Durante, Francesco

Durante, Francesco, celebrated Italian composer and pedagogue; b. Frattamaggiore, March 31, 1684; d. Naples, Sept. 30, 1755. His uncle, Don Angelo Durante, was a priest and composer. Francesco most likely received his early training at home from his uncle. He then continued his studies with him at the Conservatorio S. Onofrio a Capuana in Naples (1702–5) and with the violinist Gaetano Francone there; he may have subsequently studied with Pasquini and Pitoni in Rome. He taught at the Conservatorio S. Onofrio a Capuana (1710–11) and was maestro of the Congregatione and Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome (1718). Little else is known about him until he was appointed primo maestro of the Conservatorio Poveri di Gesu Cristo in Naples in 1728, which position he held until 1739. In 1742 he became primo maestro there of the Conservatorio S. Maria di Loreto, and also of the Conservatorio S. Onofrio a Capuana in 1745; he retained both positions until his death. With his fellow Neapolitans Porpora, Leo, Feo, and Vinci, Durante ranks among the most important composers of his era. Although the former were renowned as composers of opera, Durante was a particularly significant composer of sacred music, his output being notable for its resourcefulness of styles and practices as well as for originality. He was greatly renowned as a teacher, numbering among his pupils Pergolesi, Abos, Anfossi, Traetta, Sacchini, Piccini, and Paisiello.

Works

SACRED DRAMAS Prodigii della divina misericordia verso i devoti del gloriosa S. Antonio di Padova (scherzo drammatico; Naples, lune 13, 1705; music not extant); La cerva assetata ovvero L’anima nelle fiamme della gloria (Naples, Feb. 18, 1719; not extant); Abigaile (Rome, Nov. 22, 1736; music not extant); S. Antonio di Padova (Venice, 1754); 5 choruses for Flavio Valente, a tragedy by Duke Annibale Marchese (publ. in Tragedie cristiane, Naples, 1729). O t h e r S a c r e d M u s i c : 1 9 masses; 3 Mass cycles, including Missa in Palestrina (1739; ed. by V Dufaut, Paris, 1921); 3 Requiem masses, including one in G minor (1738; ed. in Periodico di musica sacra, Rome, 1880); Mass movements; 30 Psalms; 14 motets, including Nascere, nascere dive puellule (ed. by R. Ewerhart in Cantico sacro geistliche Solokantaten, II, Cologne, 1954); antiphons; hymns; sequences; cantatas; arias; duets; terzettos; XII duetti (madrigali; canzoni) da camera, based on recitatives from solo cantatas of A. Scarlatti (ed. by M. Ivanoff-Boretsky, Moscow, 1931); etc. INSTRUMENTAL: 8 concerii per quartette (Nos. 1, 2, and 4 ed. by E. Doflein, Mainz, 1966); Harpsichord Concerto (c. 1750; ed. by R Degrada, Milan, 1968); 6 sonate per cembalo divisi in studii e divertimenti (Naples, c. 1732; ed. by B. Paumgartner, Kassel, 1949); 7 harpsichord sonatas; other keyboard works; pedagogical pieces.

Bibliography

V. de Rubertis, Dos Bajetes de F. D., erroneamente interpretados por Fetis y de Nardis (Buenos Aires, 1947); J. Auerbach, Die Messen des F. D. (diss., Univ. of Munich, 1954); G. Brungardt, Some Selected Motets ofF. D. (diss., Univ. of 111., 1967).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire