Giuseppe Ottavio Pitoni
Encyclopedia
Giuseppe Ottavio Pitoni was an organist and composer born in Rieti
, Perugia, Italy. He became one of the leading musicians in Rome during the late Baroque era, the first half of the 18th century.
from age eight. At Santi Apostoli
he sang and studied counterpoint with Francesco Foggia
, where his early compositions were performed. By age sixteen he was maestro di cappella at Santa Maria Maggiore, Monterotondo
, a historic church near Rome. In 1673 as maestro for the cathedral at Assisi
he began intensive study of the works of Palestrina
, and in 1676 moved to the cathedral at Rieti.
In 1677 he returned to Rome for a lifelong appointment as maestro di cappella at the Basilica of San Marco. In addition he held a series of prestigious positions as maestro for Holy Apostles (from 1686), at St. John Lateran
(from 1708, where Palestrina had served from 1555 to 1560), and for the Cappella Giulia
at St. Peter’s (from 1719, immediately following Domenico Scarlatti
). For the chapter of San Lorenzo in Damaso
, he produced major performances over thirty-five years for the music-loving Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, whose extensive circle of artists included Arcangelo Corelli
, George Frideric Handel
, both Alessandro
and Domenico Scarlatti, Bernardo Pasquini
, and Filippo Amadei
.
. He was extremely prolific, with some 325 masses, 800 Psalm settings and 235 motets among the 3500 compositions listed by his pupil and biographer, Girolamo Chiti. He prepared a complete year of music for St. Peter’s, with settings for the masses and offices of every Sunday and holy day.
Pitoni’s early works are brilliant examples of his genius in the Roman contrapuntal
style of Palestrina. In later years he moved toward more homophonic
textures with polychoral
elements. His use of stile concertato
also included solo sections and concertante instrumental parts. It is said that his immense facility allowed him to compose the parts of a 16-voice mass separately, without use of a score. To modern ears and eyes these compositions may seem dull and even repetitious. However, given typical performance practices in the early 18th century – vocal ornamentation (“divisions
”), instrumental participation, antiphonal
location for polychoral elements, just intonation
, and varied vocal colors – even the homophonic works must have made a strong impression in the highly reverberative church interiors of Rome. At the end of his life he was preparing a mass for twelve choirs, left incomplete at his death. He was buried in the Pitoni family vault in the Basilica of San Marco, where he had served for some 66 years.
Notitia de contrapuntisti e de compositori di musica (c1725); ed. C. Ruini (Florence, 1988)
Regole di contrappunto (Mss Rome, Conservatorio di Musica S Cecilia)
Aggiunte alle Regole di contrappunto di Giulio Belli (Mss Bologna, Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale)
.
Cantate Domino
Laudate Dominum
Rieti
Rieti is a city and comune in Lazio, central Italy, with a population of c. 47,700. It is the capital of province of Rieti.The town centre rests on a small hilltop, commanding a wide plain at the southern edge of an ancient lake. The area is now the fertile basin of the Velino River...
, Perugia, Italy. He became one of the leading musicians in Rome during the late Baroque era, the first half of the 18th century.
Life
Taken to Rome as an infant, he began vocal study with Pompeo Natali at the age of five and sang in the choir of San Giovanni dei FiorentiniSan Giovanni dei Fiorentini
San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, St John of the Florentines, is a church in the Ponte rione or district of Rome. Dedicated to St John the Baptist, the protector of Florence, the new church for the Florentine community in Rome was started in the 16th century and completed in early eighteenth and is the...
from age eight. At Santi Apostoli
Santi Apostoli
The Church of the Twelve Holy Apostles is a 6th century Roman Catholic parish and titular church and minor basilica in Rome, Italy, dedicated originally to St. James and St. Philip and later to all Apostles...
he sang and studied counterpoint with Francesco Foggia
Francesco Foggia
Francesco Foggia was an Italian composer of the Baroque.-Biography:Foggia was a boy soprano at the Collegium Germanicum of the Jesuits in Rome, and was a student of Antonio Cifra, and Paolo Agostini. Perhaps his family was in contact with Giovanni Bernardino Nanino, 'mastro di capella' at San...
, where his early compositions were performed. By age sixteen he was maestro di cappella at Santa Maria Maggiore, Monterotondo
Monterotondo
-History:According to some historians, Monterotondo is the heir of ancient Sabine town of Eretum, although the modern settlement appeared in the 10th-11th centuries in a different location...
, a historic church near Rome. In 1673 as maestro for the cathedral at Assisi
Assisi
- Churches :* The Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi is a World Heritage Site. The Franciscan monastery, il Sacro Convento, and the lower and upper church of St Francis were begun immediately after his canonization in 1228, and completed in 1253...
he began intensive study of the works of Palestrina
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina was an Italian Renaissance composer of sacred music and the best-known 16th-century representative of the Roman School of musical composition...
, and in 1676 moved to the cathedral at Rieti.
In 1677 he returned to Rome for a lifelong appointment as maestro di cappella at the Basilica of San Marco. In addition he held a series of prestigious positions as maestro for Holy Apostles (from 1686), at St. John Lateran
Basilica of St. John Lateran
The Papal Archbasilica of St. John Lateran , commonly known as St. John Lateran's Archbasilica and St. John Lateran's Basilica, is the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome and the official ecclesiastical seat of the Bishop of Rome, who is the Pope...
