Marianna Von Martines

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Marianna [Marianne] von Martines [Martinez] (May 4, 1744 – December 13, 1812), was a singer, pianist and composer of the classical period. Marianna's paternal grandfather was a Spanish soldier who had settled in Naples. Her father, Nicolo Martines, grew up there and for a time pursued a career as a soldier. He later changed careers, serving in Vienna as Maestro di Camera (major-domo) at the papal nuncio; that is, the Pope's embassy to the Austrian Empire. For service to the Empire, Marianne's brothers in 1774 acquired a patent of nobility, hence the "von" in the family surname. Already as a child Marianna was good enough to perform before the Imperial court, where according to the Helene Wessely, she "attracted attention with her beautiful voice and her keyboard playing." The adult Marianne was frequently asked to perform before the Empress Maria Theresa. A number of the works that Marianna composed are set for solo voice, and her biographers (Godt, Wessely) conjecture that the first singer of these works was their composer. If so, they constitute further evidence for her ability, as the music shows a "predilection for coloratura passages, leaps over wide intervals and trills indicat[ing] that she herself must have been an excellent singer." (Wessely). Marianna wrote a number of secular cantatas and two oratorios to Italian texts. These texts are, naturally enough, the work of her mentor Metastasio. Surviving compositions include four masses, six motets, and three litani

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