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.
English composer, publisher, and performer. Son of Joseph Carr
(1739-1819), he studied the organ with Charles Wesley and composition
with Samuel Arnold, and probably learnt engraving at his father's shop
in London. After 1789 he assisted Arnold as harpsichordist and principal
tenor for the Academy of Ancient Music, and his earliest known opera,
Philander and Silvia, was performed at Sadler's Wells Theatre in October
1792. In 1793 he immigrated to the United States where he worked as a
singer and musician at the Chestnut Street Theatre, making his debut the
following year. He also established a business selling musical
instruments and, eventually, as a publisher. He was choir director at
the St. Augustine Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, as well as a
founding member of the Musical Fund Society. As a composer, his works
include six stage pieces (operas, ballets), around 50 songs (his setting
of Scott's Hymn to the Virgin [1810] is generally considered the finest
early American song), a Federal Overture (his most famous orchestral
work), 12 keyboard sonatas (as well as other keyboard works). He also
regularly published music in journals and magazines for the public,
including Carr’s Musical Miscellany. His brother Thomas Carr (1780-1849)
was also a composer and organist, mainly active in Philadelphia.
English composer and organist. Son of Henry Purcell (?-1664), and
brother of Daniel Purcell (c.1664-1717), he received music lessons as a
chorister in the Chapel Royal, London, from the late 1660s until
December 1673, when he was hired as keeper of the king’s instruments. He
probably studied with John Blow and Christopher Gibbons, composers
associated with the Chapel Royal. On 10 September 1677, he succeeded
Matthew Locke as 'composer-in-ordinary' to the king and, in 1679, was
appointed organist to Westminster Abbey when Blow stepped down,
apparently to create an opening for Purcell, and then, on 14 July 1682,
was appointed as organist to the Chapel Royal. He retained these
positions for his whole life. In 1680, he married Frances Peters with
whom he had three sons, among them, Edward Henry Purcell (1689-1765),
organist at London. As a court composer, Henry Purcell was responsible
for providing the required ceremonial music, including birthday odes,
welcome songs, anthems, voluntaries, and other music for coronations.
Under King Charles II, who ruled until 1685, and James II, until 1688,
these duties kept Purcell busy and provided adequate income. Attempts to
introduce Italian- and French-style opera into England early in the
Restoration period had failed, but after the Glorious Revolution had
exiled James and brought King William III and Queen Mary II to the
throne in 1689, the musical establishment at court was reduced
considerably, and this may have caused Purcell to seek more income
outside from the stage. In 1689, Purcell worked with the future poet
laureate of England, Nahum Tate, to produce his only true opera, 'Dido
and Aeneas'. Henry Purcell is generally acknowledged as the finest
setter of English text, sometimes called the greatest native English
composer, his oeuvre may be divided into three generic areas. He
composed the instrumental incidental music to over 40 plays between 1680
and 1695, as well as 14 fantasias, 3 overtures, 5 pavans, 24 sonatas,
and much harpsichord music. His musical dramas were composed later,
including one complete opera and five semi-operas, mostly after 1688.
The third group, sacred music, was composed throughout his career: 56
masterly verse anthems, 18 full anthems (all before 1682), 4 Latin
psalms, 34 other sacred songs, a morning and evening service, and a few
works for organ. His music, especially the earlier instrumental music,
often experimented with unorthodox chromaticism and dissonance but
always shows a mastery of contrapuntal art. He was one of the most
important 17th-century composers and one of the greatest of all English
composers.
Italian composer. A student of Giovanni Battista Martini in Bologna, he
made his debut as a composer with an oratorio in 1765, the same year he
was elected to the Accademia Filarmonica. The following year he began to
receive commissions from Turin, Venice, and Genoa, later touring
Germany as a composer of opera. In 1769 he was appointed as maestro di
cappella at the church of San Giovanni in Monte in Bologna, later
becoming a keyboardist at the Teatro Publico. For Good Friday of 1770 he
wrote another oratorio, and later that year he was one of ten musicians
chosen by the Accademia to compose and conduct works for its annual
day-long concert, which took place on 30 August with Charles Burney and
the Mozarts in attendance. Burney thought him ‘young and promising’, and
described the Laudate pueri as containing ‘many ingenious, pretty
things’. Shortly after this, on 9 October, Ottani was one of Wolfgang’s
examiners for his election to the academy. In 1774 Ottani served as the
academy’s president. In 1779 the successful performance of an opera at
the Teatro Regio in Turin led to him being appointed as maestro di
cappella there, a position he retained his entire life. During the
French occupation he was involved in the dissolution of the Royal Chapel
in 1798, the closing of the Teatro Regio and the shutting down of
musical activity. Continuing his duties at the cathedral he wrote
several religious compositions for the coronation of Napoleon and was
nominated maestro di musica to the Prince and Princess Borghese. As the
only survivor of the old order at the time of the Restoration, he was
entrusted with the task of reorganizing a new Royal Chapel in 1814. As a
composer, his music, little studied, includes 46 Masses, 14 operas,
including 'L'amore senza malizia' (Venice, 1767), 'Le virtuose ridicole'
(Dresden, 1769), and 'L'amore industrioso' (Dresden, 1769), numerous
arias and other insertions, an oratorio, three cantatas, 10 sacred
works, and six keyboard sonatas. His brother, Gaetano Ottani
(c.1734-1808), was a wellknown tenor and landscape painter.
