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.
Moravian composer. He attended the schools in Opava and Freiberg where
was considered a proficient student, but the origins of his musical
education remain unknown. He arrived in Częstochowa after graduating. On
21 September 1814 he entered as a 'novititate' and one year later he
took his monastic vows and assumed the name Cyril. As a monk he attended
the lectures of philosophy and theology in the General School of the
Polish province in Jasna Góra and in the monastery of Warsaw. After two
years he was ordained and he assumed the cantor post of the order in
Jasna Góra. In 1817 he was transferred to the St. Sigismund monastery in
Częstochowa and later to the church in Konopiska. From there he came
back to Jasna Góra where he resumed his musical activity until 1819.
Since 1820 he assumed a post of preacher and confessor of the Francis
Xavier German Brotherhood in Warsaw. There he translated his surname to
Gieczyński. In 1823 he left the order and assumed a priest post in
Niegów, where he remained the rest of his life. As a composer he mainly
wrote sacred music when he was active at Jasna Góra. His extant output
comprises 2 masses as well as other minor religious works.
German composer. Son of Johann Jacob Bach (1655-1718), nothing is known
of his musical training, but he probably received some early instruction
from his father before attending the Gotha Gymnasium in 1688-1693. At
the age of 22 he moved to Meiningen eventually being appointed cantor
there, and later Kapellmeister. He wrote a large amount of music and
regularly oversaw performances, both at Meiningen and neighbouring
courts. He was a third cousin of Johann Sebastian Bach, who made copies
of several of his cantatas and performed them at Leipzig. The cantata
'Denn du wirst meine Seele nicht in der Hölle lassen', BWV 15, once
thought to be by Johann Sebastian, and listed as BWV 15 in Wolfgang
Schmieder's catalogue of his works, is now thought to be by Johann
Ludwig.
Czech composer, harpsichordist, oboist, organist, musicologist and
pedagogue. After graduating from the Prague Conservatory majoring in
organ studies, he went on to study oboe at the Janáček Academy of Music
and Performing Arts. He had worked as an oboist for the Prague Radio
Symphony Orchestra and Prague Chamber Orchestra. He was known for his
tenure as a professor of the Prague Conservatory where he had taught a
number of notable Czech oboe players (among them, his son Jan Thuri and
the soloist Vilém Veverka), who constitute the main corpus of current
soloists in Czech orchestras and solo oboe performers. In the Czech
Republic he was often called 'the last baroque composer', having written
an extensive number of works in baroque and early classicism style.
German lutenist. He was the son of Johann Christian Falckenhagen, a
schoolmaster. When he was ten he went to live for eight years with his
uncle Johann Gottlob Erlmann, a pastor in Knauthain near Leipzig. There
he underwent training ‘in literis et musicis’, particularly the
harpsichord and, later, the lute. He then perfected his lute playing
with Johann Jacob Graf in Merseburg, where in 1715 he is mentioned as a
footman and musician in the service of the young Count Carl Heinrich von
Dieskau. In the winter term of 1719 he entered Leipzig University; a
year later he went to Weissenfels, where he remained for seven years as a
lute teacher. From about 1724 he was also employed as a chamber
musician and lutenist at the court of Duke Christian, where his presence
is documented for 1726, together with that of his wife, the singer
Johanna Aemilia. During this time he undertook various tours and enjoyed
several months’ instruction from the famous lutenist Silvius Leopold
Weiss in Dresden. After two years in Jena, he was in the service of Duke
Ernst August of Saxony-Weimar from May 1729 to 15 August 1732. By 1734
he was employed at the Bayreuth court. In 1736 Margrave Friedrich
appointed him ‘Virtuosissimo on the Lute and Chamber Musician Second to
the Kapellmeister Johann Pfeiffer’. About 1746 he referred to himself as
‘Cammer-Secretarius Registrator’ of Brandenburg-Culmbach. Falckenhagen
was one of the last important lute composers. Although some of his works
are rooted in the Baroque tradition like those of his teacher, Weiss,
they show a progressive tendency towards the galant style.
German composer. Son of Johann Elias Mohrheim, Kantor in Neumark, he
enrolled at the Thomasschule in Leipzig on 18 April 1733. There he
studied with J.S. Bach from 1733 to 1736, and, like other J.S. Bach's
pupils, acted as copyist for him during this period, identified in the
manuscripts. He continued his studies at Universität Jena from 1738
(enrollment on February 4, 1738); and at Universität Halle from 1739
(enrollment on June 9, 1739). After his studied, he was appointed
substitute of Johann Balthasar Christian Freißlich from 1750 and
Kapellmeister from 1764 at St. Marien in Danzig, where he died. As a
composer, his output consists primarily of sacred music, though he also
wrote several concertos and organ works.
