DURANTE, FRANCESCO. - Musician, b. at Frattamaggiore on 15 March 1684, d. at Naples on 13 Aug. 1755. A pupil of G. Ottavio Pitoni and perhaps of B. Pasquini, he was among the first great masters of the glorious Neapolitan school; he taught at the Conservatorio dei poveri di G. Cristo (1728-1739) and, succeeding Porpora, at that of S. Maria di Loreto (1742-1755); in 1745 he took the place of Leo as first master at the Conservatorio di S. Onofrio, where he taught for 10 years.

The most important collection of his manuscripts is in the library of the Paris Conservatoire and contains 13 masses, fragments of other masses, 16 psalms, 16 motets, antiphons, hymns, madrigals, sonatas for piano; in the Vienna library are his Lamentazioni, and other works of his are found in Berlin, Dresden, Munich, London, Brussels, Milan, Bologna and Naples. There were published, among other things, a Magnificat for 4 voices, 12 chamber duets, some arias and some sonatas.

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: F. Florimo, La scuola musicale napoletana e i suoi conservatori, II, Naples 1882, pp. 178-84; F. Torrefranca, Poeti minori del clavicembalo, in Riv. music. ital., 17 (1910), pp. 784-785; S. Di Giacomo, I quattro antichi conservatori di Napoli, I, Naples 1924, pp. 151-52.

Anna Maria Gentili

@incollection{ec4_durante_francesco, author = {Gentili, Anna Maria}, title = {Durante, francesco}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IV}, pages = {2007}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1950}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/durante-francesco} }

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Durante, Francesco

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