Marini, Biagio
Marini, Biagio
Marini, Biagio, distinguished Italian violinist and composer; b. Brescia, c. 1587; d. Venice, March 20, 1665. He was a violinist under Monteverdi at San Marco in Venice (1615–18), and then music director of the Accademia degli Erranti in Brescia (1620–21). He subsequently was a violinist in the Farnese court in Parma (1621–23), and then served at the court in Neuberg an die Donau (1623–49), where he occasionally acted as Kapellmeister; he also traveled to other cities. In 1649 he was appointed maestro di cappella at S. Maria della Scala in Milan, and in 1652–53 he was director of the Accademia della Morte in Ferrara. He was an accomplished composer of both instrumental and vocal music. His op.l, Affetti musicali (Venice, 1617), contains the earliest example of the Italian solo sonata with basso continuo. Among his other important collections were a vol. of sonatas and sinfonias, op.8 (Venice, 1629) and a vol. of ensemble sonatas in da camera and da chiesa forms, op.22 (Venice, 1655).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire