly differentiated countersubjects but they lack the
skill shown by many of his contemporaries. Unlike John Loeillet,
Loeillet de Gant ornamented many of his slow movements in the French
manner, with flourishes of demisemiquavers and notes perdues (the
‘little note that does not enter into the bar’; Marais: Pièces à une et à
deux violes, 1686).
German princess and composer. She was the eldest daughter of Frederick
William I of Prussia and Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, and granddaughter
of George I of Great Britain. Born in Berlin, she shared the unhappy
childhood of her brother, Frederick the Great, whose friend and
confidante she remained all her life, with the exception of one short
interval. She was fiercely beaten and abused by her governess during her
childhood. Wilhelmine later wrote: "Not a day passed that she [the
governess] did not prove upon me the fearful power of her fists." The
mistreatment continued until the prince's governess finally said to
their mother, who had been oblivious to the abuse, that she would not be
surprised if Wilhelmine was eventually beaten until she was crippled.
After this, the governess was promptly replaced. Being the eldest
daughter in her family, she was early the target of discussions about
political marriages. Her mother, Queen Sophia Dorothea, wished her to
marry her nephew Frederick, Prince of Wales, but on the British side
there was no inclination to make an offer of marriage except in exchange
for substantial concessions that Wilhelmine's father would not accept.
The fruitless intrigues carried on by Sophia Dorothea to bring about
this match played a large part in Wilhelmine's early life. Her father,
on the other hand, preferred a match with the House of Habsburg.
Wilhelmine was eventually married in 1731 to her Hohenzollern kinsman,
Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth. Frederick had been engaged
to Wilhelmine's younger sister, Sophie, but at the last moment King
Frederick William I decided to replace her with Wilhelmine. The groom
was not consulted in this decision. When Wilhelmine's spouse came into
his inheritance in 1735, the pair set about making Bayreuth a miniature
Versailles. The so-called Bayreuth Rococo style of architecture is
renowned even today.
The pair also founded the University of Erlangen. All of these ambitious
undertakings pushed the court to the verge of bankruptcy. The
margravine made Bayreuth one of the chief intellectual centers of the
Holy Roman Empire, surrounding herself with a court of wits and artists
that accrued added prestige from the occasional visits of Voltaire and
Frederick the Great. Wilhelmine's brother Frederick granted her an
allowance in exchange for troops, following the same procedure with her
sisters. With the outbreak of the Seven Years' War, Wilhelmine's
interests shifted from dilettantism to diplomacy. Austrian diplomats
were trying to influence the court of Bayreuth to take their side
against Prussia. In September 1745, during the Silesian war, Wilhelmine
met with Maria Theresa of Austria. This almost destroyed her intimate
relationship with her brother. In 1750 Wilhelmine visited the Prussian
court for several weeks and met famous contemporaries such as Voltaire,
Maupertuis and La Mettrie. In June 1754, the siblings met for the last
time, after which Frederick swore her his eternal loyalty. She acted as
eyes and ears for her brother in southern Germany until her death at
Bayreuth on 14 October 1758, the day of Frederick's defeat by the
Austrian forces of Leopold Josef Graf Daun at the Battle of Hochkirch.
Although Frederick had lost many friends and family to death throughout
his life, Wilhelmine's hit him the hardest. He suffered from severe
illness for a week following news of Wilhelmine's death and fell into a
depression from which he never fully recovered. On the tenth anniversary
of her death, her devastated brother had the Temple of Friendship built
at Sanssouci in her memory. In addition to her other accomplishments,
Wilhelmine was also a gifted composer and supporter of music. She was a
lutenist, a student of Sylvius Leopold Weiss, and the employer of
Bernhard Joachim Hagen.
English violinist, composer and musical director. He was the natural son
of Isaacs, a dancing-master. As a pupil of Geminiani, he soon made a
name as a remarkably gifted boy violinist, first appearing at one of
Thomas Britton’s concerts, where, standing on a high stool, he played a
solo by Corelli with great success. On 27 May 1714 he had a benefit
concert at Hickford’s Room. In 1724 he visited Dublin, and on 17 June
1727 married Frances Gates at Stanmore, Middlesex. In 1728 he was
appointed to succeed J.S. Kusser as Master and Composer of State Music
in Ireland, a post said to have been intended for Geminiani but
transferred to Dubourg for religious reasons. From then until 1752, when
he succeeded Festing as leader of the King’s Band in London, he spent
most of his time in Dublin, where he was an active influence in the
musical community, though occasionally travelling to London (he took
part, for instance, in performances of Handel’s Samson there in March
1743). In Dublin he played a prominent part in most of the important
performances of this period, playing at the first benefit for Mercer’s
Hospital on 8 April 1736, supervising and leading the enlarged orchestra
for the first Irish performance of Arne’s Comus in August 1741, and
leading the band during Handel’s visit (1741-42), which included the
first performance of Messiah. The high standard of string playing in
Dublin, which was remarked upon by Handel in a letter to Jennens, was
undoubtedly due to the influence of Dubourg and his teacher Geminiani.
