Giovanni Paolo Colonna

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International museum and library of music
, Bologna)

Giovanni Paolo Colonna (16 June 1637 – 28 November 1695) was an Italian composer, teacher, organist and

Emperor Leopold I collected manuscripts of his sacred music, which reflects the Roman church cantata style of Giacomo Carissimi and looks forward to the manner of George Frideric Handel
.

Biography

Colonna was born on 16 June 1637 in Bologna (at the time, the second largest city of the Papal States after Rome), the third of four brothers in a family of five children, son of Antonio Colonna (c. 1600–1666), a well-known organ builder, and his wife, Francesca Dinarelli.[1] Colonna's father, nicknamed Dal Corno, was the adopted son of Stefano Colonna, a member of a large and successful family of organ-builders which had been active in central-northern Italy since the previous century.[1] Born in Salò, near Brescia around the turn of the century, Antonio may have moved with his stepfather Stefano to Bologna by 1615.[1]

Colonna received full training both in the family profession of organ building and in musicianship.

S. Petronio in Bologna, where on 1 November 1674 he was made chapel-master.[3]

From 1680 until 1694 he was in regular correspondence with

parallel fifths in which he had been involved; while there, he turned down an offer from Pope Innocent XII to become chapel-master of St. Peter's Basilica, perhaps because of ill health. He died in Bologna in 1695.[4]

Colonna's pupils included the cellist-composers Giovanni Bononcini and Antonio Maria Bononcini.

Music

Most of Colonna's works are for the

church, including settings of the psalms for three, four, five and eight voices, and various masses and motets. He also composed an opera, Amilcare.[3]
He was an important composer of oratorios, eight of which have survived, including La Profezia d'Eliseo.

Emperor Leopold I received a copy of every sacred composition of Colonna, and the Austrian National Library now[timeframe?] possesses 83 such works.[3] His writing takes into account the resonant acoustics of S. Petronio, and many of his pieces for double choir incorporate two separate continuo parts to be played on the church's two organs.[4][5]

Colonna's style is for the most part dignified, with transitions in style and taste characteristic of a period when church music was in a state of transition, and was still learning to combine the gravity of the old style with the brilliance of the new.[3]

The strings in his Messe e salmi concertati op.10 have independent parts with

Handel. In some of his late works he was able to create elaborate effects through his command of melodic line and harmony.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c Mischiati, Oscar (1982). "Colonna". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (in Italian). Vol. 23. Treccani. Retrieved 25 September 2013.
  2. ISBN 978-0-89579-054-5
    . Retrieved 25 September 2013.
  3. ^ a b c d  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Colonna, Giovanni Paolo". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 715.
  4. ^
    Grove Music Online
    . Oxford Music Online, Oxford University Press. Retrieved 23 September 2013.(subscription required)
  5. ISSN 1089-747X
    . Retrieved 25 September 2013.

Further reading

External links
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