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.
Dutch composer, organist and carillonneur. His parents were Mennonites
from Haarlem who lived in Danzig from 1739 to 1752, when they moved to
Amsterdam. He was blind, and it may be assumed that he received his
musical instruction from the blind organist Jacob Potholt. From 1769
until his death he was carillonneur at the Oude Kerk and the
Regulierstoren (now Munttoren), Amsterdam. In 1780 he became organist of
one of the Mennonite communities in Amsterdam, the one usually called
‘bij het Lam en bij de Toren’, after the locations of its churches.
Focking taught the well-known blind Amsterdam organist and carillonneur
Daniël Brachthuyzer (1779-1832). His only known compositions are the 'VI
sonates pour le flute traverse solo, avec une basse continuo, oeuvre
première'. They follow the pattern of the mid-18th-century
three-movement solo sonata and their style resembles that of North
German composers. They were published privately by the composer, lack a
dedication and are undated. His son Cornelis Focking (1770-?) was also
an organist.
German composer and organist. Nothing is know of his early years. From
1650 he was organist of St Saviour, on the outskirts of Danzig. He soon
became Kantor and director of music at St Catherine; according to
Hermann Rauschning he was appointed in 1652, though he still described
himself as organist of St Saviour in publications up to 1654. In both
parishes he was required to teach in schools, and as director of music
at St Catherine he could rely on the services on average of eight
instrumentalists and six singers. It was to his directorship that the
church owed its prominent position in the musical life of Danzig.
Evidence of Bütner's activities and of the extensive and varied
cultivation of music in the Danzig of his day was afforded by a
collection of printed music, consisting of some 150 pieces, both
instrumental and vocal, by Italian, Polish and German composers and
including over 50 sacred vocal works by Bütner himself. His numerous
surviving works are very varied both in their forms and in the forces
for which they are scored, some of the latter being substantial. Most of
them are Lutheran settings of German words which introduced the sacred
concerto to Danzig. Typical features of his music include short-winded
motivic writing, simple harmony, a quick succession of short, compressed
sections and the setting off against each other of homophonic groups of
voices. The style of his music, even if it is somewhat inexpressive,
was something quite new in Danzig.
Polish violinist and composer. He probably received his initial training
in Warsaw, becoming a musician in the court orchestra of King Stanisław
August in 1777. In 1784 he decided to move to Vienna, where he
performed at various concerts for several years, and in 1787 he made his
debut at the Concerts spirituels in Paris. There he was also employed
in the orchestra of the duc d’Orléans. In 1792 he went to London, where
he appeared as violinist and composer, first at private concerts and
soon afterwards in public, mostly at Salomon’s concerts. His next London
appearances were apparently not until 1794. He also gave concerts in
other English cities, in Scotland and Ireland. In 1800 he married Miss
Eliza Breeze of Liverpool, where in 1801 he opened a 'Music, Musical
Instrument Warehouse', which traded until 1829; he also had a music shop
in London, 1810-12. In 1815 he moved to Edinburgh. He led the orchestra
in the first Edinburgh Festival in the same year and in subsequent
festivals (1819, 1824), and was an active teacher and organizer of
musical life. In February 1829 he gave his last public concert. As a
composer, his music is largely for his own instrument and consists of
five violin concertos and six trios for two violins and cello. The style
is reminiscent of Giovanni Battista Viotti. He left two talented
daughters, Felicia Janiewicz, a pianist, and Paulina Janiewicz, a
harpist.
Charles Dieupart (1676-1751)
- Suitte (II) de Clavessin des 'Six suittes de clavessin divisées en
ouvertures, allemandes, courantes, sarabandes, gavottes, menuets,
rondeaux & gigues composées & mises
... dédiées à Madame la
Comtesse de Sandwich' (1701)
French harpsichordist, violinist and composer. Nothing is known of his
early years. Son of Nicolas Dieupart (?-1700), an ordinary musician to
Louis XIV's Grande Ecurie, at some point, he befriended Elizabeth Wilmot
of Rochester, countess of Sandwich, and Jacques Paisible who were
visiting James II of England in his exile at Saint-germain-en-Laye near
Paris. He is first heard of in England in an advertisement for a concert
at Drury Lane, London, on 11 February 1703, when he accompanied Gasparo
Visconti in some of Arcangello Corelli’s sonatas. According to John
Hawkins, he played the harpsichord and Nicola Francesco Haym the cello
in this and Giovanni Bononcini’s 'Il trionfo di Camilla' (1706), and he
wrote an overture and chaconne for Peter Anthony Motteux’s pasticcio
'Thomyris' (1707). He was evidently a prominent member of the Drury Lane
musical establishment. In the winter of 1707-1708 he was among those
involved in setting up a rival operatic project at the Queen’s Theatre
in the Haymarket, London, and wrote and arranged music for its first
production, Motteux’s pasticcio 'Love’s Triumph' (1708); Motteux wrote
in the preface that any success ‘will owe not a little to Mr Dieupart,
for his share in the Contrivance of the Entertainments and his supplying
what Recitative and other Music was necessary’. According to Hawkins,
Dieupart played continuo with Haym in Alessandro Scarlatti’s 'Pyrrhus
and Demetrius' (1708), and he played in the Haymarket orchestra until
about 17 November 1710, when he was apparently dropped. He did not
entirely retire from concert life: concertos by him were performed at
Drury Lane for ‘Two Hautboys and Two Flutes’ (14 March 1722), ‘Little
Flute’ (11 May 1722), ‘Hautboys, Flutes and Violins’ (15 May 1723), as
well as a trumpet sonata (14 May 1726). Hawkins wrote that Dieupart
‘grew negligent’ towards the end of his life, ‘and frequented concerts
performed in ale-houses, in obscure parts of the town, and distinguished
himself not more there, than he would have done in an assembly of the
best judges, by his neat and elegant manner of playing the solos of
Corelli’. His last known appearance was in Hampstead on 11 September
1724, when he played ‘Violin Concertino’ and was billed as ‘Capt Dupar,
Scholar to the late celebrated Signor Corelli, and late Musick Master to
his present Highness the Prince of Orange’.