Johann Melchior Gletle (1626-1683)
- Litaniae Lauretanae aus 'EXPEDITIONIS MVSICÆ | CLASSIS V. |
LITANIÆ | B. V. LAVRETANÆ. | Plerumque | à V. Vocibus Concertantibus
necessariis; | cum V. Instrumentis Concertantibus ad libitum, | & V.
Ripienis, seu Pleno Choro. ... OPVS VI' (1681)
Performers: Musica Fiοrita; Daniela Dοlci (conductor)
Swiss composer and organist. Almost nothing is known about his life. In
1651 he was appointed organist of Augsburg Cathedral and from 1654,
Kapellmeister at the same Cathedral. He held both positions until his
death. After 1670 his poor health greatly restricted his activities. As a
composer, 219 compositions are extant. All the sacred music is in the
Italian-influenced concertato style common to Austria, southern Germany
and Switzerland in the 17th century. In both the secular and sacred
works the melodies are songlike, revealing both Italian and folk
influences. His son Johann Baptist Gletle (1652-1699) was also organist
and composer.
French flautist, bassoonist, composer and teacher. He was the seventh of
eight children born to Pierre Devienne and his second wife Marie Petit.
Following early musical education as a choirboy, he was sent to Paris
to study flute with Félix Rault. In 1780 he joined the orchestra of the
Prince de Rohan, making his debut at the Concerts spirituels in 1782.
From then until 1785 he performed there as a soloist at least 18 times,
but after 3 April 1785 he did not appear there for four years. From 1785
to 1789 his place of employment is uncertain; he may have been a member
of the Swiss Guards Band in Versailles. Devienne probably returned to
Paris in autumn or winter 1788. Thereafter he played flute and bassoon
at the Opéra until the Revolution, when he joined the military band of
the French Guards. In 1795 he was appointed as an inspector and
professor of flute at the new Conservatoire following the publication
two years earlier of his treatise 'Méthode de flûte théoretique et
pratique'. In May 1803 he entered Charenton, a Parisian home for the
mentally ill, where he died the following September after a long illness
which ended by impairing his reason. He was an extraordinarily prolific
composer of peculiar importance from the impulse that he gave to
perfecting the technique of wind instruments. He wrote 12 operas, seven
sinfonia concertantes, 14 flute and five bassoon concertos, 25 quintets
and quartets, 46 trios, 147 duos, and 67 sonatas, as well as a symphony
and two Revolutionary hymns. As a teacher, Joseph Guillou was one of his
most famous pupils. François Devienne was regarded in his lifetime as a
flute virtuoso, and his works were frequently reprinted abroad.
Italian composer, teacher, cellist and organist. A student of Giovanni
Lulier, he entered the service of Cardinal Ottoboni in 1721. After the
brilliant success of his opera 'Carlo Magno' in 1729, he was appointed
to a number of the most important posts of maestro di cappella in Rome:
at San Luigi dei Francesi in 1729, at San Lorenzo in Damaso in 1731, at
San Marco and Santa Maria in Vallicella in 1743, and at San Pietro
(Cappella Giulia) in 1755. As a teacher, his most famous student was
Luigi Boccherini. As a composer, his own music has been little studied
but includes 17 operas, four cantatas, and a large amount of sacred
music as well as few instrumental works, among them, cello concertos and
sonatas, and five symphonies. Giovanni Battista Costanzi was among the
most prolific composers of the 18th century but only a part of his
output has survived. According to André Ernest Modeste Grétry he was one
of the best-loved church composers in Rome.
Cecilia Maria Barthélemon (1767-1859)
- Sonata (II, F-Major) from 'Two sonatas for the piano-forte or
harpsichord, with accompaniments for the violin, german flute &
violoncello ... opera seconda' (1792)
Performers: Irene Schmidt (flute); Fine Zimmermann (harpsichord);
Wladimir Kissin (cello)
English singer, composer, pianist and organist. Daughter of
François-Hippolyte and Maria Barthélemon, she went with her parents on
their continental tour (1776-77) and sang before the King of Naples and
Marie Antoinette. She repeated the scena which she had performed for
them at her mother’s benefit concert in London in March 1778 and
continued to appear with her parents as a singer, often in duets with
her mother, and later as a pianist. She does not appear to have had an
independent performing career or to have composed after her marriage to
Captain E.P. Henslowe (not W.H. Henslowe; see the memoir Francis
Barthélemon, 1896). Haydn was a friend of the Barthélemons and Cecilia
treasured memories of his visits to them during his London years. She
dedicated her keyboard sonata op.3 to Haydn and was a subscriber (listed
as ‘Mrs Ed. Henslow’) to The Creation. After married with Captain E.P.
