Pietro Torri (c. 1650 – 6 July 1737) was an Italian Baroque composer.[1]
Torri was born in Peschiera del Garda.[2] From 1684 to 1688, he served as the organist and choirmaster of the Margrave of Bayreuth, and later entered into the service of the Elector of Bavaria Maximilian II Emanuel. In 1692 he followed the prince with some gentlemen of the court orchestra to the Spanish Netherlands and later settled with them in Brussels where Torri married the daughter of the ballet master François Rodier.[1][3][4][5]
Over the following years he lived in Mons, Namur, Lille, Compiègne, and Valenciennes; where his compositions were performed.[2][4]
In 1715 he returned to Munich, where he occasionally composed cantatas; and an opera annually. In 1726 Maximilian died, and his son Charles Albert succeeded him to the throne of Bavaria. For this occasion, Torri composed a musical tribute to the new ruler: the allegorical cantata Bavaria. This work alluded to an early Bavarian claim to the throne of the Holy Roman Empire. On the death of Giuseppe Antonio Bernabei in 1732, he was finally officially appointed as choirmaster at the court of Bavaria. Charles Albert was elected emperor in 1726 as Charles VII Albert and Torri became a musician at the imperial court.[1][4] He died in Munich.
His most famous works for voices and orchestra include his Magnificat (for some time erroneously attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach and Antonio Lotti),[6][7] andLe Triomphe de la paix, a cantata celebrating the Treaty of Rastatt (1714).[2]
Title | Genre | Libretto | Date | Place | Occasion |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
L'innocente giustificato | dramma per musica | Pisani | 1688 | Bayreuth | Birthday of Margravine[9] | .
Fetonte | cantata | 1689 Oct/Nov | Munich | Name day of Elector.[9][10][11] | |
Gli oracoli di Pallade e di Nemesi | serenata (tourney) | 6 February 1690 | Munich | Tournament.[4][9][12][13] | |
L'ambizione fulminata | opera buffa | 1691 | Munich | [1][14] | |
I Preggi della primavera | serenata | Luigi Orlandi | 1691 May(c.) | Leuchtenberg | For Electress Palatine.[1][9][15][16][17] |
Gli amori di Titone e d'Aurora | dramatic work | 1691 Jul | Munich | [9][18] | |
Le Peripezze della Fortuna | opera | 1695 Jan.? | Brussels? | Marriage of Elector & Electress?[9][19][20][21] | |
Il Giorno festivo (attr.) | cantata (tourney) | 1695 Oct. | Brussels | Birthday of Electoral Prince.[9][22][23] | |
S. Vinceslao | oratorio teatrale | 1692–1701 | Brussels? | [24] | |
Santo Landelino | oratorio teatrale | 1692–1701 | Brussels? | [25][26][27] | |
Briseide (attr.) | dramma per musica | Francesco Palmieri | 1696 Feb.? | Hanover | Carnival.[9][28][29][30] |
Torneo ("Figli de' monti") | cantata (tourney) | 30 January 1702 | Munich | [9][31][32] | |
Le Martir des Maccabées | dramatic oratorio | 1707–1714 | [33][34][35] | ||
L'Homme endormis | prologue | 17 May 1712 | Namur | [9][36] | |
L'innocenza difesa dai Numi | opera | 1712 | Valenciennes | [9][37] | |
Enone | pastorale | 1713 Sep.? | Dinant? | For Elector of Cologne?[9][38][39][40] | |
Le Réciproque | divertissement | 1714 May(c.) | Valenciennes | [9][41] | |
Le Triomphe de la Paix | dramatic cantata | 1714(c.) | Celebrating Treaty of Rastatt.[2][9][42][43] | ||
La reggia dell'armonia | pasticcio (+Steffani) | Luigi Orlandi | 1715 Aug. | Munich | 18th birthday of Electoral Prince.[9][44] |
Ismène (=L'innocenza difesa dai Numi) | opera | 1715 Oct.? | Munich | [9] | |
Introduzione a balli | cantata | 1715–1716 | Munich | [9][45] | |
La Baviera | serenata | 29 August 1716 | Munich | Return of Electoral Prince.[9][46][47][48][49] | |
Astianatte | dramma per musica | Antonio Salvi | 12 October 1716 | Munich | Name day of Elector.[9][50] |
Andromaca (rev. of Astianatte) | dramma per musica | Antonio Salvi | 1717 Feb.(c.) | Munich | [9][51][52] |
