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.
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.
Italian violinist and composer. He was born the eldest of nine children
of Giovanni Battista Vivaldi (1655-1736), a violinist at Basilica San
Marco in Venice. He took the tonsure on 18 September 1693, trained for
the Roman Catholic priesthood, and was ordained on 23 March 1703.
However, a condition that Vivaldi himself described as strettezza di
petto (“tightness of the chest”), probably bronchial asthma, had the
curious effect of preventing his celebrating the mass from 1706 onward
yet allowing his extensive teaching, publishing, and traveling about
Italy to oversee his operatic productions. While training for the
priesthood, he probably learned the fundamentals of violin from his
father and occasionally substituted for him at San Marco. Son Antonio’s
performance as an extra violinist at the basilica for Christmas 1696 is
his first documented public appearance. Thereafter, he developed into a
violinist of international reputation, with technical capacities that
founded much of the innovation of his solo violin concertos. Vivaldi’s
income as a musician came from three different kinds of activity, which
constantly intertwine chronologically: as a salaried violin teacher at
the famous Pio Ospedale at the Pietà, as an independent opera composer
and impresario, and as a composer of instrumental publications for sale.
He was appointed master of violin teaching della Pieta in 1703 by
Francesco Gasparini, and his intermittent and at times tumultuous
relationship with the governors of the Pietà would last until nearly the
end of his life. His duties included teaching the young girls on
various string instruments, maintaining the instruments, directing
ensembles, and composing music for them.
In April 1718, he did not apply for reappointment at the Pietà, perhaps
because he had been invited to Mantua to compose operas. From 1723 to
1729, Vivaldi composed about 140 concertos for the Pietà on commission
and rehearsed them with the girls when he was in Venice. The governors
hired him again, this time as maestro di cappella in 1735 but, tiring of
his many travels, dismissed him in March 1738. The last transaction
between Vivaldi and the Pietà was the sale of 20 concertos in May 1740.
His earliest known opera, Ottone in Villa, opened in the city of Vicenza
in May 1713. Thereafter, he was associated with the public theater at
Sant’ Angelo in Venice. The Hapsburg governor of Mantua, Prince Phillip
of Hesse-Darmstadt, appointed him maestro di cappella di camera. From
1733 to 1735, he composed operas for the Teatro Sant’ Angelo and for
another Venetian venue, Teatro San Samuele, working with the brilliant
young Venetian poet Carlo Goldoni. He was offered a chance
to compose operas for the Carnivals of 1737, 1738, and 1739 in Ferrara,
but the Archbishop Tommaso Cardinal Ruffo forbad Vivaldi to enter the
city, possibly on account of Anna Girò. A chance to perform at Vienna’s
Kärntnertortheater seems to have inspired Vivaldi’s last journey in
1740, but the death of Emperor Charles VI in October shut down all the
theaters throughout the Carnival period of 1741. Vivaldi stayed on,
perhaps too sick or poor to return to Venice. His last documented
professional act was the sale of some concertos to one Count Antonio
Vinciguerra of Collalto. On 27 or 28 July, he died and was buried as a
pauper in the Spittaler Gottsacker, a hospital burial ground in Vienna.
Philipp Heinrich Erlebach (1657-1714)
- Ouverture (IV, d-moll) aus 'VI. Ouvertures, begleitet mit ihren
darzu schicklichen Airs, nach französischer Art und Manier eingerichtet
und gesetzet' (1693)
Performers: Musica antiqua Köln; Reinhard Goеbеl (conductor)
German composer. He was one of the leading composers of his time in
central Germany, especially of church music and more particularly of
cantatas, of which he wrote several hundred. Erlebach probably received
his earliest musical training at the East Friesian court. Through the
family connections of the ruling house he was sent with a recommendation
to Thuringia, where he was employed from 1678 to 1679, first as
musician and valet and then, from 1681, as Kapellmeister, at the court
of Count Albert Anton von Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt. At Rudolstadt he
entered a lively musical environment. During his 33 years as
Kapellmeister he not only succeeded in making this small establishment
into a main centre of musical activity in Thuringia but also made a
considerable name for himself in central Germany as a composer. He
enjoyed both musical and personal relations with J.P. Krieger,
Kapellmeister of the court at Weissenfels, and he paid visits to the
ducal court of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and to Nuremberg, where several of
his works were printed. In 1705 he took part, as a member of Albert
Anton's retinue, in a ceremony of homage to the Emperor Joseph I at
Mühlhausen, where, with the Rudolstadt court orchestra, he directed a
large-scale ceremonial work, which he had composed for the occasion and
which is his only music to survive in an autograph copy. He wrote
several pieces for the funerals of Albert Anton (1710) and of his
consort (1707). When Albert Anton's son Ludwig Friedrich came to the
throne in 1711, the event was celebrated with a number of festival
cantatas, all of which Erlebach also composed. In his last years he was
revered and sought out above all as a teacher; Johann Caspar Vogler, who
also studied with Bach, was one of the many musicians who learnt the
rudiments of their craft from him. After his death the Rudolstadt court
bought his collection of music from his widow; it included many sacred
and secular works that were destroyed by fire in 1735 and are known now
only from two extensive catalogues.