Henslow around December 1796, she definitely stopped performing and
composing.
German composer and organist. Son of the organist Andreas Martin, he was
trained at the local Jesuit seminary. In 1758 he began studies in
philosophy at the University of Fribourg, supporting himself by playing
the organ at the local Franciscan convent. During this period he was
known as 'Schwarzendorf'. In 1760 he settled in Nancy, France, where he
obtained the patronage of Stanislaus I, Duke of Lorraine, who encouraged
him to move to Paris. In 1764 he established himself as a composer and
teacher there, known as 'Martini il Tedesco' in order to distinguish
himself from others of similar last name. In 1773 the prince promoted
him to the position of 'intendant de la musique', in which he wrote
chamber music, romances and chansons, and composed and arranged theatre
music. He functioned as the supervisor of music for the Prince de Condé,
and in 1787 he was a violinist at the Théâtre de Monsieur. During the
Revolution he stayed in Lyons, but in 1795 he returned to Paris where he
became an inspector at the Conservatoire. He also participated in
government-sponsored fêtes. He adapted skilfully to the changing
regimes. After the signing of the concordat re-establishing Roman
Catholicism in France (1802) and the failure of his most recent operas
to stay in the repertory, he turned increasingly to church music. He
also served the imperial regime, and his Messe solemnelle and Te Deum
were performed on official state occasions. Yet with the Restoration of
the Bourbons he insisted on, and received, his appointment as
'surintendant de la musique du roi'. As a composer, his music is similar
to François-Joseph Gossec and consists of 13 operas (and numerous
additions to others), two Te Deums, nine Masses, a Requiem, six Psalms,
eight symphonies, six flute quartets, six notturnos, six trios, and over
100 marches.
German pianist, composer and music editor. Son of the bassoonist and
Hamburg town musician, Johann Gottlieb Schwencke (1744-1823), he became a
proficient pianist at an early age and performed a concerto by his
father in Hamburg in 1779. In 1782 he went to Berlin, where he studied
with Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg and Johann Philipp Kirnberger. In 1787-78
he studied at the universities of Leipzig and Halle, and in 1788
succeeded C.P.E. Bach as Hamburg Stadtkantor, a post he held for the
rest of his life. He became a contributor to the 'Allgemeine
musikalische Zeitung' in 1799. His compositions include incidental
music, settings of Klopstock’s Vater unser, performed at the poet’s
funeral, and the ode 'Der Frohsinn' (1799), oratorios and cantatas, two
piano concertos, an oboe concerto, three piano sonatas (1789), three
violin sonatas (1792), six fugues for organ and lieder. His sons Johann
Friedrich Schwencke (1792-1852) and Karl Schwencke (1797-1870) were
instrumentists and composers.
Polish composer. Little is known about his life beyond his musical
education. He received his training with the financial support of a
provost named 'Neuhaus' from the Saints Peter and Paul church in
Trzebinia. He was also associated with the Nysa Holy Sepulcher Band at
Jasna Góra. It is notable that the largest collection of his
compositions is not found in the archives of his native Silesia but
rather in the Jasna Góra archive, which holds over 30 manuscripts of his
works. The nature of his connection to this particular center is still
unknown. Most of these compositions were copied for the Jasna Góra
chapel in the last quarter of the 18th century, with some manuscripts
specifically dated to 1795. These works represent various forms of the
vocal and instrumental religious music of that era. The collection
primarily includes 7 litanies, 5 masses, 6 arias, 5 duets, and 5
concerted vocal-instrumental motets. Additionally, there are a 'Miserere
seu Opera pro Sacro Sepulchro' and a Stabat Mater. The significant
number of compositions dedicated to the cult of the Virgin Mary is
particularly noteworthy, including seven settings of the Marian antiphon
Salve Regina and two settings of Regina caeli. This fact alone suggests
a strong connection to the Jasna Góra monastery and warrants further
research into the composer's life and work.
Italian composer and teacher. A student of Nicola Porpora in Naples,
little is known about his early life. The first documented performance
of his music was of the opera 'Alessandro in Persia' (1738). The poor
reception of this work marked the beginning of a generally unsuccessful
career as a composer for the stage. During the 1739-40 season he moved
to Venice, where he was employed by the Conservatorio dei Mendicanti. In
1746 he settled in London where his series of operatic failures
continued in January of 1747, when his setting of Vanneschi’s Fetonte
encountered negative reaction during its nine performances at the King’s
Theatre. Charles Burney described the arias as ‘ill-phrased’ and
lacking in ‘estro or grace’. Although he continued to supply arias for
pasticcio productions at the King’s Theatre, he never met with success
as a composer of opera. He achieved some renown in England, however, as a
teacher of harpsichord and composition. His most distinguished student
was the elder Thomas Linley. By 1770 he had returned to Italy, where he
went into retirement. As a composer, his works include six operas, two
concertos for keyboard, several symphonies, and a set of '12 Sonate di
gravicembalo' (1754) that were considered some of the best of the time
when published in London.