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.
Lambert Chaumont (c.1630-1712)
- Suite du 4e ton des 'Pièces d'orgue sur les 8 tons avec leurs
variété, leurs agrémens, leurs mouvemens et le mélange de jeux propres à
chaque espèce de verset' (1695)
Flemish composer. The earliest mention of his name dates from January
1649, when he is listed as a lay brother at the Carmelite monastery at
Liège. An entry for 8 May 1659 in the monastery accounts records that he
was one of nine brothers from there who had completed their novitiates
at the monastery at Reims. In any religious context he henceforth called
himself ‘Frère Lambert de St Théodore’. This important document leads
one to suppose that he was born about 1630 and proves that he was a
native of the diocese of Liège. He is not heard of again until 10
February 1674, when he was nominated rector of the small parish of St
Martin at Huy. On 7 September 1688 he became priest of the neighbouring
parish of St Germain and at the same time pater of the Carmelites at
Huy. He held both positions until his death. As a composer, his only
extant work is the collection 'Pièces d'orgue sur les 8 tons avec leurs
variété, leurs agrémens, leurs mouvemens et le mélange de jeux propres à
chaque espèce de verset' (1695). These pieces are in the finest
traditions of the French organists of the 17th century, grouping his
pieces in eight suites of 12 to 15 numbers following the order of the
eight church tones.
Georg Abraham Schneider (1770-1839)
- Concerto (D-Dur) | pour le | Violon et Alto | avec |
accompagnement | de | deux Violons, Alto et Basso, deux Fluts, deux
Obois | deux Cors et Fagotts, Op.19 (c.1820)
Performers: Hans Maile (violin); Stefano Passaggio (viola); RSO Berlin;
Lucas Vis (conductor)
German horn player, oboist and composer. He studied with Johann Wilhelm
Magnold in Darmstadt, where he became a member of the court chapel in
1787. He later took courses in theory and composition with Johann
Gottlieb Portmann. In 1795 he joined the Rheinsberg Court Orchestra,
then settled in Berlin and became a member of the royal chapel in 1803.
He founded a series of subscription concerts in 1807 and the
'Musikalische Ubungsakademie zur Bildung der Liebhaber' in 1818. He also
was conductor of the Reval theater (1813-16). He was made music
director of Berlin's royal theater in 1820 and then its Kapellmeister in
1825. He taught at the music school of the royal theater and at the
Prussian Academy of Arts, retiring in 1838. As a composer, his style was
entrusted to all the conventions of the late 18th Century. His daughter
Maschinka Schneider (1815-1882) was a soprano married with the composer
Franz Schubert (1808-1878). His son Louis Schneider (1805-1878) was a
writer and actor, and privy councillor and tutor to Friedrich Wilhelm
IV.
Spanish organist and composer. He was the son of the church sacristan of
Brihuega, Sebastián Durón (1626-1668), and his second wife Margarita
Picazo (1634-c.1685). After studying under Andrés de Sola in Zaragoza,
he served as second organist at Seville Cathedral from 1680 to 1685,
where he began composing liturgical music and took minor orders. Seeking
better financial compensation, he subsequently held positions as first
organist at the cathedrals of Burgo de Osma (1685) and Palencia
(1686-1691). On 23 September 1691 he was appointed organist at the royal
chapel in Madrid, under the principal organist José de Torres. In 1702
he became royal maestro de capilla and director of the royal choir
school. His professional tenure in Madrid concluded in 1706 following
his exile to France for political alignment with the Archduke of Austria
during the War of the Spanish Succession. As a composer, his extensive
output encompasses conservative Latin liturgical works, modern motets
with orchestral accompaniment, and vernacular villancicos that
integrated traditional Spanish Baroque elements with contemporary
theatrical techniques. His legacy is defined by this stylistic synthesis
and his role in advancing the expressive capabilities of Spanish vocal
and instrumental music during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth
centuries. The composer Diego Durón de Ortega (1653-1731) was his
half-brother.
Bohemian composer and teacher. The thirteenth child in the family of a
weaver and burgher, Jakub Tomášek, he acquired the rudiments of music
(in violin and singing) under the local choirmaster in Chrudim. At the
age of twelve he became a vocalist at the Minorite monastery in Jihlava,
where he also studied music theory and organ. In 1790 he left for
Prague, where he completed gymnasium and went on to earn a degree in
law. At university he also studied mathematics, history, and aesthetics.
While still at gymnasium he conscientiously studied music on his own.
