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STEFFANI, AGOSTINO (1653-1728)

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Originally appearing in Volume V25, Page 870 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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STEFFANI, See also:AGOSTINO (1653-1728) , See also:Italian ecclesiastic, diplomatist and musical composer, was See also:born at See also:Castelfranco on the 25th of See also:July 1653. At a very See also:early See also:age he was admitted as a chorister at St See also:Mark's, See also:Venice. In 1667 the beauty of his See also:voice attracted the See also:attention of See also:Count Tattenbach, by whom he was taken to See also:Munich, where his See also:education was completed at the expense of See also:Ferdinand Maria, elector of See also:Bavaria, who appointed him " Churfurstlicher Kammer- and Hofmusikus " and granted him a liberal See also:salary. After receiving instruction from Johann Kaspar Kerl, in whose See also:charge he lived, he was sent in 1673 to study in See also:Rome, where Ercole Bernabei was his See also:master, and among other See also:works he composed six motets, the See also:original See also:manuscripts of which are now in the See also:Fitzwilliam Museum at See also:Cambridge. On his return to Munich in 1674 he published his first See also:work, Psalmodia vespertine, a See also:part of which was reprinted in See also:Martini's Saggio di contrappunto in 1674. In 1675 he was appointed See also:court organist. The date when he was ordained See also:priest, with the See also:title of Abbate of Lepsing, is not precisely known. His ecclesiastical status did not prevent him from turning his attention to the See also:stage, for which, at different periods of his See also:life, he composed work which undoubtedly exercised a potent See also:influence upon the dramatic See also:music of the See also:period. Of his first See also:opera, Marco Aurelio, written for the See also:carnival and produced at Munich in 1681, the only copy known to exist is a See also:manuscript See also:score preserved in the royal library at See also:Buckingham See also:Palace. It was followed by Solone in 1685, by Audacia e rispetto, See also:prerogative d'amore and Servio Tullio in 1686, by Alarico in 1687, and by See also:Niobe in 1688; but of these works no trace can now be discovered. Not-withstanding the favour shown to him by the elector See also:Maximilian Emanuel, he accepted in 1688 the See also:appointment of Kapellmeister at the court of See also:Hanover, where he speedily improved an acquaintance dating from 1681 with Ernest See also:Augustus, See also:duke of See also:Brunswick-See also:Luneburg (afterwards elector of Hanover), winning also a pleasant footing with the duchess See also:Sophia See also:Charlotte (afterwards electress of See also:Brandenburg), the philosopher See also:Leibnitz, the Abbate Ortensio Mauro, and many men of letters and intelligence, and where, in 1710, he showed See also:great kindness to See also:Handel, who was then just entering upon his glorious career. He inaugurated a See also:long See also:series of triumphs in Hanover by composing, for the opening of the new opera See also:house in 1689, an opera called Enrico ii Leone, which was produced with extraordinary splendour and achieved an immense reputation.

For the same See also:

theatre he composed La Lotta d'Ercole See also:con Achilleo in 1689, La Superbia d' Alessandro in 1690, Orlando generoso in 1691, Le Rivali concordi in 1692, La See also:Liberia contenta in 1693, I Trionfi del fato. and I Baccanali in 1695, and Briseide in 1696. The libretto of Briseide is by Palmieri. Those of most if not all the others are by the Abbate Mauro. The scores are preserved at Buckingham Palace, where, in See also:company with five volumes of songs and three of duets, they See also:form part of the collection brought to See also:England by the elector of Hanover in 1714. But it was not only as a musician that Steffani distinguished himself in his new See also:home. The See also:elevation of Ernest Augustus to the electorate in 1692 led tc difficulties, for the arrangement of which it was necessary that an See also:ambassador should visit the various See also:German courts, armed with a considerable amount of See also:diplomatic See also:power. The accomplished abbate was sent on this delicate See also:mission in 1696, with the title of See also:envoy extraordinary, and he fulfilled his difficult task so well that See also:Pope See also:Innocent XI., in recognition of certain privileges he had secured for the Hanoverian Catholics, consecrated him See also:bishop of Spiga in the See also:Spanish See also:West Indies. In 1698 he was sent as ambassador to See also:Brussels, and after the See also:death of Ernest Augustus in the same See also:year he entered the service of the elector See also:palatine, See also:John See also:William, at D' sseldorf, where he held the offices of privy councillor and protonotary of the See also:holy. see. Invested with these high honours, Steffani could scarcely continue to produce dramatic compositions in public without grievous See also:breach of See also:etiquette. But his See also:genius was too importunate to submit to repression; and in 1709 he ingeniously avoided the difficulty by producing two new operas—Enea at Hanover and Tassilone at See also:Dusseldorf—in the name of his secretary and See also:amanuensis Gregorio Piva, whose See also:signature is attached to the scores preserved at Buckingham Palace. Another score-that of Arminio—in the same collection, dated Dusseldorf, 1707, and evidently the work of Steffani, bears no composer's name. Steffani did not accompany the elector See also:George to England; but in 1724 the See also:Academy of Antient Musick in See also:London elected him its honorary See also:president for life; and in return for the compliment he sent the association a magnificent Stabat Mater, for six voices and See also:orchestra, and three See also:fine madrigals.

The manuscripts of these are still in existence, and the See also:

British Museum possesses a very fine Confitebor, for three voices and orchestra, of about the same period. All these compositions are very much in advance. of the age in which they were written; and in his operas Steffani shows an appreciation of the demands of the stage very remarkable indeed at a period at which the musical See also:drama was gradually approaching the See also:character of a merely formal See also:concert, with scenery and dresses. But for the manuscripts at Buckingham Palace these operas would be utterly unknown; but Steffani will never cease to be remembered by his beautiful chamber-duets,• which, like those of his contemporary Carlo Maria See also:Clari (1669-1745), are chiefly written in the form of cantatas for two voices, accompanied by a figured See also:bass The British Museum (Add. See also:MSS. 50.55 seq.) possesses more than a See also:hundred of these charming compositions, some of which were published at Munich in 1679. Steffani visited See also:Italy for the last See also:time in 1727, in which year Handel, who always gratefully remembered the kindness he had received from him at Hanover, once more met him at the palace of See also:Cardinal Ottoboni in Rome. This was the last time the two composers were destined to meet. Steffani returned soon afterwards to Hanover, and died on the 12th of See also:February 1728 while engaged in the transaction of some diplomatic business at See also:Frankfort. Steffani stands somewhat apart from contemporary Italian composers (e.g. Alessandro See also:Scarlatti) in his mastery of instrumental forms. His opera overtures, &c., show a remarkable See also:combination of Italian suavity with a logical conciseness of construction which is due to See also:French influence. In vocal music he is certainly inferior to Scarlatti, and none of his famous duets, despite their See also:charm, can compare for seriousness of intention with the Sicilian's master's chamber-cantatas.

His instrumental music, however, is historically important as a See also:

factor in the See also:artistic development of Handel.

End of Article: STEFFANI, AGOSTINO (1653-1728)

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