A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Legrenzi, Giovanni

by Franz Gehring

LEGRENZI, Giovanni, composer and conductor, born about 1625 at Clusone near Bergamo; in which town he learned music, and received his first appointment, that of organist to the church of St. Maria Maggiore. He next became maestro di capella of the church of the Spirito Santo at Ferrara, where he still was in 1664. When Krieger, Capellmeister to the Duke of Weissenfels, visited Venice in 1672, he found Legrenzi settled there as director of the Conservatorio dei Mendicanti. In 1685 he also became maestro di capella of St. Mark's, and exercised both functions till his death in July [App. p.698 "May 26"] 1690. He entirely reorganised the orchestra of St. Mark's, augmenting it to 34 performers, thus disposed—8 violins, 11 violette, 2 viole da braccio, 2 viole da gamba, 1 violone, 4 theorbos, 2 cornets, 1 bassoon, and 3 trombones. He composed industriously, and left specimens of his skill in most departments of music—motets, masses, psalms, instrumental music of various kinds, and 17 operas, of which the most remarkable are 'Achille in Scyro,' his first (1664); 'La Divisione del Mondo' (1675); 'I due Cesari' (1683) mentioned in the Paris 'Mercure Galant' (March 1683); and 'Pertinace' (1684), his last. They were nearly all produced in Venice. Like Scarlatti, and other composers of his time, he did not attempt to banish the comic element from his serious operas. One of his orchestral compositions is in 7 real parts, and all are important. His best pupils were Lotti and Gasparini.

Legrenzi's name will be handed down to posterity by Bach and Handel, both of whom have treated subjects from his works, the former in an organ fugue in C minor on a 'Thema Legrenzianum elaboratum cum subjecto pedaliter' (Griepenkerl & Roitsch,^[1] iv. No. 6); and the latter in the phrase 'To thy dark servant light and life afford,' in the Chorus 'O first-created beam' from Samson. This is taken from a motet of Legrenzi's—'Intret in conspectu,' of which a copy in Handel's handwriting is to be found among the MSS. at Buckingham Palace (Chrysander, 'Händel ' i. 179).

[ F. G. ]

1. This is the fugue about the autograph of which Mendelssohn writes, June 18, 1839. No. 8 of the same vol. is a fugue on a subject by Corelli.