Obtaining both new and old books on piano and composition, he continued
to work diligently at his music, so that by 1796 he was already famous
in Prague as a virtuoso of the piano. In 1806, with a number of
successful compositions behind him, he was taken on as a music teacher
and composer by Count Georg Franz Buquoy. Tomášek was thus financially
secure for the next sixteen years, and was able to concentrate on his
music. The position, on the other hand, also had its disadvantages, for
had he been forced to make a living as a touring virtuoso, say, he would
undoubtedly have met with a number of inspirations. In 1824, he founded
his own conservatory in Prague, and successfully competed in piano and
composition instruction with the established Prague conservatories and
organ schools. Among his important pupils were Jan Václav Hugo Voříšek,
Josef Dessauer, and Alexander Dreyschock. As a composer, he wrote in all
forms, from song to chamber and orchestral works, choral music,
cantata, opera, and church music. He started from the Viennese
Classicism, but was influenced by early Romanticism as well. This is
most evident in his songs and in particular his piano compositions. He
was the dominant musical figure in Prague during the first half of the
19th century. His influence was spread throughout Europe by his many
students and through his many widely distributed songs and his piano
music.
Bohemian organist and composer. He emerged from a family steeped in
musical tradition. In 1799 he married Veronika Hájková, with whom he had
six children, in Mirotice, a city where he worked briefly as regens
chori. In 1801 he was appointed as choir director at St. Nicholas
Cathedral in České Budějovice in a post he held the rest of his life. He
nurtured local musical talent by forming an amateur ensemble that would
eventually become the city's premier musical group. This ensemble
played a vital role in civic life, performing at important ceremonies,
including those in the historic Good City. On 17 April 1819 he married
for a second time Jana Nepomucena Laubová, with whom he had three
children, and on 29 August 1837 he married for a third time Rosalia
Zátková. As a composer, his huge output of over 1900 works, primarily
sacred, includes twenty-four masses, numerous arias, litanies, and
graduals, showcasing his mastery of liturgical music in the tradition of
classical style. He also composed dance music.
English composer. His father, Robert Bennett (1788-1819), an organist,
and his mother, Elizabeth Donn (1791-1818), died when he was a child,
and he was then placed in the care of his grandfather, John Bennett
(1754-1837), who was also a musician. At the age of eight he was
admitted to the choir of King's College Chapel, Cambridge, and at ten he
became a pupil at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he
studied theory with Charles Lucas and piano with William Henry Holmes,
and played violin in the academy orchestra under Cipriani Potter. He
later studied music theory there with William Crotch. Soon he began to
compose; he was 16 years old when he was the soloist in the first
performance of his Piano Concerto No.1 in Cambridge on 28 November 1832.
In 1836 he made an extensive visit to Leipzig, where he became a close
friend of Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann; also appeared as a
pianist and conductor of his own works with the Gewandhaus Orchestra
there. He continued to compose industriously, and played his Piano
Concerto No.4 with the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig on 17 January
1839. He visited Germany again in 1841-42. From 1843 to 1856 he gave a
series of chamber music concerts in London; in 1849 he founded the Bach
Society. From 1856 to 1866 he conducted the Philharmonic Society of
London; concurrently he held the post of professor of music at the
University of Cambridge; in 1866 he assumed the position of principal of
the Royal Academy of Music. His reputation as a composer grew. He
amassed honors: in 1856 he received the honorary degree of D.Mus. from
the University of Cambridge, which also conferred on him the degree of
M.A. in 1867; he received the degree of D.C.L. from the University of
Oxford in 1870; in a culmination of these honors, he was knighted by
Queen Victoria in 1871. The final honor was his burial in Westminster
Abbey. He ranks as the most distinguished English composer of the
Romantic school.
Franz Ignaz Danzi (1763-1826)
- Lateinische | Vesper=Psalmen | für | Sopran, Alt, Tenor und Bass
|
II Violinen, Viola und Orgel | II Trompetten u. Paucken ad Lib.
