Giovanni Battista Martini

Martini was the most important Italian composer of his time. He was not only respected as a composer but as a teacher as well. Martini's students included W.A. Mozart, J.C. Bach, and Jommelli. He composed over 1, 500 works (as this many are extant) including nearly one thousand canons, oratorios, keyboard sonatas, organ pieces, sinfonias, concertos, and masses. Martini compiled a prolific body of compositions, letters and correspondence with a number of leading composers and musicographers (nearly 6000 letters were published), a replete library (almost 17,000 volumes), and portraits of a number of composers. His style was early Classical and he composed for public and private functions. The stylings included early counterpoint and an understaning and example of the new conventional emphasis on homophony. His concentration did not focus on great lines of development but rather extensive melodic substance. ~ Keith Johnson