Laurent Belissen (1693-1762)
- Laudate Pueri | Motet a grand choeur et Simp. e | Par M.r.
Belissen. | Maitre de Musique du Concert de Marseille | & de
L'abbaye de Saint Victor de la Meme Ville
Performers: Les Festes D'Orphée; Guy Laurent (conductor)
French composer. His home was near the Cathedral of St Sauveur in Aix;
although there is no evidence that he was admitted to the choir school,
he was probably one of the last composers to study with Guillaume
Poitevin, maître de musique there. By 1722 Belissen was in Marseilles,
where he made his career. He followed Blanchard as maître de musique at
the Abbey of St Victor, and held this position for the rest of his life,
also directing the Académie de Concerts in Marseilles. Many of
Belissen's works are lost or in uncatalogued collections. The extant
works, principally grands motets, reveal a style markedly different from
the Versailles motets of Lalande, Campra and Mondonville. Belissen
preferred a four-voice texture to the five-voice one popular with the
Versailles composers. His choral style combines French and Italian
characteristics: his choral fugues are highly developed and repeat the
text continuously in the Italian manner. His orchestral treatment in the
motets also reflects Italian practices, with the use of ritornello
passages as an important articulatory device.
German violinist and composer. He was orphaned at an early age and was
taught painting in Nuremberg by his uncle and aunt. By the age of 16 he
was a violinist at St Sebaldus’s church there. After an unhappy love
affair a few years later he went to Vienna, where he played in the opera
orchestra and may have studied with Joseph Haydn. In 1771 he became a
member of the Hofkapelle in St Petersburg; Catherine the Great paid him
the highest salary of any of her court musicians. He also taught at the
theatre school, gave the future Tsar Aleksandr I violin lessons,
directed a court chamber orchestra (which included the clarinettist
Joseph Beer and other outstanding musicians), and performed publicly,
for instance in 1782, but most of his performances were at court, as a
violinist and viola d'amore player. Later in life he suffered a mental
disorder that sometimes prevented him from working, but he was
encouraged and protected by Senator Aleksey Grigoryevich Teplov, a St
Petersburg amateur musician. He dedicated three string quartets to
Teplov and three more to Aleksandr I. Ludwig Spohr remarked in 1803 that
his former technique, noted particularly for sensitivity in adagios,
had largely vanished. His salon cantata, 'Le pigeon bleu et noir gémit',
was a favorite with private audiences in St. Petersburg on into the
19th century. Anton Ferdinand Titz established a reputation in Europe
for his development of the string quartet, of which he composed 18.
Other works include 11 violin sonatas, 10 string quintets, three duos
for two violins, a symphony, and a violin concerto. Other works composed
for the Russian court have been lost. He has often been confused with
the Dresden violinist Ludwig Tietz (1774-1827).
Spanish composer. Originated from Lubiano (Álava), he was born in Alzira
(Valencia). He began his career in 1723 upon being appointed maestro de
capilla at Astorga Cathedral, during which time he also made
unsuccessful attempts to secure the post at Santiago de Compostela
Cathedral in 1723 and 1724. He subsequently moved to Valencia in 1728 to
serve at the Royal College Seminary of Corpus Christi (El Patriarca),
before being appointed maestro de capilla at Burgos Cathedral in 1729, a
prestigious position he held for over five decades until his death. As a
composer, he cultivated a vast repertoire primarily dedicated to sacred
music, characterized by liturgical works and vernacular compositions;
notably, his surviving output includes sacred pieces housed across his
former places of employment (Astorga, El Patriarca, and Burgos) as well
as archives in El Escorial, Segorbe, and Arantzazu (which preserves
three Spanish-texted religious works), alongside nine instrumental
recercadas preserved at El Patriarca.
