Marianne Martinez (1744-1812) was an Austrian composer active and widely esteemed during the age of Haydn and Mozart. She was the author of the only symphony composed by a woman during the Classical period in music (c. 1750-1790), and she also wrote a number of other ambitious vocal and instrumental works. A member of the Viennese court aristocracy who never held a formal post as composer, Martinez and her music fell out of favor as the new concept of the composer as independent genius came into vogue. Musical accounts written in her own time testify to her high level of activity and to the quality of her compositions, but after her death she was almost completely forgotten. However, a new wave of musical scholarship in the 1980s and 1990s aimed at uncovering the often-undervalued contributions of women to musical life through history has led to an upward reappraisal of her importance. Many of the manuscripts of Martinez's compositions were destroyed in a fire in 1927, so there is no way to know exactly when she began (or ceased) to be active as a composer. But the year 1760 saw three dated compositions by the 16-year-old Martinez: two settings of the Catholic mass and one motet (during this period, a religious work with an original text, for solo voice and orchestra or other accompaniment). One of them, the Mass No. 1 in D major, includes a passage that resembles the parallel music in a mass by the young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and may have influenced it. Some of these early works were performed at Vienna's Michaelerkirche (St. Michael's Church, which served as the chapel of the emperor's court). In the 1760s Martinez's reputation spread beyond Vienna. Metastasio sent some of her compositions to the most celebrated composition teacher of the day, Padre Giovanni Battista Martini (among whose students was Mozart). He responded with praise, and Martinez's compositional reach expanded. Her third mass, written in 1761, runs to more than 150 pages in manuscript score and contains parts for soloists, chorus, and a large orchestra with trumpets, oboes, flutes, strings and organ. In 1773 Martinez won an important honor when she was admitted to the Accademia Filarmonica (Philharmonic Academy) of Bologna, a society of composers and musical connoisseurs. For the academy she composed a grand motet, Dixit Dominus , for chorus, soloists, and orchestra. Although Irving Godt noted in the Journal of Musicology that it "may well be her masterpiece," it apparently fell victim to internal academy politics and was never performed. Martinez was the first woman composer inscribed in the Accademia's membership rolls, and her induction marked her emergence as one of Vienna's prominent composers, suitable for commissions for major events. Some of those were religious. Martinez and Mozart were apparently well acquainted and frequently performed together; Mozart may have written his Piano Concerto No. 5 for Martinez to perform. On her own, Martinez composed various keyboard sonatas and concertos for piano and orchestra, in C major and A major. Of the first movement of the latter work, Diana Ambache wrote in Women of Note that "the sudden plunge into a harmonically unexpected world dispels any expectation of polite, early classical decorum. Her keyboard writing is reminiscent of Haydn in athletic mode." In 1770 she also composed a Symphony in C major, the only Classical period symphony by a woman. She died of tuberculosis on December 13, 1812. Her sister Antonia, with whom she had lived during her last years, died two days later. Although Martinez's music had energy and originality, it was essentially conservative in style. During the nineteenth century, when musical innovation was at a premium, her reputation was eclipsed; it was initially sent on a downward trajectory by a negative evaluation in the memoirs of a female Viennese novelist, Caroline Pichler. Martinez was little more than a footnote in history books until the 1990s, when feminist scholarship stimulated a spate of new research, performance, and recording activities. www.notablebiographies.com/supp/Supplement-Ka-M/Martinez-Marianne.html
Gracias por presentar este bellísimo concierto del período clásico. Ojalá sigan apareciendo obras como ésta!
Muchas gracias por apreciarlo, Rafael!!!
Siempre haré todo lo posible para publicar obras que merecen ser conocidas.
Abrazo grande.
Marianne Martinez (1744-1812) was an Austrian composer active and widely esteemed during the age of Haydn and Mozart. She was the author of the only symphony composed by a woman during the Classical period in music (c. 1750-1790), and she also wrote a number of other ambitious vocal and instrumental works.
A member of the Viennese court aristocracy who never held a formal post as composer, Martinez and her music fell out of favor as the new concept of the composer as independent genius came into vogue. Musical accounts written in her own time testify to her high level of activity and to the quality of her compositions, but after her death she was almost completely forgotten. However, a new wave of musical scholarship in the 1980s and 1990s aimed at uncovering the often-undervalued contributions of women to musical life through history has led to an upward reappraisal of her importance.
Many of the manuscripts of Martinez's compositions were destroyed in a fire in 1927, so there is no way to know exactly when she began (or ceased) to be active as a composer. But the year 1760 saw three dated compositions by the 16-year-old Martinez: two settings of the Catholic mass and one motet (during this period, a religious work with an original text, for solo voice and orchestra or other accompaniment). One of them, the Mass No. 1 in D major, includes a passage that resembles the parallel music in a mass by the young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and may have influenced it. Some of these early works were performed at Vienna's Michaelerkirche (St. Michael's Church, which served as the chapel of the emperor's court).
In the 1760s Martinez's reputation spread beyond Vienna. Metastasio sent some of her compositions to the most celebrated composition teacher of the day, Padre Giovanni Battista Martini (among whose students was Mozart). He responded with praise, and Martinez's compositional reach expanded. Her third mass, written in 1761, runs to more than 150 pages in manuscript score and contains parts for soloists, chorus, and a large orchestra with trumpets, oboes, flutes, strings and organ.
In 1773 Martinez won an important honor when she was admitted to the Accademia Filarmonica (Philharmonic Academy) of Bologna, a society of composers and musical connoisseurs. For the academy she composed a grand motet, Dixit Dominus , for chorus, soloists, and orchestra. Although Irving Godt noted in the Journal of Musicology that it "may well be her masterpiece," it apparently fell victim to internal academy politics and was never performed. Martinez was the first woman composer inscribed in the Accademia's membership rolls, and her induction marked her emergence as one of Vienna's prominent composers, suitable for commissions for major events. Some of those were religious. Martinez and Mozart were apparently well acquainted and frequently performed together; Mozart may have written his Piano Concerto No. 5 for Martinez to perform. On her own, Martinez composed various keyboard sonatas and concertos for piano and orchestra, in C major and A major. Of the first movement of the latter work, Diana Ambache wrote in Women of Note that "the sudden plunge into a harmonically unexpected world dispels any expectation of polite, early classical decorum. Her keyboard writing is reminiscent of Haydn in athletic mode." In 1770 she also composed a Symphony in C major, the only Classical period symphony by a woman. She died of tuberculosis on December 13, 1812. Her sister Antonia, with whom she had lived during her last years, died two days later.
Although Martinez's music had energy and originality, it was essentially conservative in style. During the nineteenth century, when musical innovation was at a premium, her reputation was eclipsed; it was initially sent on a downward trajectory by a negative evaluation in the memoirs of a female Viennese novelist, Caroline Pichler. Martinez was little more than a footnote in history books until the 1990s, when feminist scholarship stimulated a spate of new research, performance, and recording activities.
www.notablebiographies.com/supp/Supplement-Ka-M/Martinez-Marianne.html
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