Francesco Bartolomeo Conti His Life and Music

First Published in 1999, Hermine Weigel Williams’ study draws on more than thirty years of research to fill this noticeable lacuna , and presents here the first full scale life and works of the composer for over ninety years. Part One of the book surveys the biographical aspects of Conti’s career. Appointed court theorist at the age of nineteen, Conti was promoted to court composer in 1713-14. Williams examines Conti’s creative collaborations with some of the leading poet-librettists of the day, and the influence of his music that can be identified in works by Telemann, Bach and Handel. Part Two comprises close analyses of Conti’s compositions: his instrumental music, cantatas, operas, intermezzos, oratorios and sacred music. Williams reveals Conti as a composer who constantly experimented with a wide range of French, German and Italian ideas and techniques to create his own diverse musico-dramatic style.

1. From the Medici to the Habsburgs. 2. The Years 19706- 1711. 3. The Years 1711-1713. 4. The Years 1713 – 1722. 5. The Years 1722 – 1732. 6. The Conti Legacy. 7. The Instrumental Music. 8. The Cantatas. 9. The Operas. 10. The Intermezzos. 11. The Oratorios. 12. Sacred Music.

Hermine Weigel Williams is Scholar-in Residence at Hamilton College. She has contributed to The New Grove Dictionary of Music, The Operas of Alessandro Scarlatti, and The Symphony: 1720-1840. She is author of Francesco Bartolomeo Conti: His Life and Music, Sibelius and His Masonic Music, and co-author of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi: A Guide to Research. She is also co-editor of Facts Behind the Songs: A Handbook of American Popular Music from the Nineties to the 90's.