Dubourg subsequently organized a series of six Handel oratorios in the
1743-44 season and the first Irish performances of Samson (4 February
1748) and Judas Maccabaeus (11 February 1748).
He also conducted numerous performances of Messiah and other Handel
oratorios. In recognition of these efforts he received a bequest of £100
from Handel. He appears to have been a brilliant performer and fond of
showing off his skill. Burney related that on one occasion he introduced
a cadenza of extraordinary length into the ritornello of an air. When
at last he finished, Handel, who was conducting, exclaimed ‘Welcome
home, Mr Dubourg’ (An Account of the Musical Performances … in
Commemoration of Handel (London, 1785), ‘Sketch of the Life of Handel’,
p.27). In January 1748 there was a sale of furniture and paintings at
his house in Dublin, and in March he was bequeathed £200 a year by ‘the
Widow Barry’. In 1761 he was appointed Master of Her Majesty’s Band of
Music in London at £200 a year. He retained a house in Dublin, where he
often entertained Geminiani, who died there in 1762. Dubourg finally
left Ireland in 1765. He was buried in Paddington churchyard. Dubourg’s
compositions were mainly ephemeral; those that were published are
scattered through minor collections. ‘Serenading Trumpet Tunes’ and
‘Minuets for His Majesty’s Birthday’ are included in collections
published by Walsh of London, and John Simpson’s Delightful Pocket
Companion for the German Flute (c.1746-47) contains pieces by him. Of
particular interest, as one of the earliest documented examples of an
Irish traditional melody which attained great popularity at 18th-century
Dublin concerts, is the publication by W. Manwaring in 1746 of Select
Minuets … to which is added Eleen a Roon by Mr Dubourgh, set to the
harpsichord, with his variations.
Bohemian composer. It is possible, but cannot be proved, that he was
related to other Czech musicians called Pokorny. After studying with
Riepel in Regensburg, Pokorny entered the court orchestra of
Oettingen-Wallerstein in 1753. In 1754 he studied in Mannheim with
Johann Stamitz, Holzbauer and Richter. On returning to Wallerstein he
was promised the position of choral director there, but his appointment
was never confirmed. A symphony by Pokorny was performed on 13 July 1766
at Dischingen, the summer residence of the Prince of Thurn and Taxis.
The composer left the service of the Count Philipp Karl of
Oettingen-Wallerstein on 22 March 1770 and at last became a member of
the court orchestra of Thurn and Taxis at Regensburg, where, according
to payment records, he had already been playing the violin since 1766.
Pokorny’s gravestone in Regensburg gives his title as ‘musician of the
princely chamber of Taxis’ (Hochfürstlich Taxisscher Kammer-Musicus).
Pokorny left a great number of works. The largest group comprises some
140 symphonies, most of them preserved in autograph score. Of these
symphonies, 104 have also been attributed to other composers. These
misattributions were deliberately made by Theodor von Schacht, director
of the court orchestra of Thurn and Taxis, in Regensburg in 1796.
Schacht deleted the composer’s name and the place and date of
composition on the covers of these works and substituted names of other
composers or provided new covers. It has not yet been possible to prove
authorship of any of the 104 symphonies by a composer other than
Pokorny, which suggests that he did in fact write them all. Most of
Pokorny’s symphonies are in four movements. The works from his
Oettingen-Wallerstein period are scored for strings, flutes and horns.
The horn parts are throughout of a very virtuoso nature. The style of
the symphonies is strongly marked by melodies reminiscent of folk music.
The symphonies written in Regensburg are scored for a greater variety
of instruments and their formal concept is more carefully devised.
Pokorny’s son Bonifaz (Franz Xaver Karl) (Wallerstein, 24 Jan 1757 -
Scheyern Abbey, 5 Aug 1789) took vows at Scheyern Abbey in 1780 and was
ordained priest in 1783. He was one of the monastery’s leading musicians
as regens chori, organist and teacher. None of his compositions has
survived. Another son, Joseph Franz, born in Regensburg about 1760, is
mentioned in Eitner and Mettenleiter as a musician at the court of Thurn
and Taxis at Regensburg. However, no mention of him can be found in the
records of the Thurn and Taxis court orchestra. The horn virtuoso Beate
Pokorny, who was successful at a Concert Spirituel in Paris in 1780,
was not Franz Xaver Pokorny’s daughter but his sister.
