Neapolitan School
In music history, the Neapolitan School is a group, associated with opera, of 17th and 18th-century composers who studied or worked in Naples, Italy,[1] the best known of whom is Alessandro Scarlatti, with whom "modern opera begins".[2]
It is with the Neapolitan school...that the History of Modern Music commences—insofar as that music speaks the language of the feelings, emotions, and passions.
— Schluter[3]
The Neapolitan School has been considered in between the Roman School and the Venetian School in importance.[3]
However, "The concept of Neapolitan school, or more particularly Neapolitan opera, has been questioned by a number of scholars. That Naples was a significant musical center in the 18th century is beyond doubt. Whether the composers working in Naples at that time developed or partook of a distinct and characteristic musical style is less clear" since so little is known about the repertory.[1]
Members
- Francesco Provenzale (1624–1704)[1][2]
- Alessandro Scarlatti (1660–1725)
- Francesco Durante (1684–1755)[2]
- Nicola Porpora (1686–1768)
- Leonardo Vinci (1690–1730)[1][2]
- Francesco Feo (1691–1761)
- Leonardo Leo (1694–1744)[1][2]
- Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710–1736)[1][2]
- Niccolò Jommelli (1714–1774)
- Tommaso Traetta (1727–1779)
- Niccolò Piccinni (1728–1800)
- Gian Francesco de Majo (1732–1770)
- Giovanni Paisiello (1740–1816)
- Domenico Cimarosa (1749–1801)
Sources
- Don Michael Randel (2003). The Harvard Dictionary of Music, p. 549. ISBN 978-0-674-01163-2.
- Paul Henry Lang (1997). Music in Western Civilization, p. 453. ISBN 978-0-393-04074-6.
- Schluter, Joseph (1865). A General History of Music, p.47. R. Bentley.
