Biography
Giovanni Lorenzo Mariani was born in Lucca in 1722, where he was baptized on October 17, by Giovanni Domenico and Anna Maria Pacini.
His musical apprenticeship took place at the seminary of S. Giovanni, in which - like the other two city seminars - music was taught since the second half of the sixteenth century even to outside students. Like many people from Lucca dedicated to musical studies, he debuted at the festivals of S. Cross (13-September 13): his presence is documented in 1735-36 as the ‘song’ of the second choir and, from 1740 to 1745, every year as a ‘bass’ of the second choir. From 1746 to 1753 he continued his training in Bologna under the guidance of his father G.B. Martini, while serving as organist of the convent of S. Francis, where he had found hospitality and Martini was a master of chapel. In 1751 he became a member of the Philharmonic Academy of Bologna.
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The debut of the M. as a composer dates back to 1753; in that year he was commissioned to compose the music for the Festival of rallies or pockets, that is, the elections of the supreme magistrates of the Republic of Lucca, which took place over three days (in this case, June 4, 5 and 6). In December of the same year he arrived in Genoa and shortly after, being in the service of Francesco Maria Della Rovere, the last descendant of the Ligurian branch of the noble family, he began his career as a master of chapel in the cathedral of Savona. It was probably the same father Martini who procured him this position, which he held until 1792. In Savona he also married Anna Maria Gozo on May 11, 1763; no children were born from the marriage.
Erudite and also endowed with poetic talent, in 1754 the M. was admitted to the Colonia dei Arcadi Sabazi with the name of Mirtindo Acrejo, becoming its secretary in 1777. In this capacity he regularly collaborated in the activity of the Savonese archadic association both with poetic texts (some of which were included in edite collections between 1765 and 1788), and with cantatas and symphonies for the annual academies or for other solemn occasions, such as the renovation of the Sistine chapel of Savona (1762-64), on the occasion of which In addition to these assignments, M. was often commissioned with music for religious services in Genoa, a city where the Marquis Della Rovere habitually resided, in particular in the churches of S. Francesco di Castelletto and Ss. James and Philip, thus arousing the hostility of some of his Genoese colleagues. Soon, however, the musical life of Savona proved rather stingy with satisfaction, so much so that he wanted more and more a job elsewhere, especially after the death of Della Rovere (1768), with whom he had always maintained excellent relations. Fearing to be fired from the Savona chapel, in 1779 he competed in the direction of the musical chapel of the cathedral of Milan but, despite the favorable judgments to him, the place was assigned to Giuseppe Sarti, a renowned worker, after a rather controversial competition. In order to leave Savona, the M. would have agreed to work also for the theater, adapting to compose melodramas; however, the coveted search for a new assignment – despite the authoritative support of Father Martini – did not come to the desired result and the M. resigned himself to finish his days ‘in a cathedral of a very small and poor corner 1779: Tarrini, 2000, p. 193). In March 1792 he resigned from the post of master of chapel and, at the invitation of unidentified ‘distinct subjects’, moved to Genoa to devote himself entirely to the composition.
The M. died in Genoa on March 20, 1793.
He was celebrated solemn funeral in the church of S. Donato, where he was buried on March 23, with the participation of numerous local musicians.
Rated by Giovenale Sacchi as an excellent composer of ecclesiastical music, but also erudite in the letters (Premoli, p. 509), the M. was reputed one of the best students of Father Martini (Gervasoni), so much so that he was among the eight most illustrious musicians of Liguria who were among the intercolunni of the concert Since 1777 a portrait of his, still preserved (reproduced in Tarrini, 1999), had also become part of the important collection of effigies of musicians who adorned the walls of the library of Father Martini, formerly located in the convent of S. Francesco in Bologna and today in the International Museum and Music Library of Bologna. From his teacher the M. inherited the interest in the study and for books: in the correspondence between the two, consisting of 39 letters from the years 1753-82 (published in Tarrini, 2000), there are a lot of references to the research and sending of manuscripts and books of music that Martini was collecting for his library.
Unlike most of the musicians of his time, the M. did not write music for the theater, preferring instead the counterpoint style, ‘a style of music that is lost, and for its difficult elegance, and for the lightness of the professors of this art’ (letter of 23 March 1780: ibid., p. 205). With the exception of the composition of symphonies and chants for the annual arcadic academies, he devoted himself almost exclusively to sacred music with a marked predilection for the great staff, especially to eight voices in a double choir: this is evidenced by two masses, one ‘of 16 voices distributed in 4 royal choirs with two orchestras of obligated endowments’ Courtesy (Genoa 1997) and then performed in the cathedral of S. Lorenzo in Genoa on 28 Apr. 1998 (Ma's two royal choirs and forced stromenti for the coronation..., CD, Dynamic, Genoa 1998). This predilection for the great staff is in all probability attributable to his youth musical experiences: in Lucca in the most important functions, which saw the Palatine chapel and the city seminars involved, the performances of eight-voice music in two choirs with numerous arc and wind instruments were frequent.
Only a few autograph manuscripts preserved in Bologna, Savona, Genoa and Milan survive the musical production of the M.; copies of his sacred compositions are also found in Rome, Paris, Munich and Münster. In life he could not see any of his works published, despite having manifested his intention since 1763, nor the collaboration to a planned Continuation of the Marian Salterus (in two volumes of three psalms each), promoted by G. Sacchi, whose release was scheduled for 1789, seems to have followed: only the printed draft of the plan of the work remains from which it appears that the M. played the psalms 52, 54-56 in the years 1778, 1780 and 1784 (Luppi, 1996, p. 142).
Among the best known pupils of the M. should be remembered the Savonese Luigi Lamberti (1766-1833), his successor in the direction of the musical chapel of the cathedral of Savona, and probably the Genoese Francesco Gnecco.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.