German composer, critic and teacher. His father, a teacher and organist
who had fled to Switzerland from the Black Forest to avoid military
conscription during the Napoleonic wars, taught him to play the violin
and organ and to sing. He was educated at the Jesuit Gymnasium in
Schwyz. He later was a schoolteacher in Rapperswill (1840-44), but
pursued an interest in music. He sent some of his piano pieces to Felix
Mendelssohn (1843), who recommended them for publication; having met
Franz Liszt in Basel (1845), he received his encouragement and
assistance in finding employment; later was his assistant in Weimar
(1850-56), where he became an ardent propagandist of the new German
school of composition. He then went to Wiesbaden as a piano teacher and
composer, where he married the actress Doris Genast (1837-1912). He
subsequently was director of the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt
(1877-82), where he also taught composition; students flocked from many
countries to study with him, including Edward MacDowell and Alexander
Ritter. As a composer, he was a prodigious fecundity, and a master of
all technical aspects of composition. He wrote 214 opus numbers that
were published, and many more that remained in manuscript. In spite of
his fame, his music fell into lamentable desuetude after his death. Any
analysis of Raff's music must confront the historical criticisms of his
eclecticism and quantity of production. On the one hand, Raff considered
himself an independent creator and thus distanced himself from Liszt
and Richard Wagner, even though during his time in Weimar he did
circumspectly adopt elements of the New German style; on the other hand,
he clearly modelled his work on various predecessors. Raff was able to
give to his music a strong sense of drive and direction, and his
orchestration was quite effective, even though his forces did not
normally exceed Ludwig van Beethoven's in size. Raff's stylistic
eclecticism is particularly evident in his themes, which tend to be
diatonic and brilliant in his faster movements, but often adopt a
sentimental salon style in slow movements. Raff's only daughter, Helene
Raff (1864-1942), became a painter, writer and pianist of note. Upon her
death, Raff's entire estate of musical manuscripts, letters and other
literary and familial documents was bequeathed to the Bayerische
Staatsbibliothek in Munich.
Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer (1692-1766)
- Concertino (V, f-moll) des 'VI Concerti armonici a quattro violini
obligati, alto viola, violoncello obligato e basso continuo' (1740)
Dutch composer and statesman. He was born into one of the oldest and
most influential families of the Dutch nobility and spent his childhood
in his parents' house in The Hague and at Twickel Castle in Delden. He
probably studied music with the organist, harpsichordist, composer and
theorist Quirinus van Blankenburg in The Hague. In 1707-09 he stayed
with his father and three sisters in Düsseldorf at the court of Johann
Wilhelm, Elector Palatine. The strong Italian influences at the court
had a major influence on his musical development. On 18 September 1710
Unico Wilhelm was admitted to the University of Leiden to study law. In
December 1711 he interrupted his studies to go to Frankfurt for the
coronation of the Emperor Charles VI. In June 1713, after completing his
studies, he returned to Düsseldorf where his father and sisters had
settled. He may have accompanied Arent van Wassenaer Duyvenvoorde on a
visit to Britain in 1715-16. He made a grand tour of France and Italy in
1717-18. In 1723 Unico Wilhelm married Dodonea Lucia van Goslinga (the
daughter of Sicco van Goslinga), with whom he had three children. While
based at the Hague between 1725 and 1740, Unico Wilhelm wrote the six
Concerti Armonici. The Concerti armonici, published anonymously in 1740,
were printed in London in 1755 as compositions by the violinist and
impresario Carlo Ricciotti (c.1681-1756). It has since been established
that these were the work of Unico Wilhelm. There is no evidence that
Ricciotti wrote any music. The concerti were dedicated to Wilhelm's
friend, Count Willem Bentinck. In 1744 he was sent on a diplomatic
mission to the French court, and in the autumn of 1744 and again in 1745
he was sent to the court of Clemens August, Elector of Cologne. In 1746
he went again to France, and finally in 1746-47 to Breda for further
discussions with the French. Although clearly intelligent, Unico Wilhelm
was not a natural diplomat. Unico Wilhelm was a commander of the
Bailiwick of Utrecht of the Teutonic Order. He was made coadjutor in
1753, and introduced administrative and managerial innovations. In 1761
he was made Commander of the order. He died in The Hague on November 9,
1766.
