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ASTORGA, EMANUELE

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Originally appearing in Volume V02, Page 794 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ASTORGA, EMANUELE D' (1681-1736), See also:Italian musical composer, was See also:born at See also:Naples on the 11th of See also:December 1681. No See also:authentic See also:account of Astorga's See also:life can be successfully constructed from the obscure and confusing See also:evidence that has been until now handed down, although historians have not failed to indulge many pleasant conjectures According to some of these, his See also:father, a See also:baron of See also:Sicily, took an active See also:part in the See also:attempt to throw off the See also:Spanish yoke, but was betrayed by his own soldiers and publicly executed. His wife and son were compelled to be spectators of his See also:fate; and such was the effect upon them that his See also:mother died on the spot, and Emanuele See also:fell into a See also:state of gloomy despondency, which threatened to deprive him of See also:reason. By the kindness of the princess Ursini, the unfortunate See also:young See also:man was placed in a See also:convent at Astorga, in See also:Leon, where he completed a musical See also:education which is said to have been begun in See also:Palermo under See also:Francesco See also:Scarlatti. Here he recovered his See also:health, and his admirable musical talents were cultivated under the best masters. On the details of this account no reliance can safely be placed, nor is there any certainty that in 1703 he entered the service of the See also:duke of See also:Parma. Equally untrustworthy is the See also:story that the duke, suspecting an See also:attachment between his niece See also:Elizabeth See also:Farnese and Astorga, dismissed the musician. The established facts concerning Astorga are indeed few enough. They are: that the See also:opera Dafne was written and conducted by the composer in See also:Barcelona in 1709; that he visited See also:London, where he wrote his Stabat Mater, possibly for the society of " Antient Musick "; that it was performed in See also:Oxford in 1713; that in 1712 he was in See also:Vienna, and that he retired at an uncertain date to Bohemia, where he died on the 21st of See also:August 1736, in a See also:castle which had been given to him in the domains of See also:Prince Lobkowitz, in See also:Raudnitz. Astorga deserves remembrance for his dignified and pathetic Stabat Mater, and for his numerous chamber-cantatas for one or two voices. He was probably the last composer to carry on the traditions of this See also:form of chamber-See also:music as perfected by Alessandro Scarlatti.

End of Article: ASTORGA, EMANUELE

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