Giovanni Antonio Leoni

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Giovanni Antonio Leoni
BornAround 1600
DiedShortly after 1652
NationalityItalian
OccupationComposer

Giovanni Antonio Leoni was a Roman violinist and composer in the 17th century. Little is known about Leoni's life besides that he was an active composer in Rome. The only major work by Leoni that is preserved is a publication in 1652 titled Sonate di violino a voce sola ... Libro primo Opera terza, a score with a violin part. Leoni explains in the preface of the piece that he previously had composed many sonatas and symphonias,[1] and it is dedicated to cardinal Giovanni Battista Maria Pallotta.[2] The work is a collection of thirty one sonatas for violin and basso continuo, the first known collection to be entirely dedicated to solo violin.[3] Leoni's work as a musician is first evidenced in 1634, when he was paid to play violin for a church.[4]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Willi Apel (1990). Thomas Binkley (ed.). Italian Violin Music of the Seventeenth Century (illustrated ed.). Indiana University Press. p. 151. ISBN 9780253306838.
  2. ^ Tim Carter, John Butt, ed. (2005). The Cambridge History of Seventeenth-Century Music. Vol. 1. Cambridge University Press. p. 506. ISBN 9780521792738.
  3. ^ Homer Ulrich (1966). Chamber Music (illustrated, reprint ed.). Columbia University Press. p. 48. ISBN 9780231086172.
  4. ^ Maria Giovanna Fiorentino (1994). "Giovanni Antonio Leoni: nuove acquisizioni biografiche". Recercare. 6. Fondazione Italiana Per La Musica Antica (FIMA): 193–202. ISSN 1120-5741. JSTOR 41701192.