Italian composer and flautist. Nothing is known about his early life or
training; he first appears around 1751 in London, where he performed at
the public concerts. In 1753 he arrived in Paris, where he made a
successful debut performing his own flute concertos as a soloist at the
Concerts spirituels. At this time he and his wife, a singer, performed
in the famous musical salon of La Pouplinière. After 1755 he organized a
series of concerts at his home in the rue Plâtrière, where he also
taught music. In July 1755 he published 'Au dessert', a set of six vocal
duos, and in August of the same year he took out a 'privilege général'
of ten years for instrumental compositions. It is possible that between
1757 and 1761 he entered the service of the Marquis of Seignelay, but
his trace disappears from records in 1767, presumably the date of his
death. His music, little studied, includes 12 symphonies, six flute
concertos, two vocal duets, six canzonetts, 35 flute sonatas, 18 trio
sonatas, and 12 duo sonatas. He was an important agent in the diffusion
and popularization of Italian music and musical style in 18th-century
France.
Italian teacher and composer. Son of a bookseller, Carlo Porpora, and
his wife Caterina, he attended the Conservatorio dei Poveri di Gesù
Cristo from 29 September 1696. At age 22, he composed his first opera,
'L’Agrippina' (1708), but after that, the presence in Naples of the
great Alessandro Scarlatti prevented advancement in the theater. But in
1711, he was employed as maestro di cappella for Prince Philipp
Hesse-Darmstadt, then residing as military commander in Naples, and then
for the Portuguese ambassador in Rome from June 1713. From 1715 to
1722, he was a teacher at the Conservatorio di San Onofrio. Among his
pupils were the poet and librettist Pietro Metastasio, the composer
Johann Adolph Hasse, and the celebrated castrati Antonio Uberti (known
as “Porporino”), Farinelli, and Caffarelli. His most important teaching
post was in Venice at the Ospedale degli Incurabili, the famous music
school for girls, from 1726 to 1733. In 1733 he went to London as chief
composer to the Opera of the Nobility, a company formed in competition
to Handel’s opera company. In London he wrote five operas, among them
'Polifemo', 'Davide e Betsabea', and 'Ifigenia in Aulide', with parts
for his remarkable pupil Farinelli. When the Opera of the Nobility and
Handel’s company closed, Porpora left England, in 1736. He subsequently
taught in Venice and Naples, where he produced several comic operas. In
1747 he was in Dresden and from 1748 to 1751 was chapelmaster there. He
went to Vienna in 1752, where he gave composition lessons to the young
Haydn, and in 1758 returned to Naples. A revision of his opera 'Il
Trionfo di Camilla' (first produced 1740) was given there in 1760 but
failed, and Porpora’s last years were spent in poverty. In addition to
about 50 operas, he composed a number of oratorios, masses, motets, and
instrumental works.
Flemish composer. Son of Henri-Jacques de Croes (1705-1786),
kapellmeister and director of music at the Royal Court Orchestra in
Brussels, he received music lessons from his father. When he was
eighteen he joined the service of the Princes of Thurn and Taxis in
Regensburg in Bavaria, at first as a violinist (1776-1798) and from 1798
onward, as kapellmeister. Karl Anselm, the fourth prince of Thurn and
Taxis (from 1773 to 1797), encouraged court music in the summer
residence at Trugenhofen and at the main residence in Regensburg. He
continued to develop the ensemble, which had been founded for diplomatic
reasons by his father, Alexander Ferdinand, one of the Emperor’s
leading representatives. He engaged numerous virtuoso musicians,
including the French violinist Joseph Touchemoulin, the Bohemian
composer Franz Xaver Pokorný, the oboe player Giovanni Palestrini and
flautist Fiorante Augustinelli. Together with the famous Mannheim
orchestra and the Esterhazy family’s orchestra in Eisenstadt, the Thurn
and Taxis orchestra at Regensburg was among the best of its era. Henri
Joseph de Croes married the opera singer Maria Augusta Houdière
(?-1806). They had two children, both of whom died in their youth. As a
composer, he wrote an opera, seven partias for clarinets and strings,
several concertos, two symphonies, and chamber music.
German composer. His earliest musical education came when he enrolled in
the Thomasschule in Leipzig in 1730, studying under Johann Sebastian
Bach and Bach’s son Wilhelm Friedemann Bach. In 1733 he moved to Hamburg
to seek work as an opera composer, but in 1739 he went to Berlin, where
he became part of the Berlin School, studying under Johann Joachim
Quantz and Carl Heinrich Graun. He obtained the position as
harpsichordist at the Prussian court, and in 1755 he published his
treatise 'Die Melodie, nach ihrem Wesen'. A controversy with this work
and its successor caused him to request release from the court, and he
served the rest of his life as an independent teacher and composer.
Among his works were 3 sinfonias, an Ouverture, a Concerto for Violin
and Strings, 16 concertos for harpsichord and strings (1740-59), various
keyboard pieces, 'Il sogno di Scipione' (serenata, 1745), a Requiem,
and 22 Lieder. Although known for his theoretical treatise, Nichelmann
was an innovative composer of keyboard works whose style is firmly
implanted in 'Empfindsamkeit'.
