Giovanni Giacomo Porro

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Giovanni Giacomo Porro (* 1590 in Lugano , Switzerland ; † in September 1656 in Munich ) was a Ticino composer , conductor and organist .

Life

Little is known about his youth and career. In 1618 he joined Duke Charles Emanuel I of Savoy in Turin as organist . Between 1626 and 1629 he was in Rome , where he worked as Kapellmeister at San Lorenzo in Damaso . In 1630 he was a representative for Girolamo Frescobaldi , at the Cappella Giulia at St. Peter's Basilica . From 1633 he traveled to Vienna, where he in 1635 to teach in the Munich court of Elector Maximilian I . received, first as Vice-Kapellmeister, later as Kapellmeister , with an initial salary of 1432 guilders, which was increased several times. Porro traveled to Italy several times to recruit musicians for the court orchestra.

Porro corresponded regularly with Galileo Galilei , whom he asked several times to send Italian poems in order to set them to music. Based on a libretto by Girolamo Bartolomei Smeducci (1584–1662) requested in 1637 , Porro is considered to be one of the founders of opera at the Bavarian court, although no opera performance is documented there at the time. A list of Specificatio made after his death mentions a total of around 1100 works: 900 sacred works, including 200 madrigals , but also ten ballets. With the exception of four compositions, all works have been lost. Porro is mentioned as one of the teachers of the German composer Paul Hainlein (1626–1686).

literature

personal data
SURNAME Porro, Giovanni Giacomo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian composer, conductor and organist
DATE OF BIRTH 1590
PLACE OF BIRTH Lugano
DATE OF DEATH September 1656
Place of death Munich