Giovanni Battista Fontana (composer)

Giovanni Battista Fontana (* around 1571 in Brescia, † October 7, 1630 in Padua ) was an Italian composer and violinist of the early Baroque.

Life and work

The only surviving evidence of his life and work are taken from the preface of his only known and printed eleven years after his death, 18 sonatas, published in Venice in 1641 the Sonata in A 1st 2nd 3rd per il violino, o cornetto, fagotto, chitarone, violoncino o simile altro istromento. The first six sonatas for solo violin and basso continuo, three sonatas for solo violin and bassoon and basso continuo, more Sonatas for Two Violins and Continuo The collection is considered alongside the Affetti musicali by Biagio Marini as one of the early formative works of the sonata literature.

In the preface to be designated as places of activity Fontana Rome, Venice and Padua. In addition, he is referred to as "one of the most unique virtuoso of violin playing, which has experienced the age." Cesario Gussago dedicated to him and the cornettists Lodovico Cornale his Sonata a quattro of 1608.

The registers of the city of Padua, according to Fontana died on October 7, 1630 during a plague epidemic.