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.
Hungarian composer. Refered as the "inventor" of the csakan, very few
details are known about his life. Between 1807 and 1811 he probably
lived in Vienna, where his works appeared in print through the
publishing house Chemische Druckerey. Among them we find the following
works for the csakan or flûte douce: 8 volumes of easy pieces, a
fantasy, a sonata, a Sonata brillante, all solo works, 2 volumes of
small duets, a concertino with string trio and 2 horns ad libitum, and a
set of variations with string quartet and two horn. We may assume that
he left Vienna in 1812 to settle in Hungary.
Austrian composer. His main appointment was in Passau, where he
succeeded Georg Muffat as court Kapellmeister in 1705. He spent his
early years in Vienna, where he may have been a pupil of Johannes Ebner
(a member of the well-known family of organ players and son of Wolfgang
Ebner) whom he declared his model. Apparently he came into contact with
members of the Viennese nobility, and he may have been employed at a
court. In a letter of 1724 to Prince-Bishop Lamberg, while complaining
about the quality of the violinists in Passau, Aufschnaiter claimed to
have had in Vienna, where he spent many years, ‘16–18 excellent
musicians’ at his disposal. His op.1 (of which no copy is extant) was
dedicated to Count Ferdinand Ernst von Trautmannsdorf, who may have been
his employer. In 1695 his op.2 appeared in Nuremberg with a dedication
to Archduke Joseph (later Emperor Joseph I). Under the title Concors
discordia it contains six orchestral suites which show Italian concerto
grosso structure but also an apparent French influence; they probably
followed the example of Georg Muffat. All that is known of op.3 is that
it was dedicated to Emperor Leopold I; no copy is extant. Op.4 consists
of eight church sonatas published under the title Dulcis fidium harmonia
symphoniis ecclesiasticis concinnata, which appeared in 1703 and were
dedicated to the four early fathers of the church and the four
evangelists. These are orchestral sonatas for two solo violins (which
have complicated double stops), two violins ad libitum, viola, violone
and organ; they may have been inspired by Heinrich Biber’s works. From
1705, when he became Kapellmeister at Passau, Aufschnaiter was active as
a composer of church music (although he was not officially appointed
cathedral Kapellmeister as Muffat had been). His opp.5 and 8 comprise
vespers for four voices, strings and continuo instruments (1709, 1728),
his op.6 five masses (1712) and his op.7 offertories with two solo
violas (1719). In all his church works Aufschnaiter favours a more
traditional style similar to the Roman cantata style; there are fewer
demanding violin passages and double stops than in his earlier works,
and he prefers to please with melodic charm. In his theoretical writings
he emphasizes the difference between church, chamber and theatre music.
Italian violinist and composer. He first appears in documents when in
1715 the Elector of Bavaria brought him from Venice to Munich as a
violinist. In October 1716, after the death of his predecessor Pez, he
became musique directeur, maître des concerts de la chambre at the
Württemberg court in Stuttgart, and in 1717 chief Kapellmeister. Between
1717 and 1718 he wrote the pastoral opera La Tisbe, which he dedicated
to his employer Archduke Eberhard Ludwig. Hoping this opera would be
produced at the Stuttgart Opera, Brescianello wrote in his Präparationen
that he had suited its melodies to the theatre taste: but that did not
gain him a performance. From 1719 to 1721 he had to face heated battles
with his rival Reinhard Keiser, who sought unsuccessfully for
Brescianello’s position. In 1731 Brescianello became Rath und
Oberkapellmeister. When the court’s finances collapsed in 1737, the
Stuttgart opera troupe was dissolved and Brescianello lost his post,
which spurred him on to increased activity as a composer. In 1738
(according to EitnerQ) he wrote 12 concerti e sinphonie op.1 and other
works, and somewhat later ‘18 Piecen fürs Gallichone’. When the regency
of the generous artistic patron Duke Carl Eugen began in 1744,
Brescianello was reinstated as Oberkapellmeister ‘on account of his
particular knowledge of music and excellent competence’, and until his
retirement he brought the opera and court music to renewed fame. He was
pensioned off on 29 November 1751 according to Sittard, on St James’s
Day 1755 according to other sources. His successor was Ignaz Holzbauer,
then Jommelli. In his two decades as Kapellmeister, Brescianello helped
to put his stamp on the musical life of Stuttgart and Ludwigsburg. His
importance lies in his compositions, which mainly follow the conventions
of his time (sequences and imitations, influences of the galant style,
generally in loosened suite form). Apart from Tisbe, two cantatas and a
mass (occasional and commissioned works), Brescianello wrote mainly
chamber music using the violin, with which he was most acquainted
through his training as a violinist: these works are thus among his most
successful.