Erlebach composed in nearly all the forms common at the time and was
equally successful in instrumental and vocal works. Of his 120 or so
instrumental works there survive only six suites, six trio sonatas and a
march. The suites show the influence of French orchestral suites, and
the trio sonatas that of the Italian sonata da camera; in all these
works Erlebach succeeded in uniting foreign formal elements with German
features, which can be seen above all in the distinctly folklike nature
of some of the melodic material and which also produces sonorities
reminiscent of those of vocal music. Erlebach was most prolific as a
composer of church music, which was the field in which he began his
career as a composer about 1680. His sacred music embraces a cappella
motets for four or more voices, concertato psalms and hymns, masses,
oratorios (the Christmas, Easter, Resurrection and Whitsuntide stories
and pieces for the New Year) and various kinds of cantata. All the
oratorios are lost, and only some of their texts are extant. But his
best works in the other genres bear witness to his mastery as a composer
of church music. His psalm settings, which adhere to the style of the
sacred concerto for large forces, are interesting particularly for their
colourful harmonies, precisely indicated contrasts of tempo and
dynamics and free use of madrigalian motifs: such features, following in
the wake of Schütz's achievements, helped to enhance the importance of
works of this type, at least in central Germany. Erlebach soon began to
specialize as a composer of cantatas. Most of them are lost, but their
texts show a logical development from those closely adhering to Gospel
passages, through those containing arias and concerto-like textures
conceived on soloistic lines, to cantatas based on free texts with
recitative and da capo arias, and to solo cantatas with an obbligato
instrument.
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.
Bohemian composer and violinist. Son of Jan Jiří Benda (1686-1757) and
brother of Franz Benda (1709-1786), Johann Georg Benda (1713-1752) and
of the soprano Anna Franziska Benda (1728-1781), he trained initially by
his father. He later was sent to a local school in Kosmonosy in 1735,
and in 1739 he attended the Jesuit Gymnasium in Jičín in music. In 1742
he joined family members in Berlin, where he functioned for a few years
as a violinist. In 1750 he was offered the position of Kapellmeister at
the court of Saxe-Gotha by Duke Friedrich III, where he composed mainly
church music. A journey to Italy in 1765 brought him into contact with
leading opera composers of the day, who influenced his compositional
style. In 1770 he was named kapelldirector, a largely symbolic post, but
his regular duties for Friedrich’s successor, Duke Ernst II, included
writing a new style of work that fused spoken drama with music, called
the duodrama. The first work, Ariadne auf Naxos, was performed in 1774
and soon began to be imitated throughout Germany. At the same time,
Benda gained a reputation as a composer of Singspiel, becoming the most
popular composer of the genre of the time. A dispute with rival Anton
Schweitzer led him to resign his post and leave Gotha for a year of
travel to Hamburg and Vienna. Increasing fame brought about by his
duodramas subsequently allowed him to tour various musical centers, such
as Paris in 1781 and Mannheim in 1787, although he was formally
retired. His last work, ironically, is a cantata titled Bendas Klagen
from 1792. As a composer, Benda was one of the most celebrated people of
the latter 18th century, known mainly for his sacred music and
innovations in theatre music. In his duodramas in particular, one can
note a carefully delineated harmonic and melodic sensitivity that
underscores the text. His Singspiels are noted for their more complex
musical settings and serious tone that is often far more progressive
than in similar works by Johann Adam Hiller. His instrumental music,
however, still maintains elements of the galant style, with sequenced
themes and short rhythmic motives. His works include 13 operas
(including incidental music and duodramas), 166 cantatas (mainly
Lutheran), two Masses, an oratorio, six secular cantatas, about 25
Lieder, 30 symphonies, 23 concertos (mostly violin and harpsichord), 54
keyboard sonatas, and several other sonatas for violin and flute, as
well as a large number of keyboard works. His son Friedrich Ludwig Benda
(1752-1792) was also a composer and violinist.
