Biography
Steffani largely set aside musical activity after 1703, directing his energies instead toward political and diplomatic appointments. He nevertheless retained distinguished musical posts, among them the presidency of London’s Academy of Vocal Music from 1727 onward, although his artistic reputation had already been secured. Despite his Italian birth, he spent little time on Italian soil in a musical capacity. After completing studies in Rome he joined the Munich court, later becoming Kapellmeister at the Hanoverian court and, from 1703, serving the Elector of Palatine in Düsseldorf.
Roughly seventy chamber pieces survive, the majority vocal duets and trios with continuo. The duets, written for soprano-alto, soprano-tenor, or soprano-bass, often contain up to six movements that alternate solos and duets; early versions favor closed forms, yet Steffani’s later revisions open the structures and occasionally discard movements so that fugal and contrapuntal ideas could be pursued. His motets were composed chiefly for trios—SSB, SAT, SAB, STB, and sometimes ATB—and remain predominantly imitative in texture.
Steffani also produced about eighteen operas that absorbed French traits, placing arias in gavotte- and minuet-like meters. The orchestrations typically call for four or five strings, two flutes, oboes, bassoons, theorbos, and obbligato lute. Although Italian, he helped shape opera in northern Germany and left a clear mark on the songs of Handel.
Roughly seventy chamber pieces survive, the majority vocal duets and trios with continuo. The duets, written for soprano-alto, soprano-tenor, or soprano-bass, often contain up to six movements that alternate solos and duets; early versions favor closed forms, yet Steffani’s later revisions open the structures and occasionally discard movements so that fugal and contrapuntal ideas could be pursued. His motets were composed chiefly for trios—SSB, SAT, SAB, STB, and sometimes ATB—and remain predominantly imitative in texture.
Steffani also produced about eighteen operas that absorbed French traits, placing arias in gavotte- and minuet-like meters. The orchestrations typically call for four or five strings, two flutes, oboes, bassoons, theorbos, and obbligato lute. Although Italian, he helped shape opera in northern Germany and left a clear mark on the songs of Handel.