Anna Bon (ca.1739-?) was an Italian composer and performer. Her parents were both involved in music and traveled internationally; her father was the Bolognese artist Girolamo Bon, a librettist and scenographer, and her mother was the singer Rosa Ruvinetti Bon. Anna was born in Russia. On March 8, 1743, at the age of four, she was admitted to the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice as a student; that she had a surname indicates that she was not a foundling as were most of the Pièta wards, but a tuition-paying pupil (figlia de spesi). She studied with the maestra di viola, Candida della Pièta (who herself had been admitted into the coro in 1707).[1]
By 1756, Anna rejoined her parents in Bayreuth where they were in the service of Margrave Friedrich of Brandenburg Kulmbach; she held the new post of 'chamber music virtuosa' at the court, and dedicated her six op. 1 flute sonatas, published in Nürnberg in 1756, to Friedrich.[1] From the frontispiece we learn that she composed them at the age of sixteen.
In 1762 the family moved to the Esterházy court at Eisenstadt, where Anna remained until at least 1765. She dedicated the published set of six harpsichord sonatas, op. 2 (1757), to Ernestina Augusta Sophia, Princess of Saxe-Weimar, and the set of six divertimenti (trio sonatas), op. 3 (1759), to Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria.[2]
In 1767, when Anna lived in Hildburghausen, Thuringia, with her husband, a singer named Mongeri,[3] details of her story are lost to history.
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Six Chamber Sonatas, for transverse flute, violoncello, or harpsichord, op. 1 (VI sonate da camera : per il flauto traversiere, violoncello o cembalo : opera prima), in C, F, B, D, G Mi, G Ma (Nürnberg: Balthasar Schmidts Witwe, 1756). Facsmilie reprints: (1) Firenze : Studio per Edizioni Scelte, 1988; (2) New York : Performers' Facsimiles, 1998. New editions: (1) Fayetteville AR: ClarNan Editions, 1989; (2) Kassel: Furore, 2007; (3) Sonata op. 1 no. 6, edited by Elisabeth Weinzierl, in Flute Music by Female Composers (Mainz, New York: Schott, 2008).
Six Sonatas for Harpsichord, op. 2 (Sei sonate per il cembalo, opera seconda), in G Mi, B-flat, F, C, B Mi, C (Nürnberg: Balthasar Schmidts Witwe, 1757). Facsmile edition, New York: Performers‘ Facsimiles, 1998. New editions (1) edited with introduction by Barbara Garvey Jackson, Fayetteville, AR: ClarNan Editions, 1989; (2) edited by Barbara Harbach, Pullman WA: Vivace Press, 1995; (3) edited by Jane Schatkin Hettrick, Bryn Mawr: Hildegard Publishing, 1997.
Six Divertimenti, for two flutes and basso continuo, op. 3, in G, D, D Mi, G, C, A (Nürnberg: Balthasar Schmidts Witwe, 1759). New edition, edited by Sally Fortino, Bryn Mawr PA: Hildegard Publishing, 1993.
Aria, "Astra coeli," for soprano, 2 violins, viola, and basso continuo. New edition, edited by Elke Martha Umbach and Robert Schenke, Kassel: Furore, 2006.
Chamber Sonatas op. 1. (1) Christiane Meininger, flute; Traud Kloft, harpsichord. Bayer, 1994. (2) Claudio Ferrarini, flute; Andrea Corsi, bassoon; Francesco Tasini, harpsichord. Munich: Mondo Musica, 1996. Notes include a portrait of the composer, artist's name not given. (3) Christiane Meininger, flute; Fine Zimmermann, harpsichord. “Hofkomponistinnen in Europa. Vol. 3.” Cybele, 1999.
Chamber Sonatas op. 1 nos. 4 & 5; Sonatas for Harpsichord op. 2 nos. 1 & 5; Divertimenti op. 3 nos. 1-3. Elke Martha Umbach, Susanne Wendler, flute; Johannez Platz, violin; Heike Johanna Lindner, violoncello; Jan Grüter, theorbo; Ilka Wagner, bassoon; Anke Dennert, harpsichord. “Sonatas from the Court at Bayreuth.” Korschenbroich, Germany: Aeolus, 2003.
Sonatas for Harpsichord op. 2. Barbara Harbach, harpsichord. Newton CT: MSR Classics, 2008.
Sonata for Harpsichord op. 2, no. 6: Allegro. Fine Zimmermann, harpsichord. “Hofkomponistinnen in Europe, Vol. 2.” Internationale Komponistinnen-Bibliothek Unna, 1998.
Six Divertimenti op. 3. Performed on period instruments. Sabine Dreier and Peter Spohr, transverse flutes; Rhoda Patrick, bassoon; Tatjana Geiger, harpsichord; Thorsten Bleich, archlute. EMEC E-023, 1997.
Divertimento op. 3, no. 3, arr. for flute, violin, cello, harpsichord. “Hofkomponistinnen in Europe, Vol. 1.” Internationale Komponistinnen-Bibliothek Unna, 1988.