Bergamo maestro’s Baroque music is still played today by enthusiasts
Organist and composer Giovanni Legrenzi, who was
influential in the development of late Baroque music in Italy, was baptised on August 12, 1626 at Clusone, in Val Seriana near Bergamo, which was at the time part of the
Republic of Venice.
Giovanni Legrenzi was the organist at
the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore
Legrenzi was to become one of the most prominent composers of opera, vocal, and instrumental
music working in Venice in the late 17th century.
His father, Giovanni Maria Legrenzi, had been a
professional violinist and composer. One of his brothers, Marco, was also a
talented musician. The brothers are believed to have been taught music at home
and they became used to performing in their local church.
Giovanni Legrenzi became organist at the Basilica of
Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo and was ordained as a priest in 1651. He became
resident chaplain at the church, but continued to be involved in music and was
given the title of first organist in 1653. The music he composed for Mass and
Vespers was published in 1654.
Legrenzi is believed to have been involved in a
gambling scandal and his appointment as organist was not reconfirmed the
following year, but the offence was not considered to be serious and he had
been reinstated by February 1655.
However, towards the end of that year, Legrenzi had
resigned from his position in Bergamo and in 1656 he became maestro di
cappella at the Academy of the Holy
Spirit in Ferrara. The Academy was founded by a fraternity of laymen who
presented services with music for members of aristocratic circles in Ferrara.
Legrenzi’s position at the Academy gave him time to
compose his own music and by the early 1660s he had published eight volumes of
his work and had broken into the world of opera.
He ended his association with the Academy and supported
himself with the proceeds of his published music and with his income from the land
he owned in his native Clusone.
The Via Arena entrance to the
Santa Maria Maggiore basilica
He had settled in Venice by 1670, where he took up a
position as a music teacher at Santa Maria dei Derelitti, more commonly known
as the Ospedaletto, where he received commissions to compose oratorios.
He was a finalist for the appointment of maestro di
cappella The Basilica of San Marco in 1676, losing by one vote, but later in
the year he became maestro di coro at the Ospedale dei Mendicanti.
He became vice maestro at San Marco in 1682 and, by
this time, he was one of the leading opera composers of his day. Among his
students were Francesco Gasparini and Tomaso Albinoni.
Legrenzi finally became maestro di cappella at San
Marco in 1685 but by this time his health was beginning to fail. He died in
1690, probably due to kidney stones, which caused him a lot of pain in his last
few months.
His great nephew inherited his music and his books and
produced four publications of Legrenzi’s work posthumously. Some of the
composer’s unpublished work still survives in manuscript form.
Legrenzi composed 19 operas between 1662 and 1685,
which were very popular in their day, but only a few have survived. Early music
groups still perform his instrumental music and some of his surviving operas
are performed at festivals.
