Giovanni Battista Fontana (composer)

Giovanni Battista Fontana (1589–1630) was an early Baroque Italian composer and violinist.

He was born in Brescia, and worked there and in Rome, Venice, and Padua. He died in Padua during the plague of 1629–31.

Nearly all information preserved about him comes from the preface by Fr. Giovanni Battista Reghino to his posthumously published 18 (sometimes incorrectly stated 12) sonatas (Sonate a 1.2.3. per il violino, o cornetto, fagotto, chitarone, violoncino o simile altro istromento, Venice: Bartolomeo Magni, 1641). They are among the earliest sonatas of this form, consisting of 6 sonatas for solo violin/cornetto with continuo and 12 sonatas for one to three violins and continuo, the latter group often including a demanding concertante part for bassoon or cello.

"An atto di morte dated 7 September 1630 for a 'Zan Batta Fontana' aged 50, is the only one among the Paduan death registers of 1625–30 for a person bearing that name" (Dunn 2014).

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.