German composer and theorist. He was the son of David Heinichen who,
after an education at Leipzig's Thomasschule and the university, moved
to Krössuln for a lifelong career as pastor. Johann David also attended
the Thomasschule Leipzig. There he studied music with Johann Schelle and
later received organ and harpsichord lessons with Johann Kuhnau. The
future composer Christoph Graupner was also a student of Kuhnau at the
time. Heinichen enrolled in 1702 to study law at the University of
Leipzig and in 1705-06 qualified as a lawyer (in the early 18th century
the law was a favored route for composers; Kuhnau, Graupner and Georg
Philipp Telemann were also lawyers). Heinichen practiced law in
Weissenfels until 1709. However, Heinichen maintained his interest in
music and was concurrently composing operas. In 1710, he published the
first edition of his major treatise on the thoroughbass. He went to
Italy and spent seven formative years there, mostly in Venice, with
great success with two operas, Mario and Le passioni per troppo amore
(1713). Mario was staged again in Hamburg in 1716 with the German title,
Calpurnia, oder die romische Grossmut. In 1712, he taught music to
Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen, who took him as composer. The same
prince would appoint Johann Sebastian Bach Kapellmeister at the end of
1717. In 1716, Heinichen met in Venice Prince Augustus III of Poland,
son of King Augustus II the Strong, and thanks to him was appointed the
Royal-Polish and Electoral-Saxon Kapellmeister in Dresden. His pupils
included Johann Georg Pisendel. In 1721, Heinichen married in
Weissenfels; the birth of his only child is recorded as January 1723. In
his final years, Heinichen's health suffered greatly; on the afternoon
of 16 July 1729, he was buried in the Johannes cemetery after finally
succumbing to tuberculosis.
German composer and violinist. In 1686, he moved to Leiden, in the
Netherlands, where he registered at the University of Leiden as a
Musicus Academiae, but his name does not appear in the university's
archives. In 1696, a collection of twelve of his trio sonatas appeared,
entitled 'Il giardino armonico sacro-profano'. Edited by François
Barbry, it was published in Bruges by François van Heurck; no copies of
the last six, or of Albicastro's opus 1 or opus 2 from Bruges seem to
have survived. In Amsterdam a separate set of opus numbers were
published by Estienne Roger: collections of violin sonatas (Opp. 2, 3,
5, 6 and 9), trio sonatas (Opp. 1, 4 and 8), and string concertos (Op.
7) in a Corellian idiom. During the last phases of the War of the
Spanish Succession (1701-1713), he served as a captain of cavalry. He
remained active in this position until 1730, when he died in Maastricht.
One source erroneously suggests he may have died in 1738.
Spanish composer and organist. Born to a family of musicians, he began
his musical training under his father José Antonio Nebra (1672-1748),
who had settled in Cuenca as cathedral organist and teacher of the
choirboys (1711-1729) and later became maestro de capilla (1729-1748).
In 1719 José de Nebra became organist at the convent of Descalzas. In
1722 he served in the Osuna household as a musician, and in 1724 he was
appointed as one of the organists of the royal chapel in Madrid. By 1751
he had become vice-maestro and a teacher at the Colegio de niños
cantores, later serving at the Jeronimos convent as organist. His
students include Antonio Soler. Nebra’s focus as a composer was on
native Spanish stage works, including the autos sacramentales,
zarzuelas, and comedias. His music includes 21 autos sacramentales, 51
theatre works, 40 villancicos, 10 versos, 16 keyboard sonatas, two
Masses, 18 Lamentations, four vespers, 16 Salve Reginas, a Requiem, 23
Psalms, 22 hymns, 21 responsories, toccatas, and a number of smaller
sacred works. His two brothers were also musicians: Francisco Javier
Nebra (1705-1741) was organist at La Seo, Zaragoza (1727-1729) and then
in Cuenca (1729-1741), and Joaquín Nebra (1709-1782) was organist at La
Seo, Zaragoza, from 1730 until his death. His nephew Manuel de Nebra
Blasco (1750-1784) was an organist and composer.
