Biography
Vitali performed as a vocalist while also mastering the violincino, the direct forerunner of the violoncello. He trained under Cazzati and held successive posts beginning in 1658 as singer and choir director at St. Petronio in Bologna, moving in 1673 to the same role at St. Rosario, then joining the Este court in Modena first as assistant choir master and later as principal choir master in 1684. Although vocal composition was never his strongest area, he produced two anthologies that contained vesper psalms, solo hymns featuring instrumental ritornellos, ten cantatas both sacred and secular—the secular examples addressing particular moral dilemmas—and oratorios drawn from Old Testament narratives; these pieces remained notable chiefly for their adherence to established conventions. In his instrumental output Vitali explored both the sonata da camera and the sonata da chiesa, linking separate movements through dance rhythms that appeared throughout every movement of the sonata da chiesa while binding those movements by shared tonalities; he further relied on compact thematic ideas and serviceable progressions generated by sequential bass patterns. Twelve collections of instrumental music survive, the majority cast in two to six movements. Counterpoint appears more prominently in these works than in earlier examples, and Vitali became the first composer to incorporate French dances such as the bourrée and the minuet into sonata writing. His cumulative experiments helped lay the groundwork for the emergence of the Baroque ensemble.