Francesco Durante
1684 — 1755
Francesco Durante was an Italian composer of the Neapolitan School. Best known for his church music, he was also an important teacher, instructing Niccolò Jommelli, Giovanni Paisiello, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Niccolò Piccinni and Leonardo Vinci, among others.
Adapted from the Wikipedia article on Francesco Durante.
From the period sources
Francesco Durante, a celebrated church-composer and gifted teacher, was born in Fratta Maggiore, Naples, in 1684 and died in Naples in 1755. He received his musical education in Naples, studying first under Gaetano Greco at the Conservatorio “dei Poveri di Gesu Cristo,” and later with Alessandro Scarlatti at the Conservatorio San Onofrio, where he was appointed Director in 1718. He also served as maestro at the Conservatorio of Santa Maria di Loreto, earning a salary of “not quite $100 per annum,” according to A Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (1900).
Durante, alongside Scarlatti and Leo, is considered a founder and leading figure of the “Neapolitan school” of composition. He dedicated himself almost exclusively to sacred music, which, as A Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (1900) notes, displayed “breadth, vigor, and resourcefulness of his style” rather than “marked originality.” Esteemed as one of the greatest teachers of his era, Durante’s illustrious pupils included figures such as Pergolesi, Paisiello, Piccinni, Sacchini, and Egidio Romualdo Duni, who himself would later become known as the founder of French opéra-bouffe. His works encompass numerous Masses, Psalms, Hymns, Litanies, Cantatas, Madrigals, Solfeggi, and Sonatas, with his vocal exercises and duets being “highly prized in Italy” even into the 19th century, as Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (1886) records.