Benedetto Marcello - Italian composer, whose name is the Venice Conservatory

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Italian composer, whose name is the Venice Conservatory, musical and literary writer, poet, lawyer, lawyer and statesman, philosopher, magistrate, teacher, a person with a fine mental organization and mind - this is all about Marcello Benedetto Giacomo.

Biography Facts

A typical representative of a noble aristocratic family, Benedetto Marcello was born on 1686-31-07 in Venice. He received a classical liberal arts education and legal knowledge. From a young age, he showed a craving for musical knowledge, therefore, under the guidance of Antonio Lotti and Francesco Gasparini, he received a proper musical education and was recognized as one of the best Venetian composers in his youth.

Because he was one of the highly educated people in Italy, he held responsible government positions for many years. From the age of 20 he was a member of the Council of Forty - the highest judicial body in Venice, served as a military intendant, an adherent of the Christian faith was a chamberlain of the Pope. Despite itsemployment in a political career, Benedetto Marcello was actively engaged in musical creativity, writing. In 1711, in Bologna, he became a member of the Philharmonic Academy, taught music and vocals.

His brother Alessandro, like Benedetto, had musical abilities, was a composer, philosopher and famous mathematician. He published his works under the pseudonym Eterio Steenfaliko.

Father wanted Benedetto to devote his life to public service and the law, but he skillfully combined creative and service activities. For the first time he put on a suit of a judge and began to practice serving the law in 1707. In 1730 he was sent to the Istrian peninsula, the city of Pula, where he occupied the governor's post of the district. But after 8 years of service, he resigns due to poor he alth. Marcelo always complained about the routine of state and political affairs, only art work gave real pleasure.

Composer's personal life

In May 1728, Benedetto Marcello secretly married a commoner, Rosanna Scalfi, his student, a singer. His family did not approve of this decision. Despite the fact that a will was written in favor of Scalfi, after the death of the composer, brother Alesandro in 1942 sued Rosanna because of violations of the rules of hereditary practice due to the illegality of their marriage. Indeed, the marriage union was declared illegal at the state level, the wife was unable to inherit her husband's fortune and filed a counterclaim asking for financial support. Marcello had no children.

In 1738, he went to the Sanctuary of Caravaggio with the hope of being cured of a protracted illness, but again caught a respiratory disease, as a result of which the doctors diagnosed him with incurable tuberculosis. At the age of 53, on July 24, 1939, the composer died in Brescia.

Musical creativity

Marcello was modest and considered himself an amateur, but his contemporaries highly valued his composing abilities and called him "the prince of music." His work is diverse, in almost all genres he created unique bright compositions. Author's Peru belongs to:

• over 80 duets;
• 170 cantatas;
• 7 operas;
• about 9 church masses;
• instrumental sonatas;
• canzones;
• 6 oratorios
• sonatas;
• 17 String Concertos;
• 7 symphonies;
• music for the 50 psalms is the work that gave him the greatest fame, written in the form of cantatas for 4 voices with an accompanying organ, cello and 2 violins. For the composition, the author used Jewish, Spanish and German ritual melodies.

Marcello's instrumental compositions became known far beyond the borders of Italy. He composed a variety of musical works and church music. His musical compositions are characterized by imagination and fine technique.

European fame was brought to him by the music and verses of the serenade, written in 1725 in honor of Emperor Charles the Sixth, "Born to live forever", first performed in Vienna by the famous Faustina Bordoni. Thenfollowed by a series of dramatic monumental works in which music is strictly subordinated to poetry.

The musical language is characterized by rhythmic modules, the works show the personal traits of Benedetto Marcello. The adagios are notable for their energetic atmospheric rhythms, and the instrumental compositions show long progressions and the rejection of bipartite movements with asymmetries. In vocal music, tradition and innovation have an unusual combination. Marcello is characterized by a tendency to whimsicality, which is confirmed in some cantatas. Together with the poet Antonio Schinella Kontion, an experimental series of long cantatas was written:

• duo Il Tumoteo
• 6 monologues: Arianna, Cantone, Lucrezia, Cassandra, Andromaca, Abononnata.

The music featured both progressive and gallant subtleties.

Writing activity

Benedetto Marcello is also known as the author of poetic and dramatic works. Of his writings, the pamphlet "Friendly Letters" (1705) is best known, in which the author caustically and very wittily ridiculed the work of his teacher A. Lotti. Also famous was the famous treatise The Fashionable Theater published in 1720, aimed at satirical ridicule of the many conventions and shortcomings in the Italian opera of that time. Both of these works were published anonymously.

Marcello is the author of poems, interludes, sonnets, which later formed the basis of the musical works of other no lessfamous composers.

The legacy of the composer has been almost completely forgotten for a long time. Only at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, interest was shown in the works of the composer, as a result of which some of his sonatas for cello, cantata, oratorio, stage pastoral were published. However, most of the works are in archive folders.