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Giovanni Battista Vitali (18 February 1632 – 12 October 1692) was an Italian composer and violone player. Vitali was born in Bologna and spent all of his life in the Emilian region, moving to Modena in 1674. His teacher in his early years was probably Maurizio Cazzati (1616–1678), ''maestro di cappella'' at the main church in Bologna, San Petronio Basilica from 1657 to 1671. The first documented evidence of Vitali’s musical activities appears in the records of the San Petronio orchestra for 1658, when he is listed under the title ‘Violoni’,〔 .〕 referring to the cello/bass instrument that he played (to be discussed below). Vitali remained in the orchestra until 1673, when he took up an appointment as ''maestro di cappella'' at the chapel of the Confraternità del Rosario, Bologna. His first publication, Opus 1 (1666), tells us that he was a member of the ''Accademia dei Filaschisi''. This musical institution, which had been established in 1633, disbanded in 1666 when most of its members joined the Accademia Filarmonica. Vitali is also listed as a member of the Accademia Filarmonica in 1666, the year of its founding. The academy archives record various details of its members, including where they came from (if not from Bologna) and their dates of birth and death. Vitali’s death date is here recorded as 12 October 1692. Vitali never reached a higher position in Bologna than that of ''maestro di cappella'' at the Santissimo Rosario. There may be several reasons for this. By the time he left Bologna and moved to Modena he had not published any vocal music and is known to have composed only two vocal works, the oratorios ''Agare'' and ''Il Gefte''. He was also, significantly, not an organist – unlike the vast majority of ''maestri di cappella'' in Bologna during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It is unlikely, therefore, that even if Vitali had stayed longer in Bologna he would have been offered the job of ''maestro di cappella'' at San Petronio, the most important musical position in the city. In 1674 Vitali attained the position of one of two vice-''maestri di cappella'' at the secular court of the Este family in Modena. Unlike Modena, Bologna was part of the Papal States, under the administration of Rome. The Church’s influence was strong (around one hundred and fifty religious institutions at the end of the seventeenth century). Music and the theatre were evidently strongly supported and patronised by the court under Duke Francesco II (1660–1694). Here, Vitali must have witnessed a greater diversity of musical styles and genres than he had been exposed to in Bologna. The period between 1680 and 1685 saw his most productive time: he published six collections of music and was promoted to ''maestro di cappella'' in 1684. He was succeeded in this position by the opera composer Antonio Giannettini (1648–1721) in 1686. His last two publications, ''Artificii musicali'', Opus 13 (1689), and the posthumously published ''Sonate da camera'', Opus 14 (1692), make no mention of Vitali holding any official position, although the fact that both publications are dedicated to members of the Este family implies that he maintained links with the court.〔〔 == As a musician == Vitali played a bowed stringed bass instrument but, due to the shifting terminology in use at the time, this is referred to under various names. When he joined the orchestra of the San Petronio Basilica in 1658, his name was entered in the records of the orchestra under the heading ‘Violoni’, paid 10 lira.〔Alfred Planyavsky and James Barket: (The Baroque Double Bass Violone )〕 However, in the records for 1664 he is referred to as ‘Suonatore di Violonline ()’. According to Bonta,〔Stephen Bonta: ‘Terminology for the Bass Violin in Seventeenth-Century Italy’, ''Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society''; iv (1978), 5-42.〕 ‘violonline’ refers to the same instrument as ‘violoncino’ – which is also mentioned in the 1658 list, but with no connection to Vitali. On the title pages of the first five of Vitali’s publications, he calls himself ‘Sonatore di Violone da Brazzo’ or ‘Musico di Violone da Brazzo’. From his ''Salmi concerti'', Opus 6 (1677), onwards, and in later reprints of the Opp. 1–5, after his appointment to the Modenese court, he calls himself ‘Vice Maestro di Capella’, with no reference to the instrument he played. When a description of the instruments a publication is intended for is given on the title page and includes a melodic bass instrument, the generic term ‘violone’ is always used. During the time Vitali was at the San Petronio Basilica, the size of the orchestra changed relatively little: typically the records state that the orchestra consisted of three violins, two or three violas, two violoni (Vitali himself and Domenico Vincenzo Colonna) and one to two theorbos 〔Gambassi, ''op. cit.'', pp. 132-42.〕 Vitali does not appear in the records for 1674, having resigned that year and left for Modena. There seems not to have been an immediate replacement for him that year, but in 1675 Petronio Franceschini (1651–1680) was appointed and listed separately as ‘Violoncello’ – the first documented use of this term in Bologna. The bowed bass section of the San Petronio orchestra at this point therefore comprised Colonna on violone and Franceschini on violoncello. In 1676, presumably to better distinguish between the two instruments, the term ‘Violone’ is replaced by ‘Violone grosso’, and Colonna is listed as playing it. The fact that this distinction in terminology was not deemed necessary earlier implies that Vitali was playing the same instrument as Colonna (the ‘Violone grosso’, not the ‘Violoncello’). After Franceschini’s death his position was filled by Domenico Gabrielli (1659–1690) who was among the first virtuoso cellists – so this orchestra position is now clearly reserved for a ‘cellist. New techniques in producing gut strings wound with metal wire took place in Bologna during the 1660s.〔 It is probable that the wide variety of terminology in use was due in part to the experimentation with bowed bass instruments capable of producing good lower notes without the need for long string lengths due to these developments. Other terms in use at the time include the viola da spalla, a cello or smaller bowed bass instrument which was held at the shoulder and rested on the player’s lap, supported by a strap Giuseppe Torelli was appointed to the ''cappella musicale'' at the San Petronio Basilica in 1686 as a player of the ‘tenore viola’. One of Vitali’s few surviving unpublished works is the ''Partite sopra diverse sonate'', for ‘Violone’, ca. 1680. The style of the writing is much more clearly suited to the cello, which suggests that Vitali is still using ‘Violone’ as a general term for bowed bass. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Giovanni Battista Vitali」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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