Life
Fully trained in the style of the mature Baroque, his career took place in an era of transition, reaching maturity in the Late Baroque phase that saw the establishment of the new rationalist ideals of Arcadia.
Born in Perugia in 1624, Giovanni Andrea Angelini, known as Bontempi, showed a talent for music from a young age. He joined the court of Dresden as a singer and soon established himself as a maestro di cappella, assuming a prominent role in German musical life.
Aneddoto
A pioneering work
Bontempi's Historia Musica is the first systematic attempt to narrate the entire history of music: a monumental work that made him famous even beyond Italian borders.Works
His best-known work is Il Paride, performed in Dresden in 1662, one of the first Italian operas on German soil. This work marked the beginning of a musical tradition that would lead to the stable spread of melodrama in Germany.
He also composed oratorios and sacred music intended for the court and churches, in which the fusion between liturgical solemnity and the Italian melodic style emerges.
Among his theoretical works, the Historia Musica stands out, remaining a fundamental source for the knowledge of ancient and medieval music.
Briciole di storia
Pubblico dominio (Commons)