German composer. Almost nothing is known about his life. He was
initially active as a composer in Salzburg from 1899 to 1909. Later he
settled in Innsbruck where he served as a choirmaster for the Servite
Order. Among his duties, he wrote several sacred works the most of which
were performed during the religious services there. Although he was
largely forgotten after his early death fighting as a soldier at
Folgoridapaß in Trentino, his music achieved success and was published
by Böhm Verlag in Augsburg.
Leopold Koželuh (1747-1818)
- Concerto (B-Dur) | per | Clavicembalo ô Forte-Piano | a quatro
mani | con l'accompagnamento di | 2 Violini | 2 Oboi | 2 Corni in B |
Viola e Violoncello (c.1786)
Performers: Elena Sorokina (piano); Alexander Bakhchiev (1930-2007,
piano); Symphony Orchestra Northern Crown; Yuri Nikolaevsky (1925-2003,
conductor)
Bohemian composer, pianist, music teacher and publisher. His earliest
musical education was under Antonín Kubík and his cousin Jan Antonín
Koželuh (1738-1814) in his hometown. By 1771 he had moved to Prague,
where he studied briefly under František Xaver Dusek and wrote ballets
for the National Theatre. By 1774 he had Germanized his name to prevent
confusion with his cousin Jan Antonín Koželuh, arriving in Vienna in
1778 to study under Johann Georg Albrechtsberger. In 1781 he was given
the post as teacher of Archduchess Elisabeth, Georg Christoph
Wagenseil’s old position. By 1781 he was so well established there that
he could refuse an offer to succeed Mozart as court organist to the
Archbishop of Salzburg. He remained active in Viennese musical and
social circles the remainder of his life. In 1792, he succeeded Mozart
as Kammermusicus to the Imperial Court in Vienna. Although he is best
known for his disparaging remarks on the music of Mozart, Joseph Haydn,
and Ludwig van Beethoven, as a composer he had a reputation for works
that demonstrated good orchestration and solid formal structures. His
400 or so compositions include six operas, 25 ballets, five Masses,
numerous smaller church works, two oratorios, 30 symphonies, 22 piano
concertos (plus others for clarinet and bassoon), two sinfonia
concertantes, 24 violin sonatas, six string quartets, 63 keyboard trios,
10 parthies, two serenades, eight divertimentos, 61 dances, 87 keyboard
sonatas, nine secular cantatas, and six vocal notturnos. His daughter
Katharina Koželuh-Cibbini (1785-1858) was a well-known pianist and
composer of piano music during the early 19th century in Vienna.
Spanish composer. Son Bartolomé González Gaitán and Ana Luisa de
Arteaga, both originally from Córdoba, he was the sixth of their seven
children. On May 14th of 1725, he appears as an aspiring choir boy, at
the age of 9. Before entering the choir, he complies with the 'estatuto
de limpieza de sangre', which was an essential requirement to enter to
serve at the Cathedral of Córdoba. Juan Manuel teachers’ of canto de
organo were Pedro Millán, Francisco del Rayo, violinist of the
Cathedral, and Pedro Corchado. On 1734, at the age of 18, he got
economical support from 'ayuda de costa' to go to Italy, in order to
better dedicate himself to music and composition. In Naples, he was
exposed to opera buffa and the use of turquerías, elements that would
later influence the style of his Spanish compositions. His earliest
known work, 'Misa a 8 Pangelingua', was composed in 1740. It is not
clear how many years he stayed in Italy, however, in 1748 he was already
maestro de capilla at the Cathedral of Segovia where he would stay
until 1752, when he moved to Córdoba being eligible as the same post.