Antonio Pereyra da Costa (c.1697-1770)
- Concerto grosso (b-moll) 'Concertos grossos com doys violins, e
violão de concertinho obrigados: e outros doys violins, viola e orgão,
de concerto grosso a arbitrio
Portuguese composer and priest. His early years are unknown. He served
as the mestre de capela at the Cathedral of Funchal in Madeira from
around 1740 until his death. While contemporary accounts, such as the
1750 Gazeta de Lisboa, attest to his composition of vocal works for
regional religious observances, his enduring musicological significance
rests upon his surviving Opus 1, a collection of twelve concerti grossi
(1741). This corpus constitutes a critical milestone in Iberian music
history, representing both the sole extant set of 18th-century concerti
grossi of Portuguese provenance and the first printed musical
publication by a Madeira-based musician. Stylistically, Pereira da
Costa’s instrumental work demonstrates a rigorous mastery of the
Corellian Italianate structural model, which he innovatively synthesized
with distinct Iberian melodic and rhythmic idioms to produce a highly
localized and vibrant expression of the late Baroque aesthetic. He also
published 12 Serenatas for the Guitar (London, c.1755).
German composer. Nothing is known of his life and career. He was
probably active as a composer in Freiburg im Breisgau. He presumably
served as a parochial organist or Kapellmeister, contributing functional
sacred repertoire to the Catholic liturgical traditions of southwestern
Germany. While much of his output remains lost, his legacy rests upon a
recently recovered collection of Vesperae ex C. This extant manuscript
offers insight into regional sacred composition, demonstrating a
conservative yet refined adherence to late 18th Century choral
counterpoint and homophonic textures characteristic of the southern
German church style.
Croatian composer and violinist. The son of a Venetian nobleman, he
received his education in Padua, where he studied under Giuseppe Tartini
and Antonio Sberti. Sometime between 1758 and 1763 he moved to
Sanguinetto, a town near Verona, where he accepted the position of
vicario. Also there, he wrote his treatise, Trattato di musica, as well
as taught pupils. Due to his family connections, he had little need to
find employment, and thus he could concentrate on his own theories and
musical composition. His works still need a thorough study and include
35 symphonies, 61 violin concertos, 15 violin duos, 170 violin sonatas,
six string quartets, and 50 trios, as well as a number of smaller
chamber works. His finest compositions are his concertos for the violin,
which are strongly influenced by Tartini, and his six string quartets.
His brother Symeon Filippos Stratigos (1733-1824) was a prominent
physician, educator and scientist known to Goldoni and Voltaire.
Spanish teacher and composer. Almost nothing is known of his life. He
began his association with the basilica of Santa Maria del Mar in
Barcelona in 1669, when the incumbent mestre Josep Reig ceded the duties
of the post to him. Rosquelles formally succeeded Reig on 22 February
1674, in a post he held until his death. As a composer, his surviving
output comprises five villancicos for 11 to 13 voices, an eight-voice
mass, a Nunc dimittis and a Compline (both scored for 15 voices), a
Magnificat and the hymn Te lucis ante terminum. As a teacher, his most
notable pupil was the prominent theorist and composer Francesc Valls.
Austrian composer and pianist, the sixth child and younger surviving son of
Wolfgang Amadeus and Constanze Mozart. He received his first piano
instruction in 1796 from František Xaver Dušek in Prague, where he lived
with the Dušek family. In Vienna he continued his studies under
Sigismund Neukomm, Andreas Streicher, J.N. Hummel, Antonio Salieri, G.J.
Vogler and J.G. Albrechtsberger. His first compositions, which include
the Piano Quartet op.1, appeared in 1805. On 30 March 1807 Salieri
declared his pupil to possess ‘a rare talent for music’, and prophesied a
career for him ‘not inferior to that of his celebrated father’. On 22
October 1807 Franz Xaver went to Lemberg (now L'viv). In Podkamien he
accepted a post as tutor in the home of Count Viktor Baworowski, a
position he held until December 1810. In 1811 he became a music teacher
in the home of the imperial chamberlain, Janiszewski, in Sarki (near
Lemberg). He gave up that post in 1813 and lived as a freelance musician
in Lemberg, where he supervised the training of Julie Baroni-Cavalcabò.
From 1819 to 1821 he undertook an extended concert tour during which he
played in Kiev, Warsaw, Copenhagen (where he saw his mother and his
stepfather, Georg Nikolaus Nissen), Hamburg, Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden
(where he visited his cousin, Carl Maria von Weber), Prague, Vienna,
Venice, Milan (where he visited his brother Carl), Zürich, Berne,
Frankfurt, Mannheim, Augsburg, Munich and Salzburg (where he visited his
aunt, Maria Anna).
