Giovanni Martin

Giovanni Battista Martini, often known as “Padre Martini,” was an Italian composer, music theorist, historian and pedagogue. He studied violin under his father Antonio Maria Martini, harpsichord and singing with Predieri, and counterpoint with Antonio Riccierri and Giacomo Antonio Perti. Born in Bologna on 24 April 1706, he received a classical education from the priests of the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri before entering the Franciscan Conventual order in 1721. In 1725 he became maestro di cappella at the Basilica of San Francesco in Bologna at age nineteen, and he was ordained a priest in 1729.

Martini’s intellectual interests extended beyond music: he studied philosophy, mathematics, languages and the theory of music, and he soon became a central figure in the musical and cultural life of Italy. At the invitation of colleagues he founded a composition school in Bologna, and from 1758 he served as a leading figure of the Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna. He was also a member of the Roman literary academy Arcadia. His correspondents included prominent musicians and rulers such as Charles Burney, Johann Quantz, Farinelli, Metastasio and Pope Clement XIV, reflecting the wide respect he commanded in Europe.

Martini was renowned for his vast musical library (estimated by Burney at 17,000 volumes). Although this number is likely exaggerated, his collection was considered extraordinary; after his death in 1784, part of it passed to the Imperial Library in Vienna, with the remainder forming the basis of Bologna’s Museo Internazionale della Musica. His library and manuscripts were praised by visitors, and his reputation as both scholar and collector grew throughout the century.

As a teacher, Martini trained many influential musicians, including Johann Christian Bach, Josef Mysliveček, Maksym Berezovsky, Stanislao Mattei, Giovanni Battista Cirri and the young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. His major writings are the Storia della musica (Bologna, 1757–1781), of which a planned fourth volume on the early Middle Ages remained unfinished, and the two-volume Esemplare ossia saggio fondamentale pratico di contrappunto (Bologna, 1774–75). He also compiled a dictionary of ancient musical terms and wrote on the theory of numbers as applied to music.

Composer of masses, oratorios, sonatas, intermezzos, canons and motets, Martini followed the traditions of the Roman school of composition and sought to ground the study of strict polyphony in artistic practice rather than scholasticism. He continued composing and dictating scholarly work even in old age, despite suffering from asthma and other ailments. His legacy in Bologna is commemorated by the naming of both a conservatory and the municipal music library in his honor, and his music continues to be performed, including at events such as the 2009 Martini Festival in the Bologna region.

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