Giovanni Buonaventura Viviani

Giovanni Buonaventura Viviani (born July 15, 1638 in Florence , † December 1692 in Pistoia ) was an Italian composer and violinist.

Life

Giovanni Buonaventura Viviani was employed in 1656 as a violinist in the court orchestra of Innsbruck through the mediation of his older cousin, the organist, singer and archducal secretary Antonio Maria Viviani (~ 1630–1683) . From 1672 he was the artistic director of the "Imperial Court Music" ensemble. The reason for his premature retirement from Habsburg service in 1676 was the fact that after the death of the Archduke Ferdinand Karl in 1662 the Innsbruck court music played more and more a secondary role. During the reign of the Archduke, the first opera house north of the Alps was founded in Innsbruck, under the direction of the then famous composer Antonio Cesti . Around 1678 Viviani was given a hereditary title of nobility by the emperor. He left Austria and lived alternately in various Italian cities such as Venice , Rome , Naples , Milan and Florence, where he was particularly successful as an opera composer. From 1687 he was cathedral music director in Pistoia, where he presumably died in 1692.

Works

Instrumental

• Op. 1: 12 Triosonaten (Venice 1673)
• Op. 4: Capricci armonici da Chiesa e da Camera à Violino solo cioè Symphony, Toccate, Sonate […] et Sonate per Tromba (Venice 1678)
  • 20 differently labeled works for violin and basso continuo
  • 2 sonata for trumpet and basso continuo

The violin sonatas from Op. 4 are among the most important works of literature for solo violin in the 17th century ( Willi Apel ).

vocal

• Op. 3: Motets (Augsburg 1676)
• Op. 5: Salmi, Motetti, e Litanie della BV à 1, 2, 3 Voci con Violini, e senza (Bologna 1688)
• Solfeggiamenti (Exercises for 2 voices) (Florence 1693)
• Astiage, first performed in 1677 at the Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venice
• Elidoro ovvero Il fingere per regnare, first performed in 1686 in Saponara (Sicily)
• Le fatiche d'Ercole per Dejanire, first performed in Naples in 1679
• Mitilene, regina delle Amazzoni, first performed in Naples in 1681/82
• Scipione africano, 1664, together with Francesco Cavalli , first performed in Venice in 1678
• La vaghezza del Fato, world premiere in Vienna
• Zenobia, first performed in Naples in 1678

literature

• Herbert Seifert : Giovanni Buonaventura Viviani. Life, instrumental works, vocal chamber music. Schneider, Tutzing 1982, ISBN 3-7952-0349-X

Web links

• The Trio Sonatas op. 1 and the Capricci armonici op. 4. In the archive of the State Museum “Ferdinandeum” Innsbruck. Readable and playable with the Sibelius plugin "Scorch" .
• List of stage works by Giovanni Buonaventura Viviani based on the MGG at Operone