Giovanni Giorgi (composer)


Giovanni Giorgi was a priest and an Italian composer. His style of polychoral church compositions are influenced by earlier Roman School composers such as Orazio Benevoli, but also incorporate later Roman Baroque features and some elements of early Classical style.
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Life

Giorgi is reputed to have originated from Venice, but few details of his life are known. In 1719 he was appointed maestro di cappella at the papal Basilica of St. John Lateran, Rome, and was the successor of Giuseppe Ottavio Pitoni. Many of Giorgi's early compositions were written during his time in Rome.
By January 1725 he was in Lisbon where he took up the post of court mestre de capela. He died in Lisbon in 1762.

Works

Many Portuguese records were lost in the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, but in Giorgi's case around 600 compositions have been preserved both in the Lateran archives in Rome and at Lisbon Cathedral. Most are vocal works and many are for liturgical use. Someparticularly the later worksincorporate concerted instrumental parts.
His extant works include:
  • 162 motets, some for 2 to 4 voices; also some for 8 or 16 voices
  • 33 mass settings for 2, 4, 8 and 16 voices; some with instrumental parts
  • 145 gradual settings for 2, 4 and 8 voices; some with instruments
  • 137 antiphons for 2 to 4 voices; some with instrumental parts
  • 162 psalms for 4, 5 and 8 voices; some with organ parts
  • 152 offertory settings for 8 voices; one with instruments
  • 49 hymns for 4 voices
  • 20 responsories for 4 or 8 voices
  • Lamentations for 8 voices
  • 5 cantatas for solo soprano and organ
  • Madrigals for 5 voices

Recordings

Giovanni Giorgi: Motetos de Natal e Páscoa, Coro de Câmara da Universidade de Aveiro directed by Cristiana Spadaro. Published 2015 as
Includes Motets n.º 24-27 and 48-52
Giovanni Giorgi: Ave Maria, Choeur de Chambre de Namur, and Cappella Mediterranea directed by Leonardo García-Alarcón. Published June 2011 as .Roma Triumphans, Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal directed by Christopher Jackson. Published 2008 as Atma SACD 22507.