In 1822 he returned to teach in Lemberg; in 1826 he went to Salzburg to
see his mother. In the same year he renewed his studies in counterpoint
with Wagenseil’s pupil, Johann Mederitsch, who bequeathed him all his
compositions. Also in that year he founded the Cäcilien-Verein in
Lemberg, but in 1838 he left Lemberg and settled in Vienna. In 1841 he
was made honorary Kapellmeister of the Dommusikverein and the Mozarteum
in Salzburg, and in 1842 he stayed with his brother there during
celebrations on the unveiling of the Mozart memorial; at the festival
concert he played his father’s D minor Piano Concerto k466. In December
of the same year the Congregazione ed Accademia di S Cecilia in Rome
named him maestro compositore onorario. In his will Franz Xaver
stipulated, among other things, that any of his father’s autographs
found in his papers, his father’s portrait and piano, as well as his own
library, should be given to the Dommusikverein and the Mozarteum as a
lasting memorial to his father. This Mozart-Nachlass passed partly to
the Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum and partly to the consistorial
archive in Salzburg. The brilliant pianistic figuration prominent in
Franz Xaver’s music reveals the particular influence of his teacher
Hummel. The more relaxed quality and richer sonority of his piano
writing, as reflected especially in his Second Piano Concerto (1818),
however, hint at the characteristic piano style of Chopin and Liszt.
Italian diplomat and composer. His musical career began as a soprano at
the church of Il Santo in Padua, and he sang in a Carnival opera of
Venice, probably Carlo Pallavicino’s 'Demetrio' in 1666. The Elector
Ferdinand Maria of Bavaria took him to Munich, where he studied with
Johann Caspar Kerll. He visited Rome in 1672 for more education and had
his first sacred music published. In July 1674, he was appointed court
organist in Munich. In 1678 and 1679, he visited Paris and heard a
tragédie lyrique of Jean-Baptiste Lully, and in January 1681, his first
opera, 'Marco Aurelio', was mounted in Munich. He made his first contact
with Hanover on a diplomatic mission and was appointed Kapellmeister by
Duke Ernst August in summer 1688. In the 1690s, he was occupied
increasingly by diplomatic work concerning the status of Hanover and the
War of the Spanish Succession. In 1703, he entered the service of
Elector Palatine Johann Wilhelm, in Düsseldorf, and thereafter composed
very little music. He continued to take an interest, however, and was
even elected president of London’s Academy of Ancient Music on 1 June
1727. A composer who, as diplomat, helped to secure the elevation of the
city of Hanover to electorate status and, as churchman after his
ordination in 1680, rose to the rank of apostolic vicar for northern
Germany and also left a legacy of about 14 operas, 3 lighter stage
works, 10 psalm settings, a Stabat Mater (his greatest work in his own
estimation), a few instrumental works, and about 75 chamber cantatas for
two voices, almost all composed before 1702, the music for which he was
most famous in his time.
Dutch organist, carillonneur and composer. His family were
French-speaking. He may have studied with Remigius Schrijver (?-1681), a
Middelburg organist; he completed the music for 'Uitbreidinge over het
Bouk der Psalmen' (1682, lost), begun by Schrijver, who had died before
completion of the work. In 1681 he was appointed organist of the Nieuwe
Kerk, and carillonneur of the abbey bell tower in Middelburg. He served
as organ adviser in Middelburg and Goes and may have been director of
the Middelburg collegium musicum during the period 1681-1729. In 1712
the carillon of the Middleburg abbey tower was destroyed; its
replacement, constructed by the famous bellfounders Jan Albert de Grave
and Claas Noorden of Amsterdam in 1714, was inspected by Bustijn and
Abraham de Coup, organist of the Walloon church and carillonneur of the
market bell-tower, and, according to various reports, was of outstanding
quality. Relatively little Dutch keyboard music of the time has
survived. Bustijn’s IX suittes pour le clavessin (Amsterdam, c.1712) are
of great importance to the history of the genre in the Netherlands.
Their balanced arrangement by key is reminiscent of the use of
symmetrical cycles culminating in the art of Bach. Their style points to
that of the keyboard works of Bach and Handel, as well as showing some
French influence.
Spanish violinist, double bassist, and composer. After receiving his
studies in composition in Barcelona, he was appointed as a violinist at
Girona Cathedral, where his tenure spanned more than forty years.