During his time in Córdoba he was responsible for about 45 musicians in
the chapel. He remained in that post until 1779. It was then, when he
requested and was granted his retirement in 1780 because of his poor
health. Since his retirement, he did not loose contact with cathedral.
In 1785 he was appointed to the opposition tribunal for Chapel Master.
In June 1802 Franciscans welcomed him into their convent until his
death. As a composer, his extant output is around 77 works, mainly
preserved in the archive of the Cathedral of Córdoba. His compositions
include antiphons, canticles, hymns, invitatories, lamentations, masses,
motets, and other sacred pieces.
Italian cellist and composer. Almost nothing is known about his life.
Only the work 'VI Concertino A Violoncello Solo E Cembalo', published
around 1740, is extant. Although the sheet music incorrectly attributes
its printing to Amsterdam publisher Michel-Charles Le Cène, the actual
publisher remains unknown. The cover of this publication identifies
Zocarini as an 'amatore della musica'. Given his focus on the cello in
his compositions, it's believed Zocarini was a skilled cellist. He may
also have performed in Paris in 1737 under the name Zuccharini.
German composer and organist. He received his earliest musical education
at the Jesuit Gymnasium in Augsburg in 1712, where he was a pupil of
Georg Egger and Balthasar Siberer. He moved to Salzburg in 1721 to
attend university, and in 1727 he was named organist in the main
cathedral. By 1749 he had attained the position of Kapellmeister for
Archbishop Schrattenbach, which he held until his death. In 1752
Eberlin’s daughter Maria Josefa Katharina Eberlin (1730-1755) married
Anton Cajetan Adlgasser, who two years later became cathedral organist.
Eberlin received the honorary appointment of Titular-Truchsess, or
princely steward, in 1754 and was widely honoured and respected at the
time of his death. Leopold Mozart, in his description of the Salzburg
musical establishment (published in F.W. Marpurg’s 'Historisch-kritische
Beyträge zur Aufnahme der Musik', 1757), called Eberlin ‘a thorough and
accomplished master of the art of composing … He is entirely in command
of the notes, and he composes easily and rapidly … One can compare him
to the two famous and industrious composers, [Alessandro] Scarlatti and
Telemann’. As a composer, he was known mainly for his sacred music,
which was written for both the main cathedral, the Benedictine-run
university, and the St. Peter’s monastery church. These include over 95
plays and other didactic music such as the monodrama 'Sigismundus'
(1763), 11 oratorios, three operas, 58 Masses, 160 settings of the Mass
Proper, numerous hymns, litanies, Psalms, and responsories as well as 21
German sacred arias, nine Requiems, three symphonies, nine toccata and
fugues, 65 preludes and versetti, and other smaller keyboard works.
Eberlin influenced composers of the next generation chiefly through his
sacred vocal music, among them Leopold and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and
Johann Michael Haydn. His daughter, Maria Caecilia Barbara Eberlin
(1728-1806), also became a composer and was married to composer Joseph
Meissner.
German composer, choir director and organist. He was a choirboy at the
chapel of the royal convent in Hall, and sang in school comedies at the
Jesuit Gymnasium there (1743-45); he continued his studies at the
monastery of Polling, Bavaria, and at Freising. In 1749 he entered the
Benedictine monastery at Andechs and in 1754 was ordained priest.
According to his foreword to the Offertories, Op.1, he studied at
Andechs with the music director Gregor Schreyer, was the monastery's
assistant director of music (1755), organist and director of the
Tafelmusik (1757), leader of the Figuralchor (1760) and singing master
(1761-62). In 1763, to encourage his compositional activity, Abbot
Meinrad Moosmüller sent him to visit the Italian Opera in Munich. In
1767 he became the music director and leader of the boys’ classes at the
Andechs monastery. In 1772-74 and 1791-94 he was a priest at the
convent of Lilienberg, Munich. Madlseder was considered an outstanding
theoretician and contrapuntist and was highly regarded as a
Kapellmeister and organist. His symphony shows Mannheim and Viennese
Classical influences. The sacred vocal works, with their coloratura solo
parts and fugal sections, are frequently demanding for the singer. His
brother Josef Madlseder (1740-1806) was a bass singer and Kammervirtuos
at Passau, and from 1803 a member of the choir at Salzburg Cathedral.
