Emanuele d'Astorga
Emanuele d' Astorga (actually: ? Emanuele Gioacchino Cesare Baron Rincón d' Astorga, born March 20, 1680 in Augusta ( Sicily), † 1757 () in Madrid () ) was an Italian nobleman and composer.
Life
Emanuele d' Astorga was a member of the originally from Spain noble family Rincón d' Astorga who has been resident in Sicily since the early 17th century. After an earthquake in 1693, the family moved to Palermo. A little later were Emanuele's father, Francesco d' Astorga, the noble title and the associated rights revoked because he had tried to murder his wife. Title and rights was the father until 1702 back and was appointed in 1706 to the Senator from Palermo.
Emanuele d' Astorga appeared as a composer for the first time in 1698 in appearance than his opera " La moglie nemica " rang out in a private performance at the house of the noble family Lucchese. Astorga seemed a matter of having as a singer.
1708 he left Palermo because of disputes with the family ever since and led a restless, wandering life. First Astorga went to Rome, where he stayed within the Spanish ambassador Baron Uceda. In this society, he met the poet Nicholas Sebastiano Biancardi know, who worked under the pseudonym Domenico Lalli and numerous cantata texts for Astorga wrote.
Together with Lalli to Astorga went to Genoa in 1709. Because he suffered from shortage of money, he remembered there by an operatic performance to improve his fortunes and composed for this purpose " Dafni ". In the following years, Astorga held with Lalli on in Mantua and Venice.
End of 1709 and early 1710 Astorga went to Spain because it heir to the throne Charles, had invited him (later known as Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire Charles VI. ), Which was impressed by the opera " Daphne ".
1712 Astorga detectable in Vienna, where he got paid by the Emperor Joseph I. an honorarium. However, he fell into debt and therefore fled in 1714 from the city.
In 1715 he went back to Palermo, where he Emanuela Guzzardi (* 1702 ) married 1717. 1717/18 was Astorga Senator from Palermo, from 1718 to 1720 he held the office of the Governor of the Ospedale degli Incussabili.
Subject to the payment of an annuity, he left in 1721 the usufruct of his lands to his wife and left Sicily. 1723 he lived in Lisbon, where he was 1726 print a cantata collection. About his later life, there is no reliable information more. A manuscript of the collection Santini in Münster said Emanuele d' Astorga had died in 1757 in Madrid.
Tonal language
Astorga had never held a musical office and looked at himself because of his noble origin itself not as a professional musician, but as a dilettante, who composed music for their own pleasure. According to the most traditional of his compositions are chamber music Cantatas for one or more voices with basso continuo accompaniment, a music genre which at the time was very popular in the house music of the aristocratic circles. The cantatas are usually held in the form of recitative - aria - recitative - aria or aria - recitative - aria and stylistically in the tradition of Alessandro Scarlatti. Among the numerous composing dilettantes his time Astorga lifts out by its superior craftsmanship, which corresponds well to that of a professional musician. His music continues to show great talent in tune invention and safe use of compositional methods in terms of the doctrine of affections. From other composers who were in the same tradition, his works but differ stylistically not so strong that unambiguous attributions of traditional anonymous pieces of Astorga are possible. Astorga only known sacred work, the Stabat mater C minor, enjoyed until the mid 19th century great popularity.
For Astorga Create Johann Adolf Scheibe found in Critische Musicus 1745 following words of praise: " What to Expect of a Marcello, the famous Venetian knight, by the Earl of Astorga, from the older Conti and others say? Certainly the Feinigkeit the taste of these men has been almost without the slightest mistake. "
Works
- 208 handwritten traditional chamber cantatas for solo voice and basso continuo
- Cantadas humanas a solo, chamber 12 cantatas for voice and basso continuo ( Lisbon 1726)
- Presso i momenti estremi, chamber cantata for voice and three - part string orchestra
- E pur Cesare ha vinto, chamber cantata for voice and four - part string orchestra
- Antri spelanche, chamber cantata for voice, basso continuo and obbligato cello
- 7 chamber duets for two voices and basso continuo
- Caro tu patri, chamber duet for 2 voices and four - part string orchestra
- Stabat mater C minor for soloists, chorus, orchestra and organ (1707? )
- La moglie nemica, opera (UA Palermo in 1698, received only libretto )
- Dafni, opera (UA Genoa in 1709, only libretto and get Act 1 )
Glory and fame
Only in the 20th century admitted to Hans Volkmann's fact-based two-volume monograph with the legends, until then clustered round Astorga.
Volkmann wrote in the introduction to his first volume:
" Even today can Astorgas major work, the Stabat Mater, exercise the most profound effect on the listener. It is among the sacred works of the Italian school of be the beginning of the 18th century, a single phenomenon, which of religious fervor, of seriousness of the conception of the subject and bitter force of mood expression above provides the related creations of this era by far, without, however, the sensual beauty, the most Italian works of the time is proper to be lacking. These advantages include the setting of the Stabat Mater by Astorga among the many compositions of this church a place of honor in the text.
The Stabat Mater founded Astorgas fame with posterity. At the master's lifetime, it should have known a few. And yet, Astorga was even then a composer name of good sound. Everyone knew him as the great master of the chamber cantata. In this field to Astorga had operated diligently and with luck, so that he was the composer of cantatas, not only in Italy but throughout Europe in high esteem. This fame had to go out again with the disappearance of the genre of the chamber cantata.
Astorga has done enough not only as a secular composer the best of his time, but also as a composer of church imperishable created. He deserves, therefore, that would also taken from his person and his life destinies note, he deserves that the welter of lies and fairy tales that has piled up over time to its appearance, removed, that the romantic and fantastic picture of his personality through a historically faithful would be replaced. "
Legends
D' Astorga unsettled life was in later times rise to flowering legend. Is known, among other things, the story that Astorgas father said to have been beheaded in 1701 for taking part in an uprising supposedly. Wife and son were forced to watch the execution, whereupon Emanuele fall into deep depression and his mother had died of fright. Another story says Astorga had entered the service of the Duke of Parma in 1703, had fallen in love with Elisabetta Farnese and was therefore released.
From the legends of the music writer Friedrich Rochlitz in 1825 formed a whole novel, the sustainable shaped the image of the composer in the 19th century. One product of this reception is also the 1866 resulting opera " Astorga " by Johann Joseph Abert, in which is even quoted from Astorga ' Stabat mater '.