Notably, he was the first lay musician to secure a permanent position
within the cathedral's musical chapel (capella de música), frequently
performing on both the violin and the double bass. His career was
severely disrupted in 1809 by the Siege of Girona during the Peninsular
War. As liturgical music was marginalized, lay musicians faced acute
financial hardship due to the chapter's inability to provide regular
stipends. Following the French occupation, he petitioned for readmission
in 1811; initially granted only charitable alms, he was formally
reinstated in December of that year under a severely diminished annual
salary of twenty pounds. Upon his retirement in 1826, the cathedral
chapter permitted his grandson, Carles Sipiera Quilmetes, to act as his
substitute, though the youth was denied a permanent chair owing to his
age. As a composer, he belonged to a prominent multi-generational
lineage of cathedral string players that also included his son, the
priest and long-standing chapel violinist Josep Quilmetes. While the
vast majority of his works are lost, his surviving output is
distinguished by a three-movement work, the Symphony No.1 (1804).
Italian composer and violinist. A student of Gaetano Pugnani, he moved
to London in 1769 at the behest of William Hamilton. A prominent
orchestral violinist, he was leader of the second violins at the Handel
Commemoration of 1784 and at the Professional Concert from 1785 until
1792. He composed ballet music for the Italian opera, was assistant
manager of O’Reilly’s opera company at the Pantheon in 1791 and, shortly
afterwards, married the prima donna Anna Casentini (fl. 1787-1796). The
bulk of his music was published during his lifetime and includes six
violin concertos, six symphonies-overtures, two ballets, 12 violin
sonatas (titled “solos”), nine duos for two violins, 12 duets, 64
cadenzas, and a sonata for viola d’amore. His music is representative of
the 'Empfindsamkeit style', with good contrast and lyrical motivic
lines. He was not related to Giovanni Battista Borghi (1738-1796).
Austrian composer, organist, music theorist, and instrument maker. The
son of a miller, bell founder, and instrument maker, he attended the
gymnasium in Hall in Tirol from 1824 to 1830 before entering the
Franciscan Order in Salzburg in 1829, where he took his simple vows in
1830, solemn profession in 1833, and was ordained a priest in 1834. He
pursued theological studies in Salzburg, Schwaz, and Bolzano until 1837,
subsequently serving as organist and choir director in Bolzano and
Innsbruck between 1837 and 1840. From 1840 onward, he resided at the
Franciscan monastery in Salzburg, where he also held the position of
master of novices. In addition to developing a harmonium and several
physharmonica variants, he constructed the Pansymphonikon in 1845, a
reed-based keyboard instrument designed to emulate a full orchestra that
drew widespread admiration from notable contemporary figures, including
Franz Lachner, Franz Liszt, and Richard Wagner. In his theoretical
treatise 'Metaphysische Blicke' he drew upon the traditions of
Jean-Philippe Rameau and Anton Reicha to argue that all music derives
from the tonic triad, a concept he termed the "primal harmony"
(Urharmonie) and associated with the Holy Trinity, alongside its
auxiliary harmonies, namely the dominant seventh and the subdominant
with an added sixth. As a composer, he adhered to the standard
Franciscan scoring for organ and choir, occasionally utilizing vocal
soloists; however, his orchestral style of organ accompaniment, rich
harmonic language, and unconventional text setting (characterized by
omissions and rearrangements) stood in stark contrast to the aesthetic
tenets of the Caecilian movement. Conversely, his virtuosic organ
performances, particularly his pedal technique, were highly acclaimed by
both Franz Liszt and Anton Bruckner.
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.
Jacques-Martin Hotteterre (1673-1763)
- Suite en Re majeur des 'Première livre de Pieces pour la
flûte-traversiere, et autres instruments, avec la basse-continue ...
augmentée de plusieurs agréments, et d’une démonstration de la manière
qu’ils se doivent faire; ensemble une basse adjoutée aux pièces de deux
flûtes' (1708)
Performers: Frans Brüggen (1934-2014, flute); Wieland Kuijken (cello);
Gustav Leonhardt (1928-2012, harpsichord)
French composer. Son of Martin Hotteterre (c.1635-1712), he was the most
celebrated member of the family, and had a brilliant career as a
player, teacher and composer. In about 1704, he succeeded his cousin
Jacques Hotteterre in the post of basse de hautbois et taille de violon
at the royal court. Hotteterre lived and studied in Rome early in his
career, and his nickname le Romain (the Roman) came from this period. He
spent two years (1698-1700) employed by Prince Francesco Ruspoli in
Rome, before adopting the nickname of "Le Romain" at some point between
1705 and 1707. By 1708, he became a musician to the King of France, in
the king's 'Grande Écurie, and in 1717, he inherited René Pignon
Descoteaux's post as Jouëur de Fluste de la musique de chambre. He owed
his fame largely to his talent for playing the flute, an instrument for
which he wrote a number of pieces, significantly extending the repertory
for the instrument. In addition, he played the bassoon, oboe, and
musette. Hotteterre was also an internationally celebrated teacher to
aristocratic patrons. He wrote one method for the transverse flute,
recorder, and oboe, published in 1707, as well as a method for the
musette, published in 1737. His 'L'Art de préluder sur la flûte
traversière' was published in 1719. It was Europe's first flute manual
and was used widely. He died in Paris in 1763.
Italian cellist and composer. Born into a prominent family, he trained
on the violin and cello during his youth before establishing himself as a
sought-after musician in Modena by 1696, where he likely developed his
affinity for the French style. In 1704, he joined the Bavarian court
orchestra as a cellist. Following the Elector Maximilian II Emmanuel’s
defeat in the War of the Spanish Succession, he accompanied the exiled
court through the Netherlands and France, during which time he married
Marie Clémence Bultinck. Upon the court's return to Munich in 1715, his
loyalty was rewarded with appointments as Konzertmeister and electoral
councillor. His subsequent compositions increasingly integrated French
stylistic traits, and he became a central figure in Munich's musical
life, hosting early academic soirées. However, following Maximilian's
death in 1726, the successor Karl Albrecht favored a more contemporary
musical style, leading to Dall'Abaco's gradual marginalization. His
final published work, '12 Concerti à più istrumenti ... opera VI',
appeared in 1735, and he retired on a pension in 1740. His son
Joseph-Marie-Clément Dall'Abaco (1710-1805) was a cellist and composer.
André Raison (c.1640-1719)
- Messe du huictiesme ton des 'Livre d'orgue contenant cinq Messes
suffisantes pour tous les tons de l'Eglise ou quinze Magnificats pour
ceux qui n'ont pas besoin de messe avec des elevations toutes
particulieres. Ensuite des Benedictus : et une offerte en action de
grace pour l'heureuse convalescence du Roy en 1687. Laquelle se peut
aussi toucher sur le clavecin' (1688)
French organist, composer and teacher. He was educated at the seminary
of Ste Geneviève, Nanterre. From about 1665 he was organist at the royal
abbey of Ste Geneviève, Paris; later he became organist at the church
of the Jacobins (rue St Jacques). A tax register of 1695 places him in
the top rank of Parisian organists, along with François Couperin,
D’Anglebert, Gigault, Marchand and Grigny. He taught L.-N. Clérambault,
who dedicated his Premier Livre d’orgue (1710) to Raison. Raison’s Livre
d’orgue constitutes a major portion of the extant organ mass repertory.
The masses follow the usual pattern of short organ versets for
alternatim performance of the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus and Agnus Dei.
Genres used include the traditional plein jeu, duo, trio, récit, basse
de trompette, fugue and grands jeux. Raison made no use of a plainchant
cantus firmus, but this was not unusual. These organ masses were
intended for use in convents and monasteries that had their own
contemporary mass chants (messes musicales); hence, the lack of
plainchant made the book more versatile and enabled Raison to claim that
the five masses could also be used to form 15 Magnificat settings. His
Deuxième Livre d’orgue commemorates the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) with a
setting of the Da pacem; this is followed by a fugue on the same theme,
several preludes and fugues, an offertory and an overture. The remainder
of the volume consists of an allemande and many noëls with variations.
Raison’s music is characterized by rhythmic vitality, consistent use of
imitative counterpoint and imaginative use of registration, often
requiring the full resources of a four-manual French Baroque organ.
Since Raison designed his first Livre d’orgue to assist secluded
monastic musicians, its preface contains a wealth of valuable
information about performing practice. His advice about observing the
metre of each piece to determine which dance movement is implied is
often quoted; however, it should not be inferred that Raison used dance
rhythm more than his contemporaries, or that his music is unusually
‘secular’ in nature. The book contains detailed information on
registration, ornamentation, notes inégales and fingering. A striking
example of Raison’s didacticism and attention to detail is his early use
of the double dot in the French overture-style offertory. Raison’s
influence is clear in Clérambault’s organ works; further it seems that
J.S. Bach borrowed the theme of his ‘Christe: Trio en passacaille’
(Messe du deuxième ton) for his Passacaglia in C minor.