German composer. Since his father, who died in 1645, had held an
important administrative post at the court of the Margrave of
Brandenburg-Ansbach, and his mother’s family were natives of Ansbach, it
is likely that he had a superior education at a Latin school there. He
served there as court musician from 1665 until 1679. He composed three
operas for the Ansbach court: 'Die unvergleichliche Andromeda' (1675),
'Der verliebte Föbus' (1678), and 'Die drei Tochier Cecrops' (1679). On
January 17, 1679, in a fit of jealousy, he allegedly killed the court
musician 'Ulbrecht', and was forced to flee. He found refuge in Hamburg
with his wife, Anna Susanna Wilbel (whom he had married in 1666), and
gained a prominent position at the Hamburg Opera. Between 1679 and 1686
he wrote and produced 17 operas, the most important of which was
'Diokletian' (1682). His private life continued to be stormy; he
deserted his wife and their 10 children, and went to London, where he
remained from 1690 to about 1702. In London he organized, with Robert
King, a series of Concerts of Vocal and Instrumental Music. The exact
date and place of his death are unknown, but a report in Johannes
Moller’s 'Cimbria litterata' (Copenhagen, 1744) makes the intriguing
suggestion that he may have been murdered in Spain. As a composer, he
published 'Geistliche Lieder' (Hamburg, 1681, 1685, 1687, 1700),
'Remedium melancholiae' (London, 1690), arias, and sacred music.
Italian violinist, teacher and composer. He received a formal music
education at the Conservatorio di Santa Maria di Loreto in 1657. When
his teacher, the violinist Carlo de Vincentiis, died in 1677, he took
over as principal violinist of the royal chapel in Naples, remaining in
the post for more than 50 years. He also took the role of first violin
in the orchestra of the Teatro San Bartolomeo. He was a close friend of
Alessandro Scarlatti during his career, and held in high esteem by his
contemporaries. Marchitelli died of old age and was buried at the Chiesa
di San Nicola alla Carità in Naples, in 1729. As a teacher, his pupils
included his nephews Michele Mascitti and Giovanni Sebastiano Sabatino.
As a composer, almost his whole output is lost, but he wrote several
sonatas and concertos which closely follow the model established by
Arcangelo Corelli in both form and pattern of movements.
German composer, teacher and writer on music. The second child of Josef
Mayr, a schoolteacher and organist, and Maria Anna Prantmayer, a
brewer’s daughter from Augsburg, he received his early musical education
from his father. In 1774 he entered the Jesuit college in Ingolstadt,
and in 1781 he began to study law and theology at the University of
Ingolstadt, where he taught himself various orchestral instruments and
supported himself by playing the organ. In 1787 a Swiss Freiherr, Thomas
von Bassus, took him to Italy to further his musical education; in 1789
he commenced studies with Carlo Lenzi in Bergamo; he then was sent to
Ferdinando Bertoni in Venice. He began his career as a composer of
sacred music; his oratorios were performed in Venice. After the death of
his patron in 1793, he was encouraged by Niccolò Piccinni and Peter von
Winter to compose operas. His first opera, 'Saffo o sia I riti d'Apollo
Leucadio', was performed in Venice in 1794. He gained renown with his
opera 'Ginevra di Scozia' (Trieste, 1801), and it remained a favorite
with audiences; also successful were his operas 'La rosa bianca e la
rosa rossa' (Genoa, 1813) and 'Medea in Corinto' (Naples, 1813). In 1802
he became maestro di cappella at Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo, and
in 1805 he reorganized the choir school of the Cathedral as the Lezioni
Caritatevoli di Musica and assumed its directorship. Intractable
cataracts, which led to total blindness in 1826, forced him to limit his
activities to organ playing. In 1822 he founded the Societa Filarmonica
of Bergamo. As a composer, his operas, while reflecting the late
Neapolitan school, are noteworthy for their harmonization and
orchestration, which are derived from the German tradition. After 1815
he devoted most of his time to composing sacred music, which totals some
600 works in all. He was also an eminent pedagogue and Gaetano
Donizetti was among his pupils. Johann Simon Mayr was a leading figure
in the development of opera seria in the last decade of the 18th Century
and the first two decades of the 19th Century.