Anna Bon di Venezia (1738-c.1767)
- Sonata (V, si minore) 'Sei Sonate | Per il Cembalo | […] Ernestina
Augusta Sophie | Principessa | Di Sachsen Weimar etc:etc: | [...] in
età d'anni | dieci sette | Opera secunda' (1757)
Italian composer and singer. Born as 'Anna Ioanna Lucia, filia
Hieronymus Boni et Rosa Ruinetti', she was the daughter of the
(Venetian?) scenographer and librettist Girolamo Bon and the Bolognese
singer Rosa Ruvinetti Bon. On March 8, 1743, at the age of four, she was
admitted to the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice as a student; that she
had a surname indicates that she was not a foundling as were most of the
Pietà wards, but a tuition-paying pupil (figlia de spesi). She studied
with the maestra di viola, Candida della Pietà (who herself had been
admitted into the coro in 1707). By 1756, Anna had rejoined her parents
in Bayreuth where they were in the service of Margrave Friedrich of
Brandenburg Kulmbach; she held the new post of 'chamber music virtuosa'
at the court, and dedicated her six op. 1 flute sonatas, published in
Nürnberg in 1756, to Friedrich. From the frontispiece we learn that she
composed them at the age of sixteen. In 1762, the family moved to the
Esterházy court at Eisenstadt, where Anna remained until at least 1765.
She dedicated the published set of six harpsichord sonatas, op. 2
(1757), to Ernestina Augusta Sophia, Princess of Saxe-Weimar, and the
set of six divertimenti (trio sonatas), op. 3 (1759), to Charles
Theodore, Elector of Bavaria. By 1767, Anna was living in
Hildburghausen, Thuringia, with her husband, a singer named Mongeri.
Hungarian composer, pianist, and music writer. His grandfather was a
Lutheran pastor, and his father was a wealthy timber merchant. Beliczay
began his studies in Komárom, where his musical talent was recognized by
church choirmaster Gyula Csáder. From the age of 12, he attended the
Lutheran lyceum in Pozsony. Excelling in mathematics, his father
initially intended him for an engineering career. While in Pozsony, he
also studied piano with Josef Kumlik. Fulfilling his father's wishes, he
earned an engineering degree from the Vienna Polytechnic between 1851
and 1857. In 1856, he also obtained a choirmaster's diploma in Vienna.
From 1858, he worked as an engineer for the Tiszavidéki Vaspályatársaság
(Tisza Railway Company), then based in Vienna. He simultaneously taught
at one of the city's conservatories. During his time in Vienna, his
composition teachers included Jozef Hofmann, Franz Krenn, and Gustav
Nottebohm, and he furthered his piano studies with Carl Czerny and Anton
Halm. In the spring of 1871, when the railway company relocated its
headquarters to Pest, he moved with it. From 1872, he served as the
chief architectural engineer for the Hungarian Royal State Railways. In
1879, he married Anna Tarczalovits (1853–1933), one of his students. In
1888, invited by Ödön Mihalovich, he became a music theory professor at
the National Academy of Music in a post he held the rest of his life.
Beliczay's musical output included orchestral works, chamber music,
piano pieces, sacred music, choral compositions, and songs. Among his
writings is 'A zene elemei' (Budapest, 1891). He embraced the Romantic
style of Robert Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn, though his uniquely
Hungarian compositions were primarily his variations, four-hand piano
pieces, and songs. He was recognized as the most renowned Hungarian
composer abroad during the last third of the 19th century.
Italian composer and violinist. Born on the Adriatic coast, he received
his first instruction in violin from Carlo Tessarini in Urbino before
becoming a disciple of Pietro Nardini in Livorno. At the age of 16 or 17
he immigrated to Madrid as a violinist in the Real Capilla and was
later appointed in 1767 as instructor of the Prince of Asturia by Carlos
III. By 1779 he had become musical director in Aranjuez, but he was
recalled to Madrid in 1788 by Carlos IV to lead a family ensemble, the
musicos de la real camera, that played exclusively for the court. His
music includes incidental music to the comedy Garcia del Castañal, two
zarzuelas, an Italian opera buffa, two Masses, a Miserere, three
Lamentations, nine concert arias, 32 songs (canciones), 37 symphonies,
four concertos, five sinfonia concertantes, 109 pieces of dance music,
18 sextets, 68 string quintets, 62 string quartets, 59 string trios, 23
divertimentos, 78 violin sonatas (and one for viola), and 328 duos.
During his lifetime, Brunetti had a reputation for writing dramatic
instrumental works that often deviated from conventional formal
structures. He also incorporated Spanish melodies and rhythms
frequently. He can be considered one of the most popular and important
composers resident in Spain during the 18th century. He was survived by a
daughter and a son Francesco Brunetti (c.1765-1834), a cellist in the
royal chamber orchestra.
