Painting : Joseph Paelinck (1781-1839) - Het toilet van Psyche(푸시케의 화장실) 1823
Painting : Anton von Maron (1733-1808) - Marianna Martines (c.1780)
Marianne (Anna Katharina) von Martines [Martinez]
(Vienna, 4 May 1744 - Vienna, 13 December 1812)
Austrian composer of Spanish descent.
She was the daughter of a Neapolitan who had come to Vienna as ‘gentiluomo’ to the papal nuncio.
She spent her childhood under the educational guidance of Metastasio, a friend of the family who lived in the same
house; she was taught singing, the piano and composition by Porpora and Haydn, who were also living there,
by Giuseppe Bonno and possibly by J.A. Hasse.
As a child she had attracted attention at court with her beautiful voice and her keyboard playing, and in 1761
a mass by her was performed in the court church.
She acknowledged in 1773, when she became an honorary member of the Bologna Accademia Filarmonica, that as
a composer she took as her principal models Hasse, Jommelli and Galuppi.
Not only did she possess a thorough understanding of imitation and fugue, but she also knew how to set words in
the Baroque manner. Her predilection for coloratura passages, leaps over wide intervals and trills indicate that she
herself must have been an excellent singer. In 1772 Burney praised her singing for all the typical virtues of the
Italian school as well as for ‘touching expression’. Burney’s remark that her vocal works were ‘neither common,
nor unnaturally new’ applies to her instrumental works as well. A typical composer of the early Classical period in
Vienna, she wrote in the Italian style. As a harpsichordist she was influenced by C.P.E.
Bach. Sometimes she created a composition of several movements from a single idea (e.g. the Harpsichord
Concerto in G, 1772).
Her frequent development of motifs, decoration techniques and rapid runs show that she was concerned to impress
her public with virtuosity, suiting the taste of the Viennese salons.
After Metastasio’s death in 1782, the Martínez family, as heirs of his large estate (Marianne was bequeathed 20,000
florins, Metastasio’s harpsichord and his music library), were able to maintain a substantial household.
Many notable personalities, including Haydn and Mozart, attended her musical soirées there;
Michael Kelly heard her playing one of Mozart’s four-hand sonatas with the composer and described her as still ‘possessing the gaiety and vivacity of a girl’. In the 1790s she started a singing school in her house,
which produced several outstanding singers.