Francesco Durante

A Master from Frattamaggiore

Francesco Durante (Frattamaggiore, near Aversa, 31 March 1684 – Naples, 30 September 1755) was one of the most distinguished composers of sacred music in eighteenth-century Naples and, above all, a teacher of international reputation whose influence shaped an entire generation of Neapolitan musicians.

Childhood and Training

He was the seventh of eleven children of Gaetano Durante, a woolcomber who also served as sexton and singer at the church of S Maria degli Angeli e S Sossio in Frattamaggiore, and of Orsola Capasso. His uncle, the priest and musician Don Angelo Durante, was primo maestro of the Neapolitan Conservatorio di S Onofrio a Capuana, and it was he who took charge of Francesco's musical education after the father's death in 1699. The young man entered the conservatory as a boarder to study with his uncle and with the violinist Gaetano Francone. Three years later he left the institution, and in 1705 his first known work, a scherzo drammatico entitled Prodigii della divina misericordia, was performed in Naples.

Years of Study in Rome

Little is known of his life between 1705 and 1728. Some early sources claim that he spent about five years in Rome studying with Pasquini and Pitoni, a version later questioned by other biographers, though circumstantial evidence seems to lend it support. Girolamo Chiti, himself a former pupil of Pitoni, identified Durante as one of that master's students. His Roman period may have fallen either between 1705 and 1710 or between 1711 and 1719, though no documents settle the matter. Several features of his music, notably his attention to the stile alla Palestrina, his interest in keyboard music and his cultivation of the concerto, have been linked to these Roman influences.

Return to Naples and First Posts

By 1710 he was back in Naples, where he began teaching at S Onofrio, though he stayed there only a few months. In 1714 he married Orsola de Laurentis in the city, a woman twelve years his senior, and he was almost certainly present at the first performance of his sacred drama La cerva assetata in February 1719. Reports of travels to Austria, Bohemia and Saxony in the 1720s rest on little firm evidence, supported only by sacred works preserved in Brno, Prague and Dresden in copies from the early 1720s. In October 1728, aged forty-four, he was appointed primo maestro of the Conservatorio dei Poveri di Gesù Cristo, succeeding the elderly Gaetano Greco, a sign of his high standing.

Composition and Teaching in the 1730s

Around 1728 he also contributed music to the choruses of Duke Annibale Marchese's tragedy Flavio Valente, published in a collection of Christian tragedies in 1729. Dated works then multiply: Litanies of 1731, Laudate pueri of 1732, a Missa breve of 1734 and the oratorio Abigaile, with libretto of 1736. His pupils at the conservatory included Pergolesi, who completed his education under Durante's guidance, Girolamo Abos, Domenico Terradellas and, for about two years, Joseph Doll. After ten years of service he resigned in 1739, and was succeeded by Francesco Feo; the reasons for his departure are unknown.

Loreto, S Onofrio and the Rivalry with Leo

In 1742 he was called to direct the Conservatorio di S Maria di Loreto, the oldest and largest of Naples' four conservatories, which had lacked a primo maestro for almost a year. Under his leadership it regained stability and quality of teaching, and later masters such as Pasquale Anfossi, Tommaso Traetta, Pietro Guglielmi, Antonio Sacchini and Fedele Fenaroli were trained there. When Leonardo Leo died in 1744, Durante was awarded the post of primo maestro at S Onofrio from January 1745. He also sought the position of royal chapel master, but after a competition the post went to Giuseppe de Majo. The supposed rivalry between Durante's followers, the Durantisti, and Leo's, the Leisti, has been exaggerated by historians: both masters shared many techniques, and their differences reflect temperament more than opposing schools.

Private Life and Character

Durante married three times. His first wife died in 1741; his second, Anna Furano, died in August 1747, and four months later he married Angela Anna Carmina Giacobbe, twenty-two years old, a niece of Anna Furano who worked as a servant in his household. Anecdotes preserved by Giuseppe Sigismondo and Giovanni Furno describe him as a man of simple manners, yet deeply wise in matters of harmony and counterpoint, devoted to the welfare and education of his pupils, who always spoke of him with admiration. He was buried in the church of S Lorenzo Maggiore in Naples.

Style and Principal Works

Unlike his contemporaries Porpora, Feo, Leo and Vinci, who won international acclaim through opera, Durante earned his reputation through church music, along with a small body of chamber vocal and instrumental works. He wrote no notable operas, and his dramatic writing, such as the S Antonio di Padova of 1753, is pleasant rather than intense. He excelled instead in masses, requiems, litanies and lamentations, where he could achieve moments of striking expressiveness. He was also among the first in Naples to compose complete mass cycles in the old a cappella style, including a Missa in Palestrina of 1739. His modern style, with its arresting dissonances, chromaticism and clearly shaped phrases, often carries a popular and approachable tone. Notable works include the Messa de morti in C minor for eight voices (1746), the Missa in afflictionis tempore in F major (1749) and the great A major mass (1753). His instrumental output includes six Sonate per cembalo, published in Naples, nine Concerti a quartetto and a Harpsichord Concerto in B flat.

Legacy

Durante also left a substantial body of pedagogical material: his partimenti for good harpsichord playing and his many solfeggi, as well as twelve chamber duets in which he transformed recitatives from Alessandro Scarlatti's cantatas. His music spread across Europe; Rousseau praised him as the greatest harmony master in Italy, and Burney reported that his masses and motets were still used in Neapolitan conservatories almost twenty years after his death. Modern scholarship has qualified some of these assessments, but his role in the development of eighteenth-century Neapolitan church music remains undisputed.