Johann Schobert (c.1720-1767)
- Concerto (I, F-Dur) pour le clavecin avec accompagnement de deux
violons, alto et basse et deux cors de chasse ad libitum... op. XI
Performers: Marcelle Charbonnier (clavecin); Orchestre de chambre de
Versailles;
German composer and keyboardist. Nothing is known about his origins or
youth; there is differing information on his birth date, which ranges
from 1720 to 1740. Gerber’s Historisch-biographisches Lexicon der
Tonkünstler, however, gives Strasbourg as his place of birth (though the
name occurs in no contemporary Alsatian records), and Schubart in his
autobiography claimed Schobert as a kinsman, supposedly from Nuremberg.
Schobert first appeared in Paris in 1760, where he began a career as a
keyboard virtuoso, eventually publishing 20 sets of works. In 1761 a few
of his pieces appeared in the pasticcio Le tonnelier, and in 1765 he
unsuccessfully attempted to become a composer of opéra comique with the
comedy Le garde-chasse et le braconnier. He found employment with Louis
François I de Bourbon, Prince of Conti, however. Throughout his career
he achieved some fame for his expressive performances and works, in
addition to being a rival of Johann Gottfried Eckard. He died along with
his family, a servant, and four friends as a consequence of eating
poisonous mushrooms. His musical style was influenced by that of
Mannheim, although he was noted for his expressive melodies. His works
include 21 violin sonatas, six symphonies, seven trio sonatas, five
harpsichord concertos, three keyboard quartets, and several sonatas and
miscellaneous works for harpsichord. Schobert greatly influenced
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who admired his music warmly. The work which
most impressed the seven-year-old composer seems to have been the D
major Sonata of op.3; imitation of this sonata and others can be traced
in Mozart’s subsequent Parisian and English sonatas. Movements from
Schobert’s sonatas also appear recast in Mozart’s earliest piano
concertos. His fascination for Schobert’s music was not merely fleeting:
when Mozart was in Paris in 1778 he taught his pupils Schobert’s
sonatas, and the A minor Sonata k310, composed in Paris, contains in its
Andante an almost literal quotation from a movement of Schobert’s op.17
no.1 that Mozart had already arranged years before in a concerto.
Italian writer on music, teacher and composer. His father, Antonio Maria
Martini, a violinist, taught him the elements of music and the violin
and he later learned singing and harpsichord playing from Padre
Pradieri, and counterpoint from Antonio Riccieri and Giacomo Antonio
Perti. Having received his education in classics from the priests of the
Oratory of Saint Philip Neri, he afterwards entered the novitiate of
the Conventual Franciscans at their friary in Lago, at the close of
which he professed religious vows and received the religious habit of
the Order on 11 September 1722. In 1725, though only nineteen years old,
he received the appointment of chapel-master at the Basilica of San
Francesco in Bologna, where his compositions attracted attention. He
established a composition school at the invitation of amateur and
professional friends, where a number of well-known musicians received
their education. As a teacher, he consistently expressed his preference
for the practices of the earlier Roman school of composition. Martini
was a zealous collector of musical literature, and possessed an
extensive musical library. Burney estimated it at 17,000 volumes; after
Martini's death a portion of it passed to the Imperial library at
Vienna, the rest remaining in Bologna, now in the Museo Internazionale
della Musica (ex Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale). Most contemporary
musicians spoke of Martini with admiration, and Leopold Mozart
consulted him with regard to the talents of his son, Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart. The latter went on to write the friar in very effusive terms
after a visit to the city. The Abbé Vogler, however, makes reservations
in his praise, condemning his philosophical principles as too much in
sympathy with those of Fux, which had already been expressed by P.
Vallotti. His Elogio was published by Pietro della Valle at Bologna in
the same year. In 1758 Martini was invited to teach at the Accademia
Filarmonica di Bologna. He died in Bologna. Referred to at his death as
‘Dio della musica de’ nostri tempi’, he was one of the most famous
figures in 18th-century music.
Among Martini's pupils: Grétry, Mysliveček, Berezovsky, his fellow
Conventual Franciscan friar, Stanislao Mattei, who succeeded him as
conductor of the girls choir, as well as the young Mozart, Johann
Christian Bach and the famous Italian cellist Giovanni Battista Cirri.
The greater number of Martini's mostly sacred compositions remain
unprinted. The Liceo of Bologna possesses the manuscripts of two
oratorios as well as three intermezzos, including L'impresario delle
Isole Canarie; and a requiem, with some other pieces of church music,
are now in Vienna. Litaniae atque antiphonae finales B. V. Mariae were
published at Bologna in 1734, as also twelve Sonate d'intavolalura; six
Sonate per l'organo ed il cembalo in 1747; and Duetti da camera in 1763.
