Faà di Bruno, Giovanni Matteo [Horatio, Orazio] 83

Franchi, Giovanni Pietro

(b Pistoia; d Loreto, 2 Dec 1731). Italian composer. After entering the priesthood he became a musician at Pistoia Cathedral. In 1685 he was maestro di cappella to the Prince of Maletto and Venetico. After moving to Rome he was appointed director of music at the court of the Dukes Rospigliosi of nearby Zagarolo. He was also maestro di cappella of the Madonna dei Monti, Rome, from 1697 to 1711, when, on 25 July, he was appointed maestro di cappella of the Santa Casa, Loreto, in place of Giuseppe de Rossi, who took over his post in Rome. He stayed at Loreto until his death with an interruption from 1727 to 1730 because of the dishonest interference of a priest, a certain Francesco Caldara from Naples, who, by making it seem that Franchi had died, succeeded in extorting from Pope Benedict XIII his own appointment as maestro di cappella. On discovering the deceit Franchi turned to the prefect of the Congregazione Lauretana for protection and was reinstated. Caldara nevertheless succeeded in getting himself appointed his assistant, but, because of his obvious incapacity and because he continued to denigrate Franchi, the governor of the Santa Casa ordered that proceedings be instituted against him. As a result Caldara was dismissed on 30 August 1730, after which Franchi could be seen to be undisputedly in charge of the music at the Santa Casa. He was a versatile composer who produced not only instrumental and both sacred and secular vocal chamber music, but also some larger-scale psalms and one or two works that contributed in a minor way to the repertory of Roman oratorios.

WORKS

La cetra sonora (sonatas), a 3, bc, op.1 (Rome, 1685)

Duetti da camera, op.2 (Bologna, 1689)

Motetti a 2, 3, op.3 (Florence, 1690)

Salmi pieni per tutto l’anno da cantarsi, 4vv, org ad lib, op.4 (Bologna, 1697)

Jephte (orat), Rome, 1688; lost, text in Alaleona

S Monica nella conversione di S Agostino (orat), Florence, 1693, pubd lib Brompton Oratory, London

La fermezza trionfante nel martirio di Santa Ferma, Rome, 1706, lost

3 masses, 4vv, I-LT

Ouverture, 2 vn, hpd, Mc

2 arias, 4vv, vn, lute, mand, D-Dl

BIBLIOGRAPHY

D. Alaleona: Studi su la storia dell’oratorio musicale in Italia (Turin, 1908, 2/1945 as Storia dell’oratorio musicale in Italia)

G. Tebaldini: L’archivio musicale della Cappella lauretana (Loreto, 1921), 119–20

M. Borrelli: Una interessante raccolta di libretti a stampa di oratori della fine del Seicento, presso la Biblioteca dell’Oratorio di Londra (Naples, 1962)

ARGIA BERTINI

Franchi, Saverio

(b Teramo, 7 Nov 1942). Italian musicologist. He studied privately the piano, the harpsichord and composition, and also studied at the University of Rome, graduating in humanities (1972) and sociology (1983). He was the founder and director of the Accademia Barocca di Roma (1965–79) and was responsible for the realization of performances of early operas and concertos; works receiving their first modern performances using his editions include operas by Stradella, Jacopo Melani and Caldara. He has also provided, for their first Italian performance, translations of opera librettos and other vocal works by composers from Purcell to Bernstein. In 1973 he was appointed to the chair of music history at the Perugia Conservatory. He has also undertaken artistic and educational work for the Discoteca di Stato in Rome, the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, the RAI, the University of Urbino and the Italian University for Foreigners in Perugia. He is on the advisory committee for the Centro Studi Musicali in Umbria and the editorial board of the journal Esercizi: musica e spettacolo.

WRITINGS

‘Il Barbiere di Siviglia: confronti, suggestioni, linguaggio’, Francesco Morlacchi: Perugia 1984, 39–51

‘Prassi esecutiva musicale e poesia estemporanea italiana: aspetti storici e tecnici’, Oralità, cultura, letteratura, discorso: Urbino 1980, ed. B. Gentili and G. Paioni (Rome, 1985), 409–27

Drammaturgia Romana, i: Repertorio bibliografico cronologico dei testi drammatici pubblicati a Roma e nel Lazio: secolo XVII (Rome, 1988); ii: 1701–1750: annali dei testi drammatici e libretti per musica pubblicati a Roma e nel Lazio dal 1701 al 1750 (Rome, 1997)

‘Monodia e coro: tradizione classica, scritti critici e origini del melodramma’, ‘Sopravvivenza di una danza greca nell'Europa medievale e moderna’, La musica in Grecia, ed. B. Gentili and R. Pretagostini (Rome, 1988), 35–44, 45–71

‘Osservazioni sulla scenografia dei melodramma romani nella prima metà del Seicento’, Musica e immagine: tra iconografia e mondo dell'opera: studi in onore di Massimo Bogianckino, ed. B. Brumana and G. Ciliberti (Florence, 1993), 151–75

Le impressioni sceniche: dizionario bio-bibliografico degli editori e stampatori romani e laziali di testi drammatici e libretti per musica dal 1579 al 1800 (Rome, 1994)

‘Il melodramma agiografico del Seicento e la S. Agnese di Mario Savioni’, La musica e il sacro: Perugia 1994, 73–107

ed.: Il melodramma a Roma tra Sei e Settecento, Roma moderna e contemporanea, iv (1996), 7–17

TERESA M. GIALDRONI