MARTINI, GIAMBATTISTA. — Of the Friars Minor Conventual, musician and musicologist, born in Bologna on 24 April 1706, died there on 3 August 1784.
Appointed in 1725 director of the musical chapel of S. Francesco in Bologna, he was ordained a priest in 1729. He composed a great deal of sacred music: Litanie ed antifone mariali a 4 voci con organo ed altri strumenti ad libitum, printed in 1734; 15 complete Masses and other separate compositions relating to the Mass; music for Holy Week, for the Office of the Dead, and several motets. In these religious compositions M. showed himself to be a rather conservative spirit. He adhered to the models of classical polyphony, shunning the style then in vogue, which was excessive in pictorial embellishments, in the use of instruments, and in sentimental outpourings. He also wrote oratorios: Assunzione di Salomone al trono d'Israello, Il sacrificio di Abramo e 2 sul soggetto S. Pietro. He also composed 12 sonate per organo e cembalo (printed in 1724), Dietti da camera (1763), secular arias and cantatas, including texts by Metastasio, symphonies, concertos, and a concertino with obbligato harpsichord and cello and violin accompaniment.
An eminent historian and bibliophile, he was a member of the Bolognese Accademia dei filarmonici and of the Arcadia of Rome, under the name of Aristosseno Anfioneo. An expert connoisseur of musical doctrine and the secrets of composition, he knew how to string together by the dozen, one after another, canons on various texts. His correspondence is interesting for the extent and importance of the subjects discussed. With passion and patience he assembled a considerable collection of musical manuscripts, incunabula, and valuable printed works, which after his death passed partly to Vienna, to the Court Library, and partly—and the more substantial portion—to the Library of the Bolognese musical lyceum, which still bears his name. An exceptionally valuable work is the three volumes of the Storia della musica (Bologna 1757–81), with important illustrations and examples. In addition: L'esemplare, ossia saggio fondamentale pratico di contrappunto sopra il canto fermo (1774); Saggio fondamentale di contrappunto fugato (1775), with an extensive musical anthology
of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; Compendio della teoria dei numeri per uso del musico o Regole per gli organisti per accompagnare il canto fermo (1756). He also left highly erudite historical memoirs, some of them printed (Napoli 1785).