Antonio Lotti - Sacred Music

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Antonio Lotti was born on 5th January 1667 in Venice and baptised on 25th of that month. (The Venetian year started on 1st March, so the 'local' year was actually 1666!) He was the son of Matteo Lotti and Marina Gasparin, who were married in the Venetian church of S. Marino in 1662. Matteo was employed as the Hofkapellmeister at Hanover from 1665 to 1679, so it had been thought that he had been born in Hanover. Antonio had a two younger siblings, including a brother, Francesco.

At the age of 16, Lotti studied with Giovanni Legrenzi (1626 - 1690). In 1687, he took employment as an countertenor (or haute contre) at the Basilica San Marco. On 30 May 1689, he drew a salary of 100 ducats in his role as cantor di contralto.

On 6th August 1690, he was nominated as assistant organist (auito organista), and paid an extra 30 ducats for this work. He was unanimously elected to the post of 2nd organist (organista del 2 organo) on 31st May 1692, and on 17th August 1704, first organist.

His opera, Il trionfo dell'innocenza, was staged in 1692. Sixteen of his operas were performed in Venice between this date and 1717, by which time his operatic work had attracted the attention of the Elector of Saxony, Friedrich Augustus I (1670 - 1733).

From 1697 to 1707, he was also maestro di Capella of Spirito Santo.

On 22nd July 1698, Lotti received 50 ducats for producing a book which contained one a cappella mass.
He married the soprano, Santa Scarabelli Stella (d. 1759), who was from Bologna. In her will, she acknowledged the existence of a daughter, Lucrezia Maria Basadonna, who was a nun, and is presumed to have been fathered by another man before she married Lotti.

In 1705, Lotti had a collection of madrigals published: Duetti, terzetti e madrigali a piu voci. This was generally given a favourable reception, except for the publication of an acrid critique, entitled Lettera familiare d’un accademico filarmonico. The letter was anonymous, but it has long been thought to be by Benedetto Marcello (1686 - 1739), a former pupil of Lotti's. The collection of madrigals is his only work to be published in his lifetime.

He was granted a leave of absence by the procurators of the Basilica San Marco on 17th July 1717, and he left for Dresden on 5th September 1717 with his wife and a band of Italian musicians, including the castrato Senesino (1686 - 1758).
A great deal of Lotti's sacred choral music with instruments was written at Dresden. These mass settings comprise only the Kyrie and Gloria, as they are the only movements to be retained in the ordinary of the Lutheran mass. He also wrote a number of Credos here, including the Credo in F which features the famous Crucifixus movement.
He composed three operas in Dresden, Giove in Argo, Ascanio and Teofane, as well as Il quattro elementi, a musical entertainment.

Lotti returned to Venice in October 1719 and was allowed to keep the coach and horses that returned him as a parting gift. He then concentrated on writing sacred music and returned to his position at San Marco.

After the death of Antonio Biffi (1667 - 1733), Lotti became acting maestro di cappella of the Basilica San Marco, until the new encumbent was appointed. In the first competition for the post on 8th March 1733, none of the candidates received enough votes to be given the job. The other candidates were Antonio Pollarolo (1680 - 1746), Nicola Porpora (1686 - 1768) and Antonio Pacelli. Lotti received 6 yes votes and 6 'no's; the others all received more 'no's than 'yes'es. The Miserere in Gm and Benedictus in F that Lotti wrote in this year are thought to have been composed as a showcase of his abilities.

Finally, he was eventually elected maestro di cappella on 2nd April 1736, this time in competition with Pollarollo and Giovanni Porta (1675 - 1755). Nine of the twelve procurators of San Marco voted in his favour. The job paid 400 ducats and came with accommodation nearby.

In 1736, he composed the madrigal Spirto di Dio ch'essend'il mondo, for the annual Marriage to the Sea (Sposalizio del Mare), a ceremony that was performed on Ascension Day (10th May that year) when Venice symbolically wed itself to the Adriatic. The practice continued every year from c. 1000 until 1789. The lyrics were written by Zaccaria Valaresso (1686-1769), who also wrote the words for Lotti's oratorio, Gioas, re di Giuda (now lost).