Spanish composer. He was a choirboy at Tarazona Cathedral, where he was
taught music by Francisco Javier Gibert and José Angel Martinchique. He
later moved to Zaragoza, where he studied the organ with Ramón Ferreñac.
From an early age he was organist and choirmaster in various collegiate
churches: Borja (1807), Tafalla (1809), Calatayud (where he is known to
have been about 1824) and finally Bilbao (1830), where he remained
until his death. He was a prolific composer of masses, Lamentations,
motets and villancicos. Although his music reflects the bombastic and
theatrical tendencies of his age, he had a sound technique and a certain
nobility of invention. He was also active with Hilarión Eslava in
efforts to renew and purify religious music.
German composer. As a small child he learnt to play the violin,
encouraged by his elder brother Johann Ludwig Anton, who was himself
considered an excellent violinist. He also learnt the piano, and
according to his own account in his autobiography (1775) could play the
first part of J.S. Bach’s Das wohltemperirte Clavier from memory when he
was 16. After his father’s death in 1751 he lived with his mother and
eldest brother in Gröbzig until 1755. A copy that he made of the trio
sonata from Bach’s Musical Offering dates from this period; it is now
considered lost. He then attended the Lutheran Gymnasium in Cöthen,
1755-58. From 1758 he studied law at Halle-Wittenberg University; he
also had lessons with W.F. Bach and in return deputized for him as a
church organist. Soon after Rust had completed his studies there, Prince
Leopold Friedrich Franz of Anhalt-Dessau sent him to Zerbst to study
with Carl Höckh, and then to Berlin and Potsdam (July 1763-April 1764)
to study the violin with Franz Benda and keyboard instruments with
C.P.E. Bach. In 1765-66 he visited Italy in the prince’s retinue, and
there completed his musical training. He then settled in Dessau, where a
lively court and civic musical life soon developed under his influence,
and he wrote most of his compositions for it. From 1769 he organized
regular subscription concerts, with music performed by both court
musicians and amateurs, and in 1775 a theatre was founded, a project for
which Rust was largely responsible. His achievements were recognized in
April 1775, when the prince made him court music director. He married
his former singing pupil Henriette Niedhardt in May; the couple had
eight children, two of whom became professional musicians. In his
lifetime Rust was honoured and esteemed as an instrumentalist and
composer; contemporary lexicons and his correspondence with colleagues
bear eloquent witness to this. He was also active as a teacher, and
trained a series of well-regarded instrumentalists and singers. The
surviving instrumental music includes works for clavichord, viola
d’amore, harp, lute, and nail violin, the sound of which appealed to his
introverted nature. In addition to large-scale vocal works and six
stage works he also wrote some 100 lieder, of which 70 have been made
usable for modern performance.
Charles d'Ambleville (1587-1637) - Missa Psallite Domino des 'Harmonia sacra, seu vesperae in dies
tum dominicos, tum festos totius anni, una cum missa ac litaniis beatae
virginis cum sex vocibus' (1636)
Performers: Ensemble Meihua Fleur de Prunus; Chœur du Centre Catholique
Chinois de Paris;
French composer. All that is known of his life is that in 1626 he was
procureur of the Compagnie de Jésus at Rouen. He left only musical
works, from which we may infer that he was director of music of one of
the colleges of his order. His Octonarium sacrum (1634) is a set of
five-part verses for the Magnificat, using all eight tones; they are
fugal and closely resemble similar pieces by Nicolas Formé. Two years
later he published his Harmonia sacra in two complementary volumes for
four and six voices respectively. It includes works for double choir in a
distinctly modern style originating in Italy that had already been
adopted in France by several composers. Each volume also contains
several masses and motets for a single choir. The double-choir works are
for liturgical use and comprise psalms, motets and hymns.