Performers: Erika Rüggeberg (1940-2018, soprano); Julia Falk (alto);
Albert Gassner (tenor); Carlo Schmid (bass); Chor der Herz-Jesukirche
München; Convivium Musicum München; Josef Schmidhuber (1924-1990,
conductor)
German composer and cellist. Son of Mannheim orchestra cellist Innocenz
Danzi (c.1730-1798), he received his earliest musical education in
Mannheim from members of the Kapelle, as well as Abbé Georg Joseph
Vogler. At the age of 15 he was appointed to the orchestra, but a few
years later he remained behind in Mannheim when the majority moved to
Munich. His earliest successes as a composer of works for the stage
occurred there, but in 1784 he was named his father’s successor as
principal cellist in Munich. In 1791 he undertook tours throughout
Germany as a conductor, including with the Guardasoni troupe. The death
of Carl Theodor in 1799 had a greater impact on Danzi’s career: the new
elector, Maximilian IV Joseph, was less sympathetic to German opera and
imposed financial restrictions on the theatres. Further, Danzi faced
opposition from rivals, including the new intendant Joseph Marius Babo
and the Kapellmeister Peter Winter. When his serious German opera
'Iphigenie in Aulis' was finally given in 1807, it was poorly prepared
and had only two performances; bitter and disappointed, Danzi left
Munich for Stuttgart. In October 1807, the King of Württemberg offered
Danzi the position of Kapellmeister at Stuttgart, where Zumsteeg had
been active. There Danzi met Carl Maria von Weber and encouraged the
younger composer as he completed his Singspiel 'Silvana'. Here he formed
a fast friendship with Carl Maria von Weber. In 1812 he moved to
Karlsruhe, where he spent the remainder of his life. An active composer,
he wrote 16 operas; incidental music to 25 plays; eight Masses; 87
chamber works, among which several dozen woodwind quintets were popular
throughout Europe; five symphonies; six sinfonia concertantes; concertos
for the bassoon, horn, flute, and violoncello; as well as a large
number of other sacred works, songs, and smaller instrumental pieces. He
was also active as a librettist. His style, though conservative, is
characterized by inventive use of orchestral color, particularly with
respect to the wind and brass instruments.
French organist, teacher, and composer. Son of Gaspard Corrette
(1671-1732), he probably received music lessons from his father. Though
little is known of his early life. He was married on 8 January 1733 to
Marie-Catherine Morize. They had a daughter Marie-Anne Corrette
(1734-c.1822) and a son Pierre-Michel Corrette (1744-1801), who became
an organist. Michel Corrette first established his reputation by
becoming musical director of the Foire St Germain and the Foire St
Laurent, where he arranged and composed vaudevilles and divertissements
for the opéras comiques (1732-39). From 1737 until its closure in 1790
he was organist at Ste Marie within the temple of the grand prieur of
France, thus serving the Chevalier d’Orléans, then the Prince de Conti
(1749), and finally the Duke d’Angoulême (1776). About a year after
beginning at the temple, he became organist at the Jesuit College in the
rue St-Antoine, a position he retained until the Jesuits were expelled
in 1762. In 1734 he was styled Grand maître des Chevaliers du Pivois,
from 1750 Chevalier de l’Ordre de Christ. He was a prolific composer,
producing concertos for harpsichord, organ, flute, and hurdy-gurdy,
sonatas, organ works, and a large output of sacred music. He also
prepared 17 methods on performing practice, 6 of which are lost.
Italian composer, violinist, teacher and theorist. Son of Giovanni
Antonio Tartini and Caterina Zangrando, his parents desired that he
enter the church, but while a law student at the University of Padua, he
married Elisabetta Premazore on 29 July 1710. Compelled to leave Padua,
he took refuge for three years in the convent of San Francesco
d’Assisi, where he studied the violin without a teacher. By 1714, he was
a violinist in the Ancona opera and spent the next years playing at
various theaters in northeastern Italy. On 16 April 1721, he was
appointed 'primo violino e capo di concerto' at San Antonio of Padua.
From 1723 to 1726, he was in Prague, in service to the Kinsky family,
where he met Johann Joseph Fux, Antonio Caldara, and Sylvius Weiss,
among other luminaries. Then he returned to Padua, started his school,
and about 1730, brought out his first published volume of violin works.
About 1740, he suffered a stroke that adversely affected his playing,
and he devoted more and more time to music theory in his last years. In
an age when composing for the church or the theater was the sure path to
success, he refused to do either and embarked upon an idiosyncratic
career establishing an international reputation as violinist and
philosopher of music, writing five treatises contesting the ideas of
Giovanni Battista Martini, Jean-Philippe Rameau, and Jean-Jacques
Rousseau, among others, and leaving an oeuvre concentrated on the
violin: about 135 solo violin concertos, about 135 violin sonatas with
continuo, 30 unaccompanied sonatas, and about 40 trio sonatas. He also
composed 2 flute concertos, 2 concertos for viola da gamba, 4 motets,
and 20 Italian sacred songs. Most of his living was made as a freelance
violinist. In the late 1720s, he founded his own school of violin
playing, the first of its type, known as 'school of the nations' because
it attracted students from all over Europe.
