(Yo’-han Vent’-zel An’-ton Shta’-mit) 1717–57 Bohemian composer Born in Bohemia, by 1741 Stamitz was working at the Mannheim court, where he became leading violinist in 1743, Konzertmeister soon after, and director in 1750. He made the Mannheim orchestra the most famous in Europe for its discipline and its capacity to achieve new effects. Although he composed concertos and ...
(Yo-an’-nez Se-kon’-ya) c. 1370–1412 Franco-Flemish composer and theorist Ciconia was active principally in Italy. For many years he was regarded as the main link between Machaut and Du Fay, and although other influential composers have now come to the fore, he is still seen as one of the most important figures of his generation. He wrote songs in French and ...
(Yo-an’-nes O’-ka-gem) c. 1425–97 Franco-Flemish composer Born in St Ghislain near Mons (now in Belgium), Ockeghem is first recorded as a singer at the Church of Our Lady, Antwerp, in 1443. He joined the French royal chapel in 1451, becoming chapel-master by 1454. In 1459 King Charles VII appointed him treasurer of the abbey of St Martin of Tours. ...
(Yo-an’-nes Tink’-tôr-is) 1430–after 1511 French theorist Tinctoris attended university at Orléans and worked for most of his adult life at the Aragonese court in Naples. There he produced the most authoritative body of theoretical writing on music of his time. He was familiar with current musical practices, and dedicated one of his treatises to his contemporaries Ockeghem and Busnoys. His surviving ...
(An-ton’-yo da Ka-ba-thon’) 1510–66 Spanish keyboard composer and player Blind from birth, Cabezón learnt the organ from an early age and became one of the great keyboard players of his day. He began his career as organist to Queen Isabella. After her death he worked for her children, later attaching himself solely to the future king, Philip II. Cabezón’s ...
(An-ton’-yo Chas’-te) c. 1623–69 Italian composer Cesti was a Franciscan monk who studied music in Rome. Employed as a singer at the Florentine and Sienese courts, he then travelled to Venice, where his first opera Orontea (1649) was successfully performed at the Teatro di SS Apostoli. Following an affair with a singer, Cesti moved to Innsbruck, Austria, ...
(Yo’-han Kas’-pâr Far’-de-nant Fish’-er) 1656–1746 German composer Fischer, who was Hofkapellmeister at the court of Baden, contributed to the dissemination of Lully’s French orchestral style with his eight suites published as Le journal du printemps (‘Spring Diary’, 1685). These follow the seventeenth-century French practice of five-part string writing, with the addition of two trumpets. Fischer was an imaginative keyboard composer ...
(Yo’-han Ya’-kop Fro’-bâr-ger) 1616–67 German composer Johann Jacob Froberger was the most important German harpsichord composer of the first half of the seventeenth century. In about 1637, he was appointed as imperial court organist at Vienna, and there he benefited from a sympathetic patron in Emperor Ferdinand III, who was himself a gifted musician. Soon after his appointment, Froberger ...
(Yo’-han Pakh’-el-bel) 1653–1706 German composer Pachelbel held the position of court organist at Eisenach (where he taught J. S. Bach’s eldest brother Johann Christoph) before taking up the same post at Erfurt. It was here that he published his first organ music, Musicalischen Sterbens-Gedancken (‘Musical Meditation on Death’, 1683). In 1690 he moved to Stuttgart and then Gotha before becoming organist ...
(Yo-han Hâr’-man Shin) 1586–1630 German composer Schein trained at Dresden, Naumburg and Leipzig and finally took charge of the music at St Thomas’s, Leipzig, in 1616. His first vocal music collection, Cymbalum Sionium (1615), brings together settings of Latin and German texts in a variety of styles. A more modern outlook, embracing the Italian idiom and demonstrating ...
(Yo’-han Sa-bäs’tyan Bakh) 1685–1750 German composer Johann Sebastian Bach was born into a closely knit musical family of which he was rightly proud. His father Johann Ambrosius Bach (1645–95) had an identical twin brother, Johann Christoph (1645–93), who was like a second father to the young Sebastian. Johann was such a common name that almost all boys called Johann were known ...
(An-ton’-yo Kal-da’-ra) 1670–1736 Italian composer Caldara was a Venetian composer whose career was divided almost equally between Italy and Austria. He sang under Giovanni Legrenzi (1626–90) at St Mark’s and in 1699 was appointed maestro di cappella at the Mantuan court. In 1708 he left Mantua for Rome, where his oratorio Il martirio di San Caterina (‘The Martyrdom of St Catherine’) ...
(Yo’-han Yo’-sef Fooks) 1660–1741 German composer, organist and theorist There are large gaps in the biographical knowledge of Fux. It is almost certain that he was born into a peasant family somewhere in Germany, but precisely where he acquired his musical skills remains a mystery. Real knowledge of the composer begins from 1698, when Emperor Leopold I appointed Fux ...
(Yo’-han Koo’-nou) 1660–1722 German composer After studying at Dresden and Zittau, Kuhnau went to Leipzig, where he became organist in 1684 and in 1701 Kantor at St Thomas’s Church. He wrote many cantatas and other sacred works which were technically and musically resourceful – with their lyrical lines and powerful fugues – and often dramatic; he also composed much harpsichord ...
(Pe-a’-tro An-ton’-yo Lo-ka-tel’-le) 1695–1764 Italian composer and violinist Locatelli studied at Bergamo and Rome, where he played for Cardinal Ottoboni. After a short appointment as virtuoso da camera (court virtuoso) at the Mantuan court (1725–27), Locatelli travelled throughout Austria and Germany appearing as a virtuoso – on one occasion with Leclair. He settled in Amsterdam in 1729 where he taught, ...
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