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Autor: Leopold I (1640-1705) Obra: Missa pro defunctis (1673) Intèrprets: Cappella Murensis; Les Cornets Noirs Pintura: Godfried Schalcken (1643-1706) - Cephalus and Procris Més info: --- (Leopold Ignaz Joseph Balthasar Franz Felician) Leopold I (Vienna, 9 June 1640 - Vienna, 5 May 1705) Austrian composer and patron of music. He was the second son of Emperor Ferdinand III. A member of the house of Habsburg, he received a broad humanistic education under the tutelage of the Jesuit Neidhard. His training included extensive instruction in playing various instruments (harpsichord, violin and recorder) and in composition. Like his father, Leopold was a patron of music and a composer. He continued to enrich the court's musical life by employing and providing support for distinguished composers such as Antonio Bertali, Giovanni Bononcini, Johann Kaspar Kerll, Ferdinand Tobias Richter, Alessandro Poglietti, and Johann Fux. Much of Leopold's music was published with works by his father, and described as “works of exceeding high merit“. As a composer, Leopold I contributed a large number of works to the repertory performed at court. In style they follow the Venetian tradition as seen especially in composers active in Vienna, such as Bertali and Draghi. His sacred and secular Italian dramatic compositions evince a careful attention to the text, skilful manipulation of recitative and arioso sections, and a preference for a simple and deeply felt melodic style. By contrast his ballet music and his contributions to the developing German-language comedy are light and extremely simple and use folk music idioms; they are clearly influenced by Schmelzer. Leopold’s most successful compositions are without question his liturgical works. In them he combined polychoral techniques, the concertato style, and effective melodic writing influenced by characteristics of monody to produce substantial works that proclaim him as no mere aristocratic dilettante, but as a talented and successful composer.