French composer. Son of Etienne Cardinal, Seigneur des Touches et de
Guilleville and a wealthy Parisian merchant, did not take the patronym
Destouches until his father's death in 1694. From 1681 to 1686 he was
schooled by the Jesuits of the rue St-Jacques. He later went as a boy to
Siam (now Thailand) with his teacher, the missionary Gui Tachard
(1686). He returned to France in 1688. He served in the Royal Musketeers
(1692-94), and later took lessons from Andre Campra, contributing 3
airs to André Campra's opera-ballet 'L'Europe galante' (1697). After
this initiation, he produced his first independent work, 'Isse, a heroic
pastorale' in 3 acts (1697); its popularity was parodied in several
productions of a similar pastoral nature ('Les Amours de Vincennes' by
P.F. Dominique, 1719; 'Les Oracles' by Jean-Antoine Romagnesi, 1741).
Among his other operas, the following were produced in Paris: 'Amadis de
Grece' (1699), 'Omphale' (1701), and 'Callirhoé' (1712). With
Michel-Richard de Lalande, he wrote the ballet 'Les Elements', which was
produced at the Tuileries Palace in Paris on 22 December 1721. In 1713
Louis XIV appointed him 'Inspector general' of the Academic Royale de
Musique. In 1728 he became its director, retiring in 1730. For
'maintaining order and discipline' he received a 4000 livre pension. A
revival of 'Omphale' in 1752 evoked Baron Grimm's famous 'Lettre sur
Omphale', inaugurating the so-called 'Guerre des Bouffons' between the
proponents of the French school, as exemplified by Destouches, and
Italian opera buffa. André Cardinal Destouches remained active musically
even in his last years. At 70, he conducted the orchestra for a masked
ball given by the daughters of Louis XV, and he kept control of the
queen's concerts until 1745. He died in his elegant home (today, 4 rue
Saint-Roch next to the church of Saint Roch), and was buried in the
crypt of the Chapel of the Virgin in that church.
German composer, theorist, and organist. Son of Johann Scheibe
(c.1680-1748), an organ builder, he was forced to teach himself music
around 1725 due to economic difficulties, at the same time as he was
attending Leipzig University in law and philosophy. By 1736 he had moved
to Hamburg when applications for posts in Leipzig proved unsuccessful,
coming into contact with Georg Philipp Telemann and Johann Mattheson.
During this period he published three volumes of his most important
treatise on music, 'Der critische Musicus'. In 1739 he had obtained a
post as Kapellmeister to Margrave Friedrich Ernst of
Brandenburg-Kulmbach in the town of Itzehoe, and through his connections
a year later he was appointed to the same post at the Danish court of
Christian VI in Copenhagen. When the king’s successor reopened the Royal
Theatre, he came into conflict with Paolo Scalabrini over the viability
of Italian opera, moving to the city of Sønderborg to teach music. He
later returned to Copenhagen, where he was celebrated as a teacher and
theorist. In 1740 he published an autobiography in a work by Mattheson,
claiming that he had written over 150 flute concertos, 30 violin
concertos, and 60 to 70 symphonies, none of which are verifiable. His
extant works include 13 concertos, 15 symphonies, three woodwind
quartets, five trio sonatas, 10 violin sonatas, 14 keyboard sonatas,
several Masses, two Magnificats, six Lutheran cantatas, five Passions,
eight secular cantatas, and numerous songs. His music reflects galant
North German styles, while his sonatas and keyboard pieces are firmly
rooted in the Baroque. As a theorist, he published no fewer than nine
works, ranging from composition to proposed German opera (1742), for
which he gained a reputation as a rationalist.
German composer, organist and teacher. Son of the court organist Johann
Ernst Witt, he received music lessons from his father. After receiveng a
scholarship, he went to Vienna and Salzburg, and then from 1685-1686 he
studied composition and counterpoint with Georg Caspar Wecker in
Nuremberg. On 1 June 1686 he was appointed chamber organist at the Gotha
court. In 1688 he was again sent to study with Wecker. In 1694 he was
appointed substitute for the Kapellmeister, Wolfgang Michael Mylius, and
he succeeded him after his death, in 1713. He was well thought of as a
teacher, not only within the Dukedom of Gotha; the future Duke Friedrich
II was among his pupils. He was also admired as an able keyboard player
and Kapellmeister. He enjoyed good relations with neighbouring courts,
including those of Ansbach-Bayreuth, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt and
Saxe-Weissenfels, and several works by him are listed in inventories
from there. He was a versatile composer of both vocal and instrumental
music. His vocal music consists largely of church cantatas, among them
his 'Psalmodia sacra' praised as one of the most important hymnals of
the early 18th Century. His instrumental music includes both
‘ouvertures’ (or suites) in the French style and italianate,
concerto-like sonatas, and varied keyboard works, many of them now lost.