Sophia Maria Westenholz (1759-1838)
- Thème | avec | X VARIATIONS | pour le Piano=Forte | composées |
par | SOPHIE WESTENHOLZ. | Oeuvre II. | Chez Rodolphe Werckmeister | à
Berlin ... (1806)
German singer, pianist and composer. Born into a musical family, she was
the daughter of Ferdinand Fritscher (?-1764), the organist of
Neubrandenburg. At a young age, she received private piano and voice
lessons from Johann Wilhelm Hertel. In 1775, she secured a position in
the Schwerin court orchestra. Her professional and personal life
intertwined in 1777 when she married Carl August Friedrich Westenholz
(1736-1789), the Kapellmeister of the Mecklenburg-Schwerin court in
Ludwigslust. By 1779, she became an official member of that court,
serving as both a singer and pianist. Her dedication to her musical
career continued alongside her personal life, which included raising
eight children. Following the premature death of her husband in 1789,
she assumed a more central role in the court's musical life. She
remained an active participant in court and church music for over three
decades, until her retirement in 1821. During this period, she also held
the esteemed position of piano instructor to the daughters of Duke
Franz Friedrich I and Duchess Luise, further solidifying her influence
within the Mecklenburg-Schwerin court. By the 1780s, she had established
a regional reputation as a formidable pianist. Her virtuosic skill was
praised by contemporaries, including the composer Ernst Wilhelm Wolf,
who in 1782, enthusiastically described her as a "powerful female piano
player" whose style was reminiscent of "the great Bach in Hamburg." This
admiration was echoed by Carl Friedrich Cramer, who, in a review of six
sonatinas dedicated to her by Wolf, celebrated her as "a true student
of the only true, the Bachian style." Westenholz’s concert career
flourished, and between 1792 and 1804, she performed as both a pianist
and a glass harmonica player in major European cities such as Leipzig,
Copenhagen, Hamburg, Hanover, and Berlin. From 1803 to 1837, Louis
Massonneau, a violinist and later concertmaster in Ludwigslust, recorded
the court concerts of the court orchestra in the so-called
Ludwigsluster Diarium. This shows that Sophie Westenholz performed not
only piano works by Mozart, Haydn, Pleyel, and other contemporary
composers but also her own works. After her husband died in 1789 and his
successor, Antonio Rosetti, died in 1792, she conducted the court music
from the piano. The last performance by the musician in Ludwigslust is
dated on 3 March 1813; she and her son, the pianist and composer Carl
Ludwig Cornelius Westenholz (1788-1854), played a Mozart sonata for four
hands. As a composer, in 1806 she published several works for piano and
a collection of songs. The published Rondo (Op.1), Variations (Op.2),
and Sonata for Four Hands (Op.3) were met with controversial reviews.
Italian composer. Almost nothing is known about him before 1722, but in
Venice his teachers might have included Francesco Gasparini, Albinoni,
Vivaldi, Lotti, Alessandro Marcello or Benedetto Marcello. His father
Carlo Platti (c.1661-after 1727), a violetta player in the orchestra of
the basilica of S Marco, may also have taught him. While he was still in
Italy (until 1722), he probably saw the recently invented fortepiano
and a few of his keyboard solo sonatas and concertos might have been
composed for it instead of the harpsichord but this point is debatable.
In the chamber works (duets and trios) the harpsichord is clearly the
instrument required. No "piano" or "forte" indications are on Platti's
keyboard parts in his concertos for harpsichord and strings, though.
Also, the extension of at least one of these concertos asks for a D that
is beyond Cristofori's instrument's compass (4 octaves CC to c4). In
1722, he was called to Würzburg to work for the prince-bishop of Bamberg
and Würzburg, Johann Philipp Franz von Schönborn. There he married
Theresia Langprückner, a soprano singer with whom he had at least two
children. Platti spent the rest of his life in Würzburg, working as a
singer, instrument virtuoso, composer and conductor. His duties included
finding musicians for the court , as one can read in one of his
autograph letters that are available. His music consists of three
Masses, a Requiem, a Stabat mater, three cantatas, an offertory, 48
concertos (many lost), 22 trio sonatas, and 20 keyboard sonatas.
Flemish composer. It is likely that he received his first musical
training as a choirboy at St Rombouts Cathedral in Mechelen. He was
employed early on as an instructor to the children of the Genovese
banker Domenico Pinelli, in Naples. He then went to Rome, where he
published his first book of madrigals (1554), and from Rome to Antwerp
in 1554, and then to England, where he served as 'chorus praefectus' in
the private chapel of Philip II of Spain, the husband of the Queen, Mary
Tudor. In September 1555 he left England and went to Italy again; in
1567 he was in Rome. On 1 May 1568, he became Imperial Court
Kapellmeister to the Emperor Maximilian II in Vienna; he held this
position until his death, which occurred while the court was at Prague
during the summer of 1603. In 1572 he was appointed treasurer of Cambrai
Cathedral, and in 1577, also a canon (residence was not required for
either position there). He was greatly esteemed as a composer, numbering
among his works some 1,000 madrigals, about 40 masses (mostly in cantus
firmus, paraphrase and parody masses), and many other works of sacred
music. He was an important representative of the last generation of
great Flemish composers of the Renaissance, and was one of the major
composers of Italian madrigals.
František Xaver Pokorný (1729-1794) - Concerto (F-Dur). Corno Primo | Corno Secundo Principale | Violino
Primo | Violino 2do: | Flauto Primo | Flauto 2do | Viola | Basso d: 30
Juli Di Pokorni (c.1750)
Performers: Hermann Bаumаnn (horn); Christoph Kοhlеr (horn); Concerto
Amsterdam;
Bohemian composer and violinist. Son of a bureaucrat, he was sent to
Regensburg as a youth to study under Joseph Riepel. In 1750 he obtained a
post as violinist at the court of Oettingen-Wallerstein, and in 1753 he
was given leave to further his studies in Mannheim, where his teachers
included Johann Stamitz, Franz Xaver Richter, and Ignaz Holzbauer.
