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orn in Vienna in 1744, Marianna von body a certain “collection of traits, attitudes, and
Martines (1744-1812) received a thor- manners” encapsulated by the versatile adjective
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ough grounding in Baroque composi- “galant,” and that galant manners were expressed
Btional techniques, but lived and worked through music as well, in a courtly style “grounded
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in an era when a newer, more “galant” style had in a repertory of stock musical phrases.” Martines
become fashionable. Her contemporaries often would undoubtedly have been expected to display
noted and praised the balance of old and new sty- galant qualities in both her musical performances
listic qualities in her composition. English music and social dealings at court.
historian Charles Burney, who visited the Martines Martines’s musical education nevertheless pro-
family in 1772, called Marianna’s arias “very well vided her with ample exposure to Baroque musical
written, in a modern style; but neither common, style. In an autobiographical letter, she lists Han-
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nor unnaturally new,” and cited Martines’s teach- del, Lotti, and Caldara among her chief infl uenc-
er, mentor, and housemate Metastasio’s description es; even when discussing her more contemporary
of one of her psalm settings as “a most agreeable role models, she cites three composers at least thir-
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Mescolanza… of antico e moderno.” Metastasio him- ty years older than she (Hasse, Jomelli, and Ga-
self wrote to a friend that Martines “chose to avail luppi). This emphasis on emulating older music is
herself of both the grace of the modern style, unsurprising given that her education was directed
avoiding its licenses, and the harmonious solidity chiefly by Metastasio, who was born in 1698. 9

of the old ecclesiastical style, divested of its Goth- Martines’s 1774 Dixit Dominus, written in response
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icisms.” Burney’s and Metastasio’s remarks are to her induction into the Accademia Filarmonica
often cited and echoed in more recent literature of Bologna two years earlier, presents a masterful
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on Martines and her style. They do not specify assimilation of Baroque and galant traits. This ar-

what stylistic elements differentiated “antico” from ticle applies a style-conscious lens to the analysis of
“moderno,” or what elements Martines drew from several facets of the composition: overall structure
each source. Nonetheless, they make it clear that and tonal plan, structure of individual movements,
synthesis of old and new styles was a key piece of orchestral and choral texture, phrase structure and
Martines’s compositional approach. use of galant schemata, harmony, and approaches
The Martines family was well connected at to the text. It also compares the work to the well-
the Habsburg court in Vienna. Her eldest broth- known earlier setting of the same text by George
er “served as tutor to at least three of the sixteen Frideric Handel (HWV 232). Handel’s Dixit Do-
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royal children born to [Empress] Maria Theresa,” minus is not categorically representative either of
and the other three Martines brothers were all es- Baroque style or of Handel’s style; indeed, no sin-
teemed soldiers or civil servants; the entire family gle piece could be. Nevertheless, Martines’s specifi c
was granted noble status in 1774, the year Marian- mention of Handel as a compositional infl uence
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na composed her Dixit Dominus. The royal family’s suggests that his Dixit may offer a plausible image

enjoyment of Marianna’s music likely contributed of the older style that Martines learned to emulate.
to her family’s status. An 1846 biographical article Additionally, an investigation of two settings of the

on Martines in the Wiener allgemeine Musik-Zeitung same text offers an especially fruitful opportunity
mentions that the Empress would often ask Mar- for direct comparisons. As we will see, Martines
tines to perform for her, and that her son Joseph II applies old and new techniques side by side, con-
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would sometimes turn pages for Martines. Robert structing a Dixit that is more galant than Handel’s
Gjerdingen notes that “the cultured nobility” of but still heavily rooted in Baroque forms and tech-
eighteenth-century Europe were expected to em- niques.

6 CHORAL JOURNAL April 2021 Volume 61 Number 9