Giovanni Felice Sances

This Italian singer and composer first worked in Rome, followed by Bologna and Venice. His first opera was produced in Padua in 1636 shortly thereafter Sances entered the service of the Viennese court. In 1649 Sances was the assistant Kapellmeister and by 1669 he was the Kapellmeister. Establishing Italian dramatic music in Vienna he presented four of his own operas. Composing over six hundred sacred works, Sances also composed a considerable amount of secular vocal pieces including strophic songs and through-composed works. Most of his works were characteristically sonorous and a number of the works which he composed were designated with the label "cantata" consistently. He employed the use of ostinatos in the bass, descending tetrachords and with free invention. The secular works were scored for one, two and three voices, a reflection of his melodic interest. "Ermiona," 1636, and "I trionfo d'Amore," 1648, were among Sances' operas; other compositions included over fifty masses, five instrumental sonatas in F, and well over seventy motets. ~ Keith Johnson