LOTTI, ANTONIO. - Organist and composer, of Venetian origin, b. ca. 1667, d. in Venice on 5 Jan. 1740. Admitted in 1687 as a singer, into the choir of the basilica of St. Mark under the direction of S. Legrenzi, he was later second organist there and in 1704 first organist.
He published many secular works for the theaters of Venice and Dresden (Giustino, Giove in Argo, Ascanio e Teofane), but the most important part of his output concerns sacred music. Among the Venetian masters of the 18th century, he is the only one who wished and knew how to rebel against the manner then commonly accepted of writing music for the Church. The sacred musical output of that time wavered uncertainly between cold academic exercise and theatrical style, with interminable introductions, for solos of voices and instruments, displaying ornaments of every kind, displeasing to the liturgical cult. L. advocated with energy and competence a return to the traditions of classical vocal polyphony, without however mortifying the spirit of his time and without neglecting the use of the technical means achieved up to then. On this subject he had to sustain bitter polemics and had lively clashes with his colleagues and also with Benedetto Marcello, his pupil. There survive by him a fair number of oratorios (Il voto crudele, Il ritorno di Tobia, Giove e Giuditta, etc.), masses, motets for 4, 10 and 12 voices.
The Sammlung ausgezeichneten Kompositionen für die Kirche d. S. Löck (Ratisbon 1907) includes 4 masses, various motets (Vere languore for 3 voices, Gaude Maria, Ave Regina coelorum, Regina coeli, Salve Regina for 4 voices and the well-known Minorere for 4 voices); other compositions appear in other collections (Proskie, Rochlitz, etc.).
Bibliography3 works
Lavinio Virgili