Spanish presbyter, organist, and composer. Likely educated at the
Collegiate Church of Mora de Rubielos and the Cathedral of Tortosa, he
began his professional career as the organist of Huesca Cathedral after
winning a competitive examination. In 1712, he secured the position of
organist at the Real Colegio del Corpus Christi in Valencia, succeeding
Juan Bautista Cabanilles after a formal competition against Francisco
Sarrió and Melchor Martínez. He held this post until his death in 1749,
also serving as interim maestro de capilla between 1743 and 1744.
Cervera was instrumental in the pedagogical training of his successor,
Miguel Narro. His compositional output includes polyphonic masses for 8
and 12 voices, psalms, and various sacred works in both Latin and the
vernacular. These manuscripts are preserved in several Spanish and South
American cathedrals, most notably an oratorio dedicated to Saint Rose
of Lima held at Sucre Cathedral (Bolivia), which serves as a significant
primary source for the study of Spanish liturgical music dissemination
in colonial territories.
Italian composer. Although a popular composer whose works were performed
throughout Europe, virtually nothing is known about his life, save that
he worked alongside Giovanni Battista Sammartini in Milan around 1734.
His name suggests that he may have come from Briosco. He is identified
as a Milanese composer on some symphony manuscripts, and should be
considered representative of the Milanese symphonic school. Ten
symphonies are ascribed to both Brioschi and Sammartini, and Brioschi
evidently knew Sammartini’s music. He was a popular and prolific early
symphonist. Of the extant symphonies attributed to him, the authorship
of at least 51 appears to be certain; 22 of these can be dated to about
1741 or earlier, and three are among the earliest of all known dated
symphonies. These three works have connections with Casale Monferrato,
south-west of Milan. His music was especially popular in Paris, Prague,
Stockholm and Darmstadt. 29 works are listed in the Breitkopf catalogues
of 1762, 1763 and 1766.
German theologian, philosopher and composer. He was educated at the
Benedictine seminary in Ulm where he was ordained a priest in 1781.
Shortly afterwards he moved to the Benedictine abbey of Ochsenhausen
where he devoted himself to teaching theology and philosophy. In 1795
the abbot Romuald Weltin promoted him as a musical director in a
position he held until 1803. A versatile scholar and practitioner, in
1802 he contributed as a violinist to the performance of Joseph Haydn's
The Creation in Biberach under the conduction of Justin Heinrich Knecht.
During the period of secularization, he briefly served as deputy abbot
starting in 1803, later concluding his career as a parish priest in
Tannheim until his death. As a composer he wrote nearly one hundred
works, mainly religious music and most of them for choir with
instrumental accompaniment.
German composer. The eldest son of Holy Roman Emperor Charles VII
(1697-1745) and his wife, Maria Amalia of Austria (1701-1756), he was a
pupil of Francesco Peli. He played many instruments, and was a
composition pupil of Andrea Bernasconi from 1753. He was a patron of
chamber music and opera at the Munich court, and during his reign (begun
in 1747) Mozart's 'La finta giardiniera' received its première on 13
January 1775. Besides Andrea Bernasconi, Joseph Willibald Michl, Antonio
Sacchini, Pietro Pompeo Sales and Tommaso Traetta wrote carnival operas
for his court. His 'Concerti a più istromenti', performed at the
Accademia Filarmonica in Verona, and his finest composition, a Stabat
mater, were published at Verona at the instigation of
Joseph-Marie-Clément dall'Abaco in 1765-66. His works, mostly in
manuscript, include several symphonies and 12 trios for two violins and
bass. A Litany and three 'Sonate per il gallichona' were destroyed in
World War II; single parts only exist of a second Litany. A Missa
pastoralis and a Regina coeli are lost. His sister, the Princess Maria
Antonia Walpurgis (1724-1780), was also a composer.
German composer. He was the second of five children of the organist
Peter Hasse (c.1668-1737) and Christina Klessing, daughter of a mayor of
Bergedorf. He studied in Hamburg before joining the opera company
there. He quickly established himself as a tenor of reputation, but his
career changed when his opera 'Antioco' opened at Brunswick on 1 August
1721. Soon, he left Germany for a long tour of Venice, Bologna,
Florence, and Rome, finally settling in the major opera center of Naples
for six years, until 1730. There he studied with Alessandro Scarlatti
and possibly Nicolo Porpora, worked with the superstar castrato Carlo
Broschi (Farinelli), and his rise in Neapolitan opera was spectacular.