Martini's most important works are his Storia della musica (Bologna,
1757-81) and his Esemplare di contrappunto (Bologna, 1774-75). The
former, of which the three published volumes relate wholly to ancient
music, and thus represent a mere fragment of the author's vast plan,
exhibits immense reading and industry, but is written in a dry and
unattractive style, and is overloaded with matter which cannot be
regarded as historical. At the beginning and end of each chapter occur
puzzle-canons, wherein the primary part or parts alone are given, and
the reader has to discover the canon that fixes the period and the
interval at which the response is to enter. Some of these are
exceedingly difficult, but all were solved by Luigi Cherubini. The
Esemplare is a learned and valuable work, containing an important
collection of examples from the best masters of the old Italian and
Spanish schools, with excellent explanatory notes. It treats chiefly of
the tonalities of the plain chant, and of counterpoints constructed upon
them. Besides being the author of several controversial works, Martini
drew up a Dictionary of Ancient Musical Terms, which appeared in the
second volume of GB Doni's Works; he also published a treatise on The
Theory of Numbers as Applied to Music. His celebrated canons, published
in London, about 1800, edited by Pio Cianchettini, and his unpublished
set of 303 canons, show him to have had a strong sense of musical
humour.
Italian composer, organist and singer. He went to Venice and sang bass
in the choir of San Marco from 1674. He served as organist at SS.
Giovanni e Paolo (1676-79), where he was described as a pupil of Carlo
Grossi, as well as at San Marco during periods between 1677 and 1686. He
left San Marco on 1 May 1686 to take the post of maestro di cappella to
the Duke of Modena, which he retained, with interruptions, almost until
the end of his life. The duke had to order a large boat to transport
Giannettini and his family’s personal effects from Venice. At Modena he
was responsible for the selection and payment of musicians, as his
correspondence shows, and for organizing the performance of his own and
others’ works. He maintained his connections with Venice and during his
visits, often at Carnival, he recruited musicians for the duke. In
Modena he was called on to produce oratorios and small occasional works
more often than operas and he may have composed new music for the 1690
performance in Modena of Giovanni Legrenzi's 'Eteocle e Polinice'. When,
during the War of the Spanish Succession, the French occupied Modena in
1702, Duke Rinaldo fled to Bologna, and Giannettini accompanied him. He
soon moved on to Venice with his family. During this period he is
supposed to have returned to Modena twice as opera director. After the
war, in February 1707, he resumed his earlier activities at Modena. From
June 1721 was employed as a singer at the Bavarian court at Munich. As a
composer, he wrote about 10 operas, of which 'Medea in Atene' (1675)
became the best known. His other works included 9 oratorios, many
cantatas, 12 motets, a Kyrie a 5, and Psalmi a 4 (1717). He was among
the most talented Italian composers of his generation; his works were
fairly popular, and two of his operas circulated in Germany.
Bohemian composer, oboist, viola da gamba virtuoso, cellist, and
pedagogue. He began his professional career as an oboist in the service
of Countess Netolicka. In 1777, he moved to Munich to serve in the court
orchestra of Elector Maximilian Joseph. That same year in Munich,
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was highly impressed by the wind band Fiala
trained, helping him secure a position in 1778 after the Elector's
death. In 1785, he moved to Vienna, and in 1786, to Saint Petersburg,
where he worked in the court of Catherine the Great. By 1790, he had
relocated to Prussia, serving as a viola da gamba player in the court of
Friedrich Wilhelm II. Finally, in 1792, he became Kapellmeister in
Donaueschingen, where he spent the rest of his life.
Italian composer and organist. Son of Pietro Auletta (c.1698-1771), he
was active in Naples as a composer of sacred music, but nothing is known
of any appointments he may have held. Domenico's three sons were also
musicians: Raffaele Auletta (1742-1768), composer of a motet 'Alto
Olimpo triumfate', of whose life nothing is known; Ferdinando Auletta, a
singer, who studied at the Conservatorio della Pietà dei Turchini,
1759-69, with Nicola Fago and Pasquale Cafaro; and the younger Domenico
Auletta (?-1796), who was appointed in November 1779, with Domenico
Cimarosa, ‘supernumerary’ organist without salary in the royal chapel in
Naples and in 1796 second organist (Cimarosa having been promoted to
first). The homonymy between father and son poses problems of
attribution, especially as regards undated works.
German organist and composer. Son of the organist Johann Arnold
Volckmar, in 1707, he succeeded his father as organist at the Peter-und-Paul church in Stettin. In 1712, he moved to Danzig (Gdańsk),
where he first worked at the Trinity church and, from 1717, at St.
Catherine's church. In Danzig, he was considered a modern and virtuosic
organ player. However, Volckmar's modern style was not well-received by
the Danzig pastors, resulting in his unsuccessful applications for the
organist position at St. Mary's church. In 1730, he left Danzig and
moved to St. Mary's church in Köslin. In 1733, he returned to Stettin to
take up the organist position at St. Nicholas' church. In 1746, he
finally was appointed organist at Stettin's largest church, St. James'
church, in a post he held until 1767.