Bohemian composer and double bass player. The precise date and location
of his birth remain uncertain. When he died in 1792, the death register
in Ludwigslust recorded his age as 42, placing his birth in the year
1750. He is believed to have received early musical training from the
Jesuits in Prague. In 1773 he left his native country and found
employment in the Hofkapelle of Prince Kraft Ernst of
Oettingen-Wallerstein whom he served for sixteen years, becoming
Kapellmeister in 1785. While there, he orchestrated two piano concerti
by Anna von Schaden. In July 1789 Rosetti left Wallerstein to accept the
post of Kapellmeister to the Duke Friedrich Franz I of
Mecklenburg-Schwerin in Ludwigslust where he died in service of the duke
on 30 June 1792 at the age of 42 years. In 1777, he married Rosina
Neher, with whom he had three daughters. In late 1781 he was granted
leave to spend 5 months in Paris. Many of the finest ensembles in the
city performed his works. Rosetti arranged for his music to be
published, including a set of six symphonies published in 1782. He
returned to his post, assured of recognition as an accomplished
composer. As a composer, he wrote over 400 compositions, primarily
instrumental music including many symphonies and concertos which were
widely published. Rosetti also composed a significant number of vocal
and choral works, particularly in the last few years of his life. Among
these are German oratorios including Der sterbende Jesu and Jesus in
Gethsemane (1790) and a German Hallelujah. The English music historian
Charles Burney included Rosetti among the most popular composers of the
period in his work A General History of Music. Rosetti is perhaps best
known today for his horn concertos, which Mozart scholar H. C. Robbins
Landon suggests (in The Mozart Companion) may have been a model for
Mozart's four horn concertos. Rosetti is also known for writing a
Requiem (1776) which was performed at a memorial for Mozart in December
1791. Attributing some music to Rosetti is difficult because several
other composers with similar names worked at the same time, including
Franciscus Xaverius Antonius Rössler.
Italian composer. He studied with Francesco Fortunati and Gaspare
Ghiretti in Parma, producing his first stage work, the prose opera
'Orphee et Euridice', there in 1791. On July 14, 1792, he was appointed
honorary maestro di cappella to the court of Parma, bringing out his
opera 'Le astuzie amorose' that same year at the Teatro Ducale there.
His finest work of the period was 'Griselda, ossia La virtu at cimento'
(Parma, 1798). In 1797 he was appointed music director ofthe
Karnthnertortheater in Vienna. While there, he made the acquaintance of
Beethoven, who expressed admiration for his work. It was in Vienna that
he composed one of his finest operas, 'Camilla, ossia II sotteraneo'
(1799). After a visit to Prague in 1801, he accepted the appointment of
court Kapellmeister in Dresden. Three of his most important operas were
premiered there: 'I Fuorusciti di Firenze' 1802), 'Sargino, ossia
L'Allievo del Vamore' (1803), and 'Leonora, ossia L'amore conjugate'
(1804), a work identical in subject with that of Beethoven's Fidelio
(1805). In 1806 he resigned his Dresden post and accepted an invitation
to visit Napoleon in Posen and Warsaw. In 1807 Napoleon appointed him
his maitre de chapelle in Paris, where he also became director of the
Opera-Comique. Following the dismissal of Spontini in 1812, he was
appointed director of the Theatre-Italien. One of his most successful
operas of the period, 'Le Maitre de chapelle' (Paris, 1821), remained in
the repertoire in its Italian version until the early years of the 20th
century. Paer's tenure at the Theatre-Italien continued through the
vicissitudes of Catalani's management (1814-17) and the troubled joint
directorship with Rossini (1824-27). After his dismissal in 1827, he was
awarded the cross of the Legion d'honneur in 1828 and he was elected a
member of the Institute of the Academie des Beaux Arts in 1831. He was
appointed director of music of Louis Philippe's private chapel in 1832.
As a composer, he was a prolific composer, producing at least 55 operas,
most of them during the 25-year span from 1791 to 1816. His vocal
writing was highly effective, as was his instrumentation. He was one of
the central figures in the development of opera semiseria during the
first decade of the 19th century. Nevertheless, his operas have
disappeared from the active repertoire.
