STEFANI, AGOSTINO. — Musician, b. at Castelranco Veneto on 25 July 1654, d. at Frankfurt am Main on 12 Feb. 1728.
At the age of 14 he was a chamber and court musician at Munich. In 1674 he published his first work, *Psalmodia vespertina*, for eight voices, and on 10 March 1675 he was appointed court organist. Ordained priest about 1680, on 5 January 1681 he was granted the parish benefice of Lepsing near Nördlingen (Bavaria). In 1688 he produced with great success a dozen operas at the court of Hanover; these were translated into German and performed in other German cities. Stefani also carried out important diplomatic activity at Hanover and Düsseldorf; on 13 September 1706 he was appointed titular Bishop of Spiga, and in 1709 Apostolic Vicar of Upper and Lower Saxony for the preservation of Catholicism in that region, including Hanover and Brunswick. Among his later religious works are a *Stabat Mater* and a five-part motet with organ, *Qui diligit Mariam*, which he sent to London, where the Academy of Ancient Music had wished to appoint him president. His polemical pamphlet on musical theory, *Quanta certezza abbia dai suoi principi la musica*... (Amsterdam 1700), should also be recalled.