Hasse appeared in Venice for the 1730 Carnival season, a milestone of
his career. In his opera 'Artaserse', he set a libretto of Metastasio,
later to become his most important collaborator, for the first time. He
also met in Venice another famous singer, the mezzo-soprano Faustina
Bordoni (1697-1781), whom he married in June 1730 and who created many
of the female protagonists in his later operas. Sometime after Carnival
but before Ascension in 1730, he was granted the title of Kapellmeister
to the court of the Elector August I of Saxony at Dresden, but he and
Faustina Bordoni did not arrive there until 6 or 7 July 1731. Although
this appointment lasted until 1763, the couple took frequent and
substantial leaves of absence to various cities of Italy and Vienna to
produce operas that had been commissioned by the nobility of Europe. In
1745, King Frederick the Great of Prussia visited and heard Hasse’s Te
Deum and opera seria 'Arminio'.
The king, a fine musician, thereafter often invited the composer and his
wife to Potsdam. The Prussian bombardment of Hasse’s Dresden house in
1760, causing the loss of many manuscripts, may have soured this
relationship. Porpora, possibly Hasse’s teacher in Naples, was brought
to Dresden in 1748 to teach the Princess Maria Antonia of Saxony and was
given the title Kapellmeister, but Hasse was promoted to
Oberkapellmeister in 1750. In 1763, Hasse joined the imperial court in
Vienna where he worked closely with Metastasio. In 1775, he and Faustina
Bordoni retired to Venice. Although most of his work was quickly
forgotten after he died, while active, he was the most renowned composer
of Italian opera seria in Italy and German-speaking lands. He composed
at least 58 operas, mostly seria, but also a few comedies, which were
produced in many European opera centers. He was the favorite composer of
the age’s most eminent opera librettist, Metastasio. Hasse composed
fluently, with a particular gift for vocal melody, which he generally
displayed to full advantage without distraction from contrapuntal
textures. Besides the operas, he composed about 11 intermezzi, 11
Italian oratorios, 60 Italian chamber cantatas, and 33 more cantatas for
voice and orchestra. His instrumental music includes 54 concertos,
mostly for transverse flute and strings, and 24 trio sonatas. He also
composed sacred music, most of it for four-voiced choir and orchestra:
15 masses, 2 requiems, 36 single mass ordinary settings, 10 mass
offertories, 21 psalms, 18 antiphons, six hymns, and 38 motets for solo
voice and orchestra.
Jean-Baptiste Quentin (c.1700-c.1750)
- Sonata à quatre parties des 'Sonates en trio et à quatre parties
pour violons, flûtes traversières, viol et basse continue ... œuvre
VIII' (c.1737)
French violinist and composer. Almosth nothing is known about him. He
pursued his career in Paris, where he was a violinist at the Paris Opéra
in 1718, and in 1738 he played the viola in the ‘grand choeur’.
References to him indicate that he was a violinist of high reputation.
As a composer, he was prolific with numerous collections of solo and
trio sonatas, and few concertos (1724-1740). His brother, Bertin Quentin
(?-1767), was a violinist, cellist and composer.
Benedek Istvánffy (1733-1778)
- Messa (C-Dur) dedicata al patriarcha Santo Benedetto a 4tro vocal
2 vl., 2 ob., trombe, tympani, vlne. con organo conc[er]to.
Performers: Szilvia Hamvasi & Noémi Kiss (sopranos); Judit Németh
(mezzo-soprano); Péter Drucker (tenor); István Kovács & Pál Benkõ
(basses); Purcell Choir; Orfeo Orchestra; György Vashegyi (conductor)
Hungarian composer. Son of József Istvánffy (1703-1771), organist and
teacher of figural music at the Benedictine monastery of Szentmárton, he
received the first instruction in music from his father. He soon
obtaining the post of organist in the castle of Count Antal Széchényi,
in a post he held at least until 1761. It was during that period when he
got married to Katalin Kőmíves and later born his only daugther
Franziska Istvánffy (1756-1816). In 1766 he became succentor at the
cathedral in Győr and from 1773 to 1775 he was also responsible for
leading the choir of the Jesuit church there, in a posts he held until
his death. As a composer, he mainly wrote sacred works, among them, the
'Missa sanctificabis annum quinquagesimum vel Sanctae Dorotheae' (1774)
and the 'Messa dedicata al patriarcha Santo Benedetto'. His music style
was close to the composers which he was in touch during his lifespan,
among them, Gregor Joseph Werner, Franz Josef Aumann, Joseph
Krottendorfer and Christoph Sonnleithner.