Torneo ("Già dall'Iser ameno") | cantata (tourney) | 6 May 1718 | Leuchtenberg | [9][53][54] | |
Epitalamio | cantata (wedding) | 17 February 1719 | Munich | Marriage of Ferdinand Maria and Maria Anna.[9][55] | |
La Merope | dramma per musica | Apostolo Zeno | 12 October 1719 | Munich | Name day of Elector.[9][56][1][57][58] |
Eumene (attr.) | dramma per musica | Apostolo Zeno/Antonio Salvi | 11 July 1720 | Munich | Birthday of Elector.[9][59][60] |
Lucio Vero (attr.) | dramma per musica | Apostolo Zeno | 12 October 1720 | Munich | Name day of Elector.[8][9][61][62] |
Per l'anniversario della nascità de S. A. E. Massimiliano Emanuele | cantata | 17 July 1721 | Munich | Birthday of Elector.[9][63][64] | |
Gli dei festeggianti | dramatic cantata | 6 August 1721 | Munich | Birthday of Electoral Prince.[9][65][66] | |
L'amor d'amico vince ogni altro amore | dramma per musica | Adriano Morselli | 12 October 1721 | Munich | Name day of Elector.[9][67][68] |
Adelaide | dramma per musica | Antonio Salvi | 18 October 1722 | Munich | Marriage of Electoral Prince and Archduchess.[1][9][69][70] |
La publica felicità | cantata (tourney) | Pietro Pariati | 22 October 1722 | Munich | Marriage of Electoral Prince and Archduchess.[1][9][71][72] |
Lucio Vero (rev.) | dramma per musica | Apostolo Zeno | 3 January 1723 | Munich | [1][9] |
Merope (=La Merope) | dramma per musica | Apostolo Zeno | 24 January 1723 | Munich | Carnival.[9][73] |
Griselda (attr.) | dramma per musica | Apostolo Zeno | 12 October 1723 | Munich | Name day of Elector.[9][74][75] |
Amadis di Grecia | dramma per musica | Perozzi | 1724 Oct. | Munich | Birth of Princess.[1][9][76][77] |
Venceslao (attr.) | dramma per musica | Apostolo Zeno | 12 October 1725 | Munich | Name day of Elector.[1][9][78][79] |
Egloga pastorale | pastorale | 6 September 1726 | Name day of Electoral Prince.[80][49] | ||
L'Epaminonda | dramma per musica | Domenico Lalli | 11 May 1727 | Munich | Birth of Prince.[1][9][81][82][83] |
Nicomede | dramma per musica | Domenico Lalli | 1728 Oct. | Munich | Visit of Count Palatine.[1][9][81][84][85] |
Edippo | tragedia per musica | Domenico Lalli | 22 October 1729 | Munich | Birthday of Electress.[9][81][86][87][88] |
L' Ippolito | tragedia per musica | Domenico Lalli | 22 October 1731 | Munich | Name day of Electress.[9][89][1][90][91] |
Ciro (attr.) | dramma per musica | Villati | 1733 | Munich | Visit of Archbishop-Elector.[9][92][93] |
Griselda (rev.) | dramma per musica | Apostolo Zeno | 1735 Feb.(c.) | Munich | Carnival.[1][94] |
Catone in Utica | tragedia per musica | Metastasio | 1736 | Munich | [9][95][1][96][97] |
Torri likely composed his Magnificat in C major for double choir and orchestra in the 1690s.[98] The work is scored for double SATB choir, two trumpets, bassoon, strings (two violin parts and two viola parts) and basso continuo/organ.[2][99][100]
The Magnificat in C major, BWV Anh. 30, is Johann Sebastian Bach's arrangement of Torri's Magnificat.[98][101] In Bach's version[102][103] of the work there are an additional trumpet and timpani.[104][105]
Torri wrote more oratorios than any composer before George Frideric Handel (see also several dramatic oratorios mentioned above among Torri's dramatic works):[110]
The Mus.ms. 30299 manuscript of the Berlin State Library not only contains a copy of Torri's Magnificat, but also following sacred music, from the same composer:[118][119]
The Trastulli (trifles) is a collection of 60 short vocal works surviving in a four-volume autograph, written between 1692 and 1701. The first of these volumes contains 14 chamber cantatas, each consisting exclusively of a recitative and a da capo aria. The other volumes contain such arias without recitative. The Trastulli are, at least in part, extracted from larger vocal works:[136][137]