Alessandro Marcello
Alessandro Marcello (24 August 1669[1] – 19 June 1747) was an Italian nobleman, poet, philosopher, mathematician and musician.
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[edit] Biography
Marcello held concerts at his hometown of Venice. He composed and published several sets of concertos, including six concertos under the title of La Cetra (The Lyre), as well as cantatas, arias, canzonets, and violin sonatas. Marcello, being a slightly older contemporary of Antonio Vivaldi, often composed under the pseudonym Eterio Stinfalico, his name as a member of the celebrated Arcadian Academy (Pontificia Accademia degli Arcadi). He died in Padua in 1747.
Alessandro's brother was Benedetto Marcello, also a composer, who illegally married his singing student Rosanna Scalfi in 1728. After his death she was unable to inherit his estate, and in 1742 she filed suit against Alessandro Marcello, seeking financial support.[2]
[edit] Works
Although his works are infrequently performed today, Marcello is regarded as a very competent composer. His La Cetra concertos are "unusual for their wind solo parts, concision and use of counterpoint within a broadly Vivaldian style," according to Grove, "placing them as a last outpost of the classic Venetian Baroque concerto."
A concerto Marcello wrote in D minor for oboe, strings and basso continuo is perhaps his best-known work. Its worth was affirmed by Johann Sebastian Bach who transcribed it for harpsichord (BWV 974). A number of editions have been published of the famous Oboe Concerto in D minor. The edition in C minor is credited to Benedetto Marcello.
[edit] References
- ^ The Breitkopf & Hartel edition of the Oboe Concerto in D minor states that Alessandro Marcello was born in 1684 and died in 1750. However, the majority of other archives state 1669-1747.
- ^ Sadie, Julie Anne; Samuel, Rhian (1994) (Digitized online by GoogleBooks). The Norton/Grove dictionary of women composers. http://books.google.com/books?id=IvoQQU1QL_QC&pg=PA312&dq=Rosanna+Scalfi+Marcello+(fl.+1723%E2%80%931742)#v=onepage&q=Rosanna%20Scalfi%20Marcello%20(fl.%201723%E2%80%931742)&f=false. Retrieved 4 October 2010.
[edit] External links
- Free scores by Alessandro Marcello at the International Music Score Library Project
- Free scores by Alessandro Marcello in the Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA)
Marcello's birth/death dates are given as 1684 to 1750 in The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.
[edit] Source
- The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music, Oxford University Press, 1994
