Background
A descendent of a Milanese branch of the noble Genoese Adorno family, Giorgio Antoniotto was born in Milan in 1680 to Bernardo Antoniotto and Maria Teresa Pavitte.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
Giorgio Antoniotto
Edit ProfileCareer
A Spanish sympathizer against the Austrians in the War of the Spanish Succession, he was forced to flee Italy and entered the Spanish service where he was engaged many times but not wounded. Leaving the Spanish service, he taught in the arts at Geneva, frequenting the courts of Europe at Vienna, Paris, Madrid, and Lisbon. At Paris, presumably as the result of a duel, he suffered an injury to his hand with a sword.
As a consequence of this injury, he gave up the violin in favor of the violoncello.
Antoniotto is credited with negotiating for the Queen of Spain, Elisabeth of Parma, the arrangement by which Farinelli (Carlo Maria Broschi), a famed castrato, moved from London in 1737 to sing for the rest of his performing career at the Spanish court. Antoniotto traveled frequently to England and it was there that in 1760 he published his book, written in Italian but translated and published in English.
The preface to this book was translated by Samuel Pegge. In, Antonitto proposes a compositional system using as immovable bass the first and fifth scale degrees in the tonality of the piece, which he terms principal and guide.
Giorgio Antoniotto died at Calais in 1766.