Lotti also taught at, and composed for, the Ospedale degli Incurabili, one of the four Ospedali in Venice, maintained by the State as schools for female orphans and the abandoned – usually the children of courtesans. His contemporary, Antonio Vivaldi (1678 - 1741) did similar work at the Ospedale della Pietà. The schools were also funded by rich patrons who sent their daughters to the Ospedale for the benefit of the musical education that they received.

He was a member of the Sovvegno dei musicisti di Santa Cecilia, a form of musicians' guild, founded on 25 Nov 1687. He was one of the first to enrol.

In a concert given by the Academy of Ancient Music in London in 1731, Lotti's La vita caduta (in una siepe ombrosa), one of the madrigals from his 1705 collection, was attributed as the work of Giovanni Bononcini (1670 - 1747). When the true authorship came to light, Bononcini supposedly protested, and although he declined to comment further, his case was taken up by others, particularly Maurice Green (1696 - 1755) who may have put Bononcini's name to the work in the first place. The Academy's secretary, Hawley Bishop, then wrote to Lotti, asking him to prove that the madrigal was his. Lotti provided a measured but definitive response to the supporters of Bononcini:

I think that they do not so much consult the Honour of their Friend, because by separating from the Academy, they show a resentment which might be just, were the Dispute about an only Child, but for a Madrigal indeed it is too much, since Signore Buononcini can make others equal and much superior.

He settled the matter with notarised testimony. The incident led to Maurice Greene's leaving the Academy and the fall of Bononcini in London as Handel's star arose.

Lotti died of dropsy (Oedema) on 5th January 1740. He was buried in the church of S. Geminiano, which stood at the west end of Piazza S. Marco, but was demolished by Napoleon in 1807. It is thought that his tomb was removed to another location, but its whereabout are unknown. It is curious, but by no means impossible, that his birthday and death were on the same day. Records of the Procuratorio di San Marco show that on 3rd January, he was repaid for expenses relating to music at Christmas; on 9th January, letters were sent to the ambassadors of other city states, announcing the vacancy following his death.

There are a number of manuscripts of his Missa de profunctis in Venice which state: si canta ogni anno nel Mese di dicembre il giorno del suo anniversario in S. Giminiano – "to be sung every year in the mass on the day of his anniversary in December in S. Geminiano". In February 1740, The Pallade Veneta reported that solumn funeral services for Lotti were held at S. Salvatore.

Lotti's music is characterised by a use of suspensions, chromaticism, discords and modulation. He is also a keen exponent of word painting, with words such as "descendit" and "ascendit" often sung to descending or ascending scales respectively. In several of his psalm settings, the text "sicut erat in principio" (as it was in the beginning) is set to the same music as that at the start of the work. He writes with great care for voices, and is also highly technical, writing complex canons and fugues.

His music had a great influence on his contemporaries. Manuscripts of Lotti's music survive in Handel's hand, and some 'homage' to Lotti can be seen in Handel's work. The libretto of Handel's opera Ottone is based on that of Lotti's Teofane, and some have suggested that the similarity does not end with the book. J.S. Bach's own library held a copy of Lotti's Missa Sapientiae, composed in Dresden, and it is thought by some that this may have informed his own B minor Mass. Lotti met both Handel and Bach.

Of the 24 operas that Lotti wrote, only 8 survive: Alessandro Severo, Ascanio, Costantino, Foca superbo, Giove in Argo, Polidoro, Porsenna and Teofane. Of his 8 oratorios, only 2 are thought to survive: Il voto crudele and L’umiltà coronata in Esther.

Ancient Groove is proud to announce a major new series of the sacred choral music of Antonio Lotti.

Here is a list of sacred music by Lotti (still under review) that survives in various libraries.