Giacomo Antonio Perti
Giacomo Antonio Perti was an Italian composer of the Baroque era. He was mainly active at Bologna, where he was Maestro di Cappella for sixty years. He was the teacher of Giuseppe Torelli and Giovanni Battista Martini.
Life
He was born in Bologna, then part of the Papal States, and began studying music early, learning harpsichord and violin there; later he studied counterpoint. By the age of 17, he had already written a mass, a motet, and a setting of the Magnificat; and in 1678 he wrote his first opera and oratorio. During a stay in Parma, where he studied with Giuseppe Corsi da Celano, he formed his sacred music style; most of his psalm settings of the 1680s and 1690s show the influence of Corsi. Later he went to Venice, most likely for a production of one of his operas.In 1690 he was appointed to the post of Maestro di Cappella at S Pietro, replacing his uncle Lorenzo Perti. In 1696 he became Maestro di Cappella in another Bolognese church, S. Petronio, after the death of Giovanni Paolo Colonna the year before. He remained in charge for exactly sixty years, until his death at age 95.
Perti was a prolific composer of operas and sacred music, and was recognized as a distinguished musician not only by other composers but also by aristocrats and emperors, including Ferdinando de' Medici and Emperors Leopold I and Charles VI.
Works
Perti was highly regarded for his sacred music and his operas. Of the 26 operas he composed, few remain today. Perti maintained in his Op. 1 that he was influenced by the melodic style of Francesco Cavalli, Antonio Cesti, and Luigi Rossi; however, he shows considerable originality in instrumentation, use of dialogue and countermelody. His output of sacred music was even more remarkable: he wrote 120 psalm settings, for one voice, chorus, basso continuo, and various other instruments; 54 motets, for similar forces; 28 masses; 83 versetti and other liturgical works.He also wrote secular music, including 142 solo cantatas, and some instrumental music including sonatas and sinfonias for a variety of instruments.
Operas
- Marzio Coriolano, 1683
- Oreste in Argo, 1685
- L'incoronazione di Dario, 1686
- La Flavia, 1686
- La Rosaura, 1689
- Dionisio Siracusano, 1689
- Brenno in Efeso, 1690
- L'inganno scoperto per vendetta, 1691
- Il Pompeo, 1691
- Furio Camillo, 1692
- Nerone fatto cesare, 1693
- La forza della virtù, 1694
- Laodicea e Berenice, 1695
- Penelope la casta, 1696
- Fausta restituita all'impero, 1697
- Apollo geloso, 1698
- Lucio Vero, 1700
- Astianatte, 1701
- Dionisio re di Portogallo, 1707
- Il Venceslao, ossia Il fraticida innocente, 1708
- Ginevra principessa di Scozia, 1708
- Berenice regina d'Egitto, 1709
- Demetrio, 1709
- Rodelinda regina de' Longobardi, 1710
- Un prologo per il cortegiano, 1739
Oratorios
- Due gigli porporati nel martirio di santa Serafia e santa Sabina, Bologna, 1679
- Abramo vincitor de' propri affetti, Bologna, 1683
- Il Mosè conduttor del popolo ebreo, Modena, 1685
- Oratorio della Passione, Bologna, 1685
- La beata Imelda Lambertini bolognese,, Bologna, 1686
- «Oratorio à 6 Voci, con concertino, e concerto grosso», Modena, 1687
- San Galgano Guidotti, Bologna, 1694
- La Passione di Cristo, Bologna, 1694
- Christo al Limbo, Bologna, 1698
- La morte del giusto, overo Il transito di san Giuseppe, Venice, 1700
- La Morte delusa, Milan, 1703
- I trionfi di Giosuè, Florence, 1704
- La sepoltura di Cristo, Bologna, 1704
- San Petronio, Bologna, 1720
- La Passione del Redentore, Bologna, 1721
- I conforti di Maria Vergine addolorata per la morte del suo divin Figliuolo, Bologna, 1723
- Il figlio prodigo, undated
- Oratorio della nascita del Signore, undated
- San Francesco, undated
- La sepoltura di Cristo, undated