Bohemian keyboardist and composer. He studied piano at age five and
organ at age nine, and then became a chorister at the Iglau Minorite
church and a pupil at the Jesuit Gymnasium. After further studies at the
Kuttenberg Jesuit Gymnasium, he continued his studies at Prague's New
City Gymnasium (1776-77) and at the University of Prague (1778). He
found a patron in Count Manner, with whose assistance he was able to go
to Malines in 1779, where he became active as a piano teacher. He made
his public debut there as a pianist on 16 December 1779, and then set
out on a highly successful tour, visiting Bergen op Zoom, Amsterdam, and
The Hague. He then went to Hamburg, where he gave a concert on 12 July
1782, and also met C.P.E. Bach, with whom he may have studied. In 1783
he played at the St. Petersburg court. After spending about a year in
the service of Prince Karl Radziwill as Kapellmeister in Lithuania, he
made a major tour of Germany in 1784, winning notable acclaim in Berlin,
Mainz, Kassel, and Frankfurt am Main as a piano and glass harmonica
virtuoso. In 1786 he went to Paris, where he performed at the court for
Marie Antoinette; except for a brief trip to Milan and Bohemia, he
remained in Paris until the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789
compelled him to flee to London. On 1 June 1789, he made his London
debut at the Hanover Square Rooms. He soon became successful as a
pianist and teacher in the British capital, appearing regularly at
Salomon's concerts and being an active participant in these concerts
during Joseph Haydn's two visits. In 1792 he married the singer,
pianist, and harpist Sophia Corri (1775-1847).
With his father-in-law, Domenico Corri, he became active as a music
publisher. Both men were ill suited for such a venture, however, and
Dussek's love for the good life further contributed to the failure of
the business. Dussek fled to Hamburg in 1799, leaving his father-in-law
to serve a jail sentence for debt. He apparently never saw his wife or
daughter again. He seems to have spent about two years in Hamburg, where
he was active as a performer and teacher. In 1802 he played in his
birthplace, and then in Prague. From 1804 to 1806 he served as
Kapellmeister to Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia. After the latter's
death at the battle of Saalfeld (10 October 1806), he composed a piano
sonata in his memory, the 'Elegie harmonique sur la mort du Prince Louis
Ferdinand de Prusse', Op.61. He then was briefly in the service of
Prince Isenburg. In 1807 he settled in Paris, where he served Prince
Talleyrand, gave concerts, and taught. His health began to fail due to
excessive drinking, and he was compelled to abandon his career. Jan
Ladislav Dussek was a remarkable composer for the piano, proving himself
a master craftsman capable of producing the most brilliant works for
the instrument. In his later works he presaged the development of the
Romantic school, anticipating such composers as Chopin, Mendelssohn,
Schumann, and even Brahms. As a celebrated virtuoso of the keyboard, he
shares with Muzio Clementi the honor of having introduced the 'singing
touch'. As a composer, his works include, among others, 15 concertos, 34
sonatas for the fortepiano, 68 violin sonatas, six harp sonatas
(possibly a legacy of an alleged affair with Anne-Marie Krumpholtz), six
canzonetts, three string quartets, a Mass (1807), and three harp
concertos.
English composer and organist. Nothing is known of his origins. The
earliest evidence was as a chorister at the Chapel Royal when James II
was crowned in 1685. By 1692, he had been appointed organist at
Winchester College, and on 6 June 1699, he was appointed vicar-choral at
St. Paul’s Cathedral. He moved up to organist in January 1704. On 15
May 1704, Francis Pigott, organist at the Chapel Royal, died, and
together with William Croft were sworn in as joint organists to replace
him. It appears that he ended his own life, perhaps owing to an unhappy
love affair, by shooting himself on 1 December 1707. As a composer, he
wrote 22 anthems, 10 odes, 2 settings of the Te Deum, 2 suites for wind
band, 2 suites for harpsichord, over 40 other short works for
harpsichord, and the incidental music for 8 plays. He was a leading
composer of the generation immediately junior to Purcell. He wrote the
so-called Trumpet Voluntary, his best-known piece.
French bassoonist and composer. He was a pupil of his brother Michel
Joseph Gebauer (1763-1812) and of François Devienne. In 1788 he became a
member of the band of the Swiss Guard in his native city. In 1790 he
settled in Paris as a musician in the National Guard. After playing in
theater orchestras, he joined the orchestra of the Opera about 1799,
remaining in it until 1826. He also played in the Imperial chapel
orchestra until 1830, and was a professor at the Conservatoire
(1795-1802; 1824-1838). According to some sources, he was made an
honorary professor in 1816. As a composer, his output include 13 bassoon
concertos, eight symphonies concertantes and several chamber music. He
also published a bassoon method (c.1820). His younger brothers, Pierre
Paul Gebauer (1775-?) and Etienne Jean François Gebauer (1776-1823) were
also musicians.