Returning to Wallerstein he was also employed at the Thurn und Taxis
court in Regensburg, commuting back and forth for several years before
being offered a permanent position in the latter city in 1769. He was
appointed as court chamber composer, though his relationship with the
Kapellmeister, Baron Theodor von Schacht was not smooth, resulting in
much of his music being deliberately misattributed to others after (and
possibly before) his death in 1794. As a composer, he was one of the
most prolific symphonists of the period, noted for his particular use of
the orchestra. His works in this genre are mostly four movement, and in
his numerous concertos he was able to exploit the technical
capabilities of the instrumental solos. His works include at least 145
symphonies (with as many as another 100 still of possible attribution),
65 concertos (including 45 for keyboard), numerous
serenades/divertimentos, three quartets, a piano quintet, three string
trios, and five trio sonatas. Much of his music remains to be explored,
primarily due to von Schacht’s intervention.
Gessel (18th Century)
- Dominica Laetare "Schmecket und sehet wie freundlich der Herr ist"
Performers: Ingrida Gapova (soprano); Jan Medrala (alto); Krzysztof
Kozarek (tenor); Jacek Ozimkowski (bass); Goldberg Baroque Ensemble;
Andrzej Mikołaj Szadejko (conductor)
Jan Engel (?-1788) - SINFONIA (Es-Dur) | A | Violini, Oboe, Corni, | Alto, e Basso. |
[by hand with black ink: "Due Clarinetti"] | DEDICATA | A SUA ECCELLENZA
| II Sig|r: Conte | PRZEZDZIECKI. ... ANNO 1772
Performers: Capella Claromontana; Jan Tomasz Adamus (conductor)
Polish composer, printer and music publisher. He served as Kapellmeister
at the Cathedral of St. John in Warsaw between 1771 and 1772, during
which time he established a printing press on Ulica Krzywe Koło that
remained operational until 1776. In 1772, he independently published six
of his own symphonies, issued separately with uniform title pages and
distributed through the Warsaw booksellers M. Gröll and J.A. Poser;
while extant copies of the first three symphonies are preserved in the
Pauline Monastery in Częstochowa, the remaining works are known
exclusively through contemporary Warsaw press announcements and entries
in the Breitkopf (Leipzig) catalogs spanning 1772, 1777, and 1785-1787.
The following year, he compiled and published a collection titled
'Mélanges de Musique pour le clavecin par Monsieur Engel', which notably
featured works by M. Kamieński alongside what were highly probable to
be his own compositions and those of other contemporaries, though this
publication was regrettably destroyed during World War II. In tandem
with advertising this collection, he offered for sale various
manuscripts and prints, including Masses, motets, arias, duets, and
oratorios, alongside a novel, proprietary "music printing machine of his
own invention" before resigning from his cathedral post on September 1,
1773. A subsequent notice in the Gazeta Warszawska, dated February 14,
1776, documented the relocation of his printworks to the Wędrychowska
tenement on ul. Kamienne Schodki and publicized the release of "new
Polish dances arranged for the harpsichord" as well as twelve
forthcoming pieces. Ultimately, given the scarcity of surviving
historical data, evidence suggests that Engel’s publishing endeavors
were sporadic, representing the pioneering, independent efforts of a
single individual.
Leopold Strach (1699-1755)
- Missa Solemnis (c.1730)
Performers: Mieke van der Sluis (sopran); Bernhard Landauer (alt);
Wilfried Jochens (tenor); Wolf Matthias Friedrich (bass); Kammerchor des
Ferdinandeums; Concerto Armonico Budapest; Josef Wetzinger (conductor)
Bohemian composer and church musician. His early life and training
remain unknown. Born in Kolín, his documented career began in 1727 when
he was employed as a bassist and court composer under the Prince-Bishop
of Brixen. By 1728, he provisionally assumed the duties of
Vice-Kapellmeister for Prince-Bishop Kaspar Ignaz von Künigl, a
leadership position over the court and cathedral choir (Hof- und
Domkapellmeister) that he officially secured in 1730 and held for the
rest of his life. Strach was a prolific creator of sacred music, much of
which was performed at the Stams Abbey (Abbatia B. M. V. et Sancti
Ioannis Baptistae), but he also composed secular theatrical music for
the Brixen Gymnasium, including Conradinus (1737) and Genovefa (1739).
Following his death in Brixen in June 1755, he left behind an extensive
library of roughly 3,000 sheets of usable musical material, which the
cathedral chapter purchased from his widow for 100 florins on the advice
of his successor, Simon Judas Thaddäus Mayr.
