View source for Francesco Durante

{{short description|Italian composer (1684–1755)}}
{{for|the Italian surgeon and politician|Francesco Durante (surgeon)}}
{{more footnotes needed|date=November 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Francesco Durante
| image              = Durante.jpg
| caption            = 
| birth_date         = {{birth date|1684|03|31|df=y}}
| birth_place        = [[Frattamaggiore]], [[Kingdom of Naples]] 
| death_date         = {{death date and age|1755|09|30|1684|03|31|df=y}}
| death_place        = [[Naples]]
| occupation         = {{ubl| Composer | Educator }}
}}

'''Francesco Durante''' (31 March 1684 – 30 September 1755) was an Italian [[composer]] of the [[Neapolitan School]]. Best known for his church music, he was also an important teacher, instructing [[Niccolò Jommelli]], [[Giovanni Paisiello]], [[Giovanni Battista Pergolesi]], [[Niccolò Piccinni]] and [[Leonardo Vinci]], among others.

== Life and work ==
He was born at [[Frattamaggiore]], in the [[Kingdom of Naples]], and at an early age he entered the ''[[Music Conservatories of Naples|Conservatorio dei poveri di Gesù Cristo]]'', in [[Naples]], where he received lessons from [[Gaetano Greco]].  Later he became a pupil of [[Alessandro Scarlatti]] at the Conservatorio di Sant'Onofrio. He is also supposed to have studied under [[Bernardo Pasquini]] and [[Giuseppe Ottavio Pitoni]] in Rome, but there is no documentary evidence. He is said to have succeeded Scarlatti in 1725 at ''[[Music Conservatories of Naples|Sant' Onofrio]]'', and to have remained there until 1742, when he succeeded [[Niccola Antonio Porpora|Porpora]] as head of the Conservatorio di Santa Maria di Loreto, also in Naples. This post he held for thirteen years, till his death in Naples. He was married three times.

His fame as a teacher was considerable, and [[Niccolò Jommelli]], [[Giovanni Paisiello]], [[Giovanni Battista Pergolesi]], [[Niccolò Piccinni]] and [[Leonardo Vinci]] were amongst his pupils. As a teacher, he insisted on the unreasoning observance of rules, differing thus from Scarlatti, who treated all his pupils as individuals.

[[Image:Opera Garnier Durante.jpg|thumb|Durante finds a place on the [[Opéra Garnier]], Paris, perhaps by virtue of his students]]

A complete collection of Durante's works, consisting almost exclusively of sacred music, was presented by [[Gaspare Selvaggi]], a Neapolitan art collector and music theorist,<ref>Selvaggi, ''Trattato di armonia'', 1823.</ref> to the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. A catalogue may be found in [[François-Joseph Fétis|Fétis]]'s ''Biographie universelle''. The imperial library of [[Vienna]] also preserves a valuable collection of Durante's manuscripts. Two requiems, several masses (one of which, a most original work, is the Pastoral Mass for four voices) and the ''Lamentations of the prophet Jeremiah'' are amongst his most important settings. His [[Magnificat]] setting achieved popularity partly because of its misattribution to [[Giovanni Battista Pergolesi|Pergolesi]].

The fact that Durante never composed for the stage brought him an exaggerated reputation as a composer of sacred music. Considered one of the best church composers of his style and period, he seems to have founded the sentimental school of Italian church music. Nevertheless, [[Johann Adolph Hasse|Hasse]] protested against Durante's being described as the greatest harmonist of Italy, a title which he ascribed to Alessandro Scarlatti.

==Discography==
*[[Live! (Frederica von Stade album)|''Solfèges d'Italie'', No. 137: "Danza, danza, fanciulla gentile", with Frederica von Stade (mezzo-soprano) and Martin Katz (piano), CBS, 1982]]

==Media==
*{{Audio|DURANTE Vergine tutto amore.mid|''Vergine tutto amore''}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
*Sadie, S. (ed.) (1980) ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians'', [vol #5].
*Peter van Tour: Counterpoint and Partimento: Methods of Teaching Composition in Late Eighteenth-Century Naples. 2015. 318p. (Studia musicologica Upsaliensia, 0081-6744 ; 25) {{ISBN|978-91-554-9197-0}} [http://acta.mamutweb.com/Shop/Product/0025-Counterpoint-and-Partimento/diva2%3a795801] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220525045437/https://acta.mamutweb.com/Shop/Product/0025-Counterpoint-and-Partimento/diva2:795801 |date=2022-05-25 }}.
*{{EB1911|author=Dent, Edward Joseph|author-link=Edward Joseph Dent|wstitle=Durante, Francesco|volume=8|pages=694–695}}

==External links==
*{{Commons category-inline}}
*{{IMSLP|id=Durante, Francesco|cname=Francesco Durante}}
*{{ChoralWiki}}
*[http://www.domenicoscarlatti.it Istituto Internazionale per lo studio del '700 musicale napoletano]

{{Neapolitan School}}
{{Baroque music}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Durante, Francesco}}
[[Category:1684 births]]
[[Category:1755 deaths]]
[[Category:18th-century Italian male musicians]]
[[Category:18th-century Italian composers]]
[[Category:Italian Baroque composers]]
[[Category:Italian male classical composers]]
[[Category:Neapolitan School composers]]
[[Category:People from the Metropolitan City of Naples]]
[[Category:Pupils of Bernardo Pasquini]]
[[Category:Pupils of Alessandro Scarlatti]]
[[Category:17th-century Italian male musicians]]