Antonio Gianettini (1648-1721)
- Salmi a quattro voci (1717)
Performers: Cantar Lοntano; Marco Mеncοbοni (conductor)
Further info: Notti Di Modena
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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.