(from 1708, where Palestrina had served from 1555 to 1560), and for the Cappella Giulia
Cappella Giulia
The choir "Cappella Giulia," officially named the Reverend Musical Chapel "Julia" of the Sacrosanct Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican, is the choir of St...
at St. Peter’s (from 1719, immediately following Domenico Scarlatti
Domenico Scarlatti
Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti was an Italian composer who spent much of his life in the service of the Portuguese and Spanish royal families. He is classified as a Baroque composer chronologically, although his music was influential in the development of the Classical style...
). For the chapter of San Lorenzo in Damaso
San Lorenzo in Damaso
San Lorenzo in Damaso is a basilica church in Rome, Italy, one of several dedicated to the Roman deacon and martyr Saint Lawrence...
, he produced major performances over thirty-five years for the music-loving Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, whose extensive circle of artists included Arcangelo Corelli
Arcangelo Corelli
Arcangelo Corelli was an Italian violinist and composer of Baroque music.-Biography:Corelli was born at Fusignano, in the current-day province of Ravenna, although at the time it was in the province of Ferrara. Little is known about his early life...
, George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...
, both Alessandro
Alessandro Scarlatti
Alessandro Scarlatti was an Italian Baroque composer especially famous for his operas and chamber cantatas. He is considered the founder of the Neapolitan school of opera. He was the father of two other composers, Domenico Scarlatti and Pietro Filippo Scarlatti.-Life:Scarlatti was born in...
and Domenico Scarlatti, Bernardo Pasquini
Bernardo Pasquini
right|thumb|Bernardo PasquiniBernardo Pasquini was an Italian composer of opera and church music.He was born at Massa in Val di Nievole . He was a pupil of Antonio Cesti and Loreto Vittori...
, and Filippo Amadei
Filippo Amadei
Filippo Amadei was an Italian composer from Reggio Emilia, who was active in Rome and London.He appears to have worked as composer of cantatas oratorios and as a cellist for Cardinal Ottoboni from 1690 to 1711, the year of his oratorio Teodosio il giovane , then again 1723-1729.From 1719-1722 he...
.
Works
His contributions to liturgical music in Rome were profound as composer, organist, maestro di capella, writer on music theory and history, and as esaminatori dei maestri for the Academy of St. CeciliaAccademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
The Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia is one of the oldest musical institutions in the world, based in Italy.It is based at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, and was founded by the papal bull, Ratione congruit, issued by Sixtus V in 1585, which invoked two saints prominent in Western...
. He was extremely prolific, with some 325 masses, 800 Psalm settings and 235 motets among the 3500 compositions listed by his pupil and biographer, Girolamo Chiti. He prepared a complete year of music for St. Peter’s, with settings for the masses and offices of every Sunday and holy day.
Pitoni’s early works are brilliant examples of his genius in the Roman contrapuntal
Counterpoint
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent . It has been most commonly identified in classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...
style of Palestrina. In later years he moved toward more homophonic
Homophony
In music, homophony is a texture in which two or more parts move together in harmony, the relationship between them creating chords. This is distinct from polyphony, in which parts move with rhythmic independence, and monophony, in which all parts move in parallel rhythm and pitch. A homophonic...
textures with polychoral
Venetian polychoral style
The Venetian polychoral style was a type of music of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras which involved spatially separate choirs singing in alternation...
elements. His use of stile concertato
Concertato
Concertato is a term in early Baroque music referring to either a genre or a style of music in which groups of instruments or voices share a melody, usually in alternation, and almost always over a basso continuo...
also included solo sections and concertante instrumental parts. It is said that his immense facility allowed him to compose the parts of a 16-voice mass separately, without use of a score. To modern ears and eyes these compositions may seem dull and even repetitious. However, given typical performance practices in the early 18th century – vocal ornamentation (“divisions
Division (music)
Division in music refers to a type of ornamentation or variation common in 16th and 17th century music in which each note of a melodic line is "divided" into several shorter, faster-moving notes, often by a rhythmic repetition of a simple musical device such as the trill, turn or cambiata on each...
”), instrumental participation, antiphonal
Antiphon
An antiphon in Christian music and ritual, is a "responsory" by a choir or congregation, usually in Gregorian chant, to a psalm or other text in a religious service or musical work....
location for polychoral elements, just intonation
Just intonation
In music, just intonation is any musical tuning in which the frequencies of notes are related by ratios of small whole numbers. Any interval tuned in this way is called a just interval. The two notes in any just interval are members of the same harmonic series...
, and varied vocal colors – even the homophonic works must have made a strong impression in the highly reverberative church interiors of Rome. At the end of his life he was preparing a mass for twelve choirs, left incomplete at his death. He was buried in the Pitoni family vault in the Basilica of San Marco, where he had served for some 66 years.
Music theory
Guida armonica … libro primo (Rome, c1690); ed. F. Luisi (Bologna, 1989)Notitia de contrapuntisti e de compositori di musica (c1725); ed. C. Ruini (Florence, 1988)
Regole di contrappunto (Mss Rome, Conservatorio di Musica S Cecilia)
Aggiunte alle Regole di contrappunto di Giulio Belli (Mss Bologna, Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale)
Works, editions and recordings
Several volumes of his unpublished autograph compositions are in the library of the Cappella Giulia, Rome, and the Bibliotheca Santini at MünsterMünster
Münster is an independent city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also capital of the local government region Münsterland...
.
Cantate Domino
Laudate Dominum
- Dixit Dominus Tölzer KnabenchorTölzer KnabenchorThe Tölzer Knabenchor is a boys' choir with roots in the Bavarian town of Bad Tölz.The choir group is still led by director and singing master Gerhard Schmidt-Gaden, who founded the choir in 1956 when he was only nineteen years old. The founder was once a student of Carl Orff's and worked with him...
Gerhard Schmidt-Gaden