1672–1737 · Baroque
Francesco Mancini was a Neapolitan composer and organist who lived from 1672 to 1737. He wrote operas, sacred music and cantatas, served for many years at the royal chapel of Naples and later directed it. Today he is known above all for his recorder sonatas; the site offers his cantata for soprano.
Francesco Mancini was born in Naples on 16 January 1672. His father, Nicola Mancini, was an organist, and his mother was called Ippolita Squillace. The boy probably had his first music lessons from his father.
His father died early, in 1680, and the boy came under the care of his paternal grandfather, Giuseppe. It was thanks to the grandfather's efforts that in 1688 Francesco entered the Naples conservatory of the Pietà dei Turchini.
At the Pietà dei Turchini his teachers were Francesco Provenzale and Gennaro Ursino. Mancini finished his studies in 1694 and then worked as an organist at the same conservatory for at least six years.
In the early 1700s he became an organist of the royal chapel of Naples, and from 1704 he was its senior organist. At the same time, no later than 1696, he began writing operas. Theatres in Naples, Rome, Palermo, Florence and Urbino staged them with success.
In 1707 Austrian troops occupied Naples. Mancini joined the pro-Austrian party and wrote a Te Deum in honour of the new rulers. Alessandro Scarlatti, the maestro of the royal chapel, was away from the city at the time, and Mancini took his place.
When Scarlatti returned, he gave the post up to Mancini but stayed on as second maestro and kept the salary of 35 ducats due to the maestro. In 1720 Mancini was elected director of the Santa Maria di Loreto conservatory.
After Scarlatti's death in 1725, Mancini again led the royal chapel. Scholars divide his career into two periods: an operatic one, from 1707 to 1713, and a period of sacred music, from 1716 to 1720. In the chapel he was assisted by Giuseppe Porsile.
In 1734 power in Naples passed from the Austrians to the Bourbons. Mancini went over to their side at once, wrote another Te Deum and kept his post as maestro of the royal chapel.
In 1735 Mancini was left paralysed after a heart attack. Because of his health he had to end his work at the conservatory, and Giovanni Fischietti stood in for him. Mancini died in Naples on 22 September 1737.
Mancini belonged to the Neapolitan school and was a composer of considerable standing in his own day. His catalogue counts 29 operas, 7 serenatas, 12 oratorios and over 200 secular cantatas, alongside sonatas, sacred pieces and a few instrumental works. His opera L'Idaspe fedele was performed in London in 1710.
His works also circulated beyond Italy: European publishers, among them the French printer Michel-Charles Le Cène, issued printed collections. These days his recorder sonatas are what he is remembered for most. In older sources his name stands beside those of Nicola Porpora, Alessandro Scarlatti and Giovanni Battista Pergolesi.
The Dana Piano site has his cantata for solo soprano voice, Ebra d'Amor fuggia (Cantata a voce sola di Soprano); the edition's difficulty level is intermediate.