Francesco Foggia was an Italian composer of the Baroque

Baroque music

Baroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1760. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era...

.

Biography

Foggia was a boy soprano

Boy soprano

A boy soprano is a young male singer with an unchanged voice in the soprano range. Although a treble, or choirboy, may also be considered to be a boy soprano, the more colloquial term boy soprano is generally only used for boys who sing, perform, or record as soloists, and who may not necessarily...

 at the Collegium Germanicum of the Jesuits in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, and was a student of Antonio Cifra

Antonio Cifra

Antonio Cifra was an Italian composer of the Roman School of the Renaissance and early Baroque eras. He was one of the significant transitional figures between the Renaissance and Baroque styles, and produced music in both idioms.-Life and works:Son of Costanzo and Claudia, Antonio Cifra was born...

, and Paolo Agostini. Perhaps his family was in contact with Giovanni Bernardino Nanino

Giovanni Bernardino Nanino

Giovanni Bernardino Nanino was an Italian composer, teacher and singing master of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras, and a leading member of the Roman School of composers...

, 'mastro di capella' at San Luigi dei Francesi

San Luigi dei Francesi

The Church of St. Louis of the French is a Roman Catholic minor basilica and titular church in Rome, not far from Piazza Navona. The church is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, to St. Denis the Areopagite and St. Louis IX, king of France...

. Later, he was probably employed at the court of the Bavaria

Bavaria

Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

n Elector Maximilian I

Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria

Maximilian I, Duke/Elector of Bavaria , called "the Great", was a Wittelsbach ruler of Bavaria and a prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire. His reign was marked by the Thirty Years' War ....

 in Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

 and then again in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

.

He served in various churches in Rome as an organist. From October 1634 he served for two years at the chapel of St. Mary in Trastevere

Trastevere

Trastevere is rione XIII of Rome, on the west bank of the Tiber, south of Vatican City. Its name comes from the Latin trans Tiberim, meaning literally "beyond the Tiber". The correct pronunciation is "tras-TEH-ve-ray", with the accent on the second syllable. Its logo is a golden head of a lion on a...

; from December 1646 to 1662 he was Kapellmeister

Kapellmeister

Kapellmeister is a German word designating a person in charge of music-making. The word is a compound, consisting of the roots Kapelle and Meister . The words Kapelle and Meister derive from the Latin: capella and magister...

 of the Patriarchal Basilica

Basilica

The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes...

 of St. John Lateran. In 1667, while musical director of the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Damaso

San Lorenzo in Damaso

San Lorenzo in Damaso is a basilica church in Rome, Italy, one of several dedicated to the Roman deacon and martyr Saint Lawrence...

, he published a collection, Psalmodia Vespertina, containing psalms, Magnificat

Magnificat

The Magnificat — also known as the Song of Mary or the Canticle of Mary — is a canticle frequently sung liturgically in Christian church services. It is one of the eight most ancient Christian hymns and perhaps the earliest Marian hymn...

s, and Marian antiphons. From 1677 until his death, he was a cantor

Cantor (church)

A cantor is the chief singer employed in a church with responsibilities for the ecclesiastical choir; also called the precentor....

 at the papal basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome; his son Antonio succeeded him in this position. His wife Eugenia died 12 March 1683; Foggia died 8 January 1688 and was buried in the church of Santa Prassede

Santa Prassede

The Basilica of Saint Praxedes , commonly known in Italian as Santa Prassede, is an ancient titular church and minor basilica in Rome, Italy, located near the papal basilica of Saint Mary Major...

 in Rome.

Works (selection)

• Beatus ille servus, 4-part motet for men's chorus
  Men's chorus
  A men's chorus or male voice choir , is a choir consisting of men who sing with either a tenor or bass voice, and whose voices are arranged into high and low tenors , and high and low basses —and shortened to the letters TTBB...
  
   and basso continuo, Braun-Peretti Bonn 1984
• Beatus vir qui timet dominum, Manuscript in the papers of Gustav Düben, edited by C. Hofius Ammerbuch, 2007
• Celebrate o fideles (1646), Manuscript in the papers of Gustav Düben
• Cessate, deh, Cessate for soprano and basso continuo, Cantio Sacra, vol. 38, ed. Rudolf Ewerhart, Verlag Edmund Bieler Köln 1976
• Confitebor tibi domine, Manuscript in the papers of Gustav Düben, edited by C. Hofius Ammerbuch, 2007
• David fugiens a facie Saul, oratorio
• De valle lacrimarum for soloists and basso continuo, Cantio Sacra, vol. 28, ed. Rudolf Ewerhart, Verlag Edmund Bieler Köln
• Dixit Dominus Domino meo, C. Hofius Ammerbuch, 2007
• Domine quinque talenta, Manuscript in the papers of Gustav Düben
• Egredimini addicte Christi nomini, Manuscript in the papers of Gustav Düben
• Eccelsi lumini cultures, Manuscript in the papers of Gustav Düben
• Exultantes et laetantes, Manuscript in the papers of Gustav Düben
• Gaudete jubilate o gentes, C. Hofius Ammerbuch, 2007
• Hodie apparuerunt voluptates, Manuscript in the papers of Gustav Düben
• Laetamini cum Jerusalem, Manuscript in the papers of Gustav Düben
• Laeta nobis refulget dies, Manuscript in the papers of Gustav Düben
• Laetantes canite diem laetitia, Manuscript in the papers of Gustav Düben, edited by C. Hofius Ammerbuch, 2008
• Laetatus sum in his, Manuscript in the papers of Gustav Düben
• Laudate Dominum omnes gentes, Manuscript in the papers of Gustav Düben, edited by C. Hofius Ammerbuch, 2007
• Laudate Pueri Dominum, C. Hofius Ammerbuch, 2007
• Magnificat for 5 voices and basso continuo
• Magnificat concertata con instromenti di 6 tono for 9-voice choir and instruments, C. Hofius Ammerbuch, 2007
• Quare suspiras in dolore anima mea
• Serve bone et fidelis
• Tobiae oratorium, oratorio
• Victoria Passionis Christi, oratorio

Further reading

• Carl Fassbender: Francesco Foggia (1604-1688): Untersuchungen zu seinem Leben und zu seinem Motettenschaffen, dissertation. Bonn, 1980
• Gunther Morche: Francesco Foggia: Sein Beitrag zur konzertierenden Motette, in: Musica e musicisti nel Lazio, Fondazione Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Palestrina 1998

External links