LOTTI, ANTONIO. – Organist and composer, of Venetian origin, born c. 1667, died in Venice on 5 January 1740. Admitted in 1687 as a singer to the choir of the basilica of S. Marco under the direction of S. Legrenzi, he subsequently became second organist there, and in 1704 first organist.
He published many secular works for the theatres of Venice and Dresden (Giustino, Giove in Argo, Ascanio e Teofane), but the most important part of his production concerns sacred music. Among the Venetian masters of the eighteenth century, he is the only one who wished and knew how to rebel against the manner of writing church music then commonly accepted. The sacred musical production of that period wavered uncertainly between cold academic exercise and theatrical style, with interminable introductions, solos for voices and instruments displaying every kind of ornamentation, unsuitable for liturgical worship. L. energetically and competently advocated a return to the traditions of classical vocal polyphony, without mortifying the spirit of his age and without neglecting the use of the technical means achieved up to that time. On this subject he had to sustain acrimonious polemics and engaged in lively disputes with his colleagues and also with Benedetto Marcello, his pupil. A fair number of oratorios are attributed to him (Il voto crudele, Il ritorno di Tobia, Giove e Giuditta, etc.), as well as masses, motets for 4, 10, and 12 voices.
Le Sammlung ausgezeichneten Kompositionen für die Kirche d. S. Löck (Ratisbona 1907) includes 4 masses and various motets (Vere languore for 3 voices, Gaude Maria, Ave Regina coelorum, Regina coeli, Salve Regina for 4 voices, and the well-known Miserere for 4 voices); other compositions appear in other collections (Proskie, Rochlitz, etc.).