STEFFANI, AGOSTINO (1653-1728), Italian ecclesiastic, diplomatist and musical composer, was born at Castelfranco on July 25, 1653. At a very early age he was admitted as a choris ter at St. Mark's, Venice. Count Tattenbach took him in 1667 to Munich, where his education was completed at the expense of Ferdinand Maria, elector of Bavaria, who gave him a court ap pointment. He was sent in 1673 to study in Rome, where Ercole Bernabei was his master, and among other works he composed six motets, the original manuscripts of which are now in the Fitz William Museum at Cambridge. On his return to Munich in 1674 he published his first work, Psalmodia vespertina, a part of which was reprinted in Martini's Saggio di contrappunto in 1674. In 1675 he was appointed court organist. The date when he was or dained priest, with the title of Abbate of Lepsing, is not precisely known. Steffani's first opera, Marco Aurelio, which was written for the carnival and produced at Munich in 1681, was fol lowed by other works now lost. In 1688 he became Kapellmeister at the court of Hanover, where he made many friends. He wrote for the opening of the new opera house in 1689, an opera called Enrico it Leone, which was produced with extraordinary splen dour. For the same theatre he composed La Lotta d'Ercole con Achilleo in 1689, La Superbia d'Alessandro in 1690, Orlando generoso in 1691, Le Rivali concordi in 1692, La Liberty contenta in 1693, I Trionfi del fato and I Baccanali in 1695, and Briseide in 1696. Elevation of Ernest Augustus to the electorate in 1692 led to difficulties with the various German courts; Steffani was sent round as an envoy in 1696 and as a result received from Inno cent XI. the bishopric of Spiga for his services in securing privi
leges for Hanoverian Catholics. In 1698 he was sent as ambassa dor to Brussels, and after the death of Ernest Augustus in the same year he entered the service of the elector palatine, John William, at DUsseldorf, where he held the offices of privy coun cillor and protonotary of the Holy See.
Steffani did not accompany the elector George to England ; but in 1724 the Academy of Ancient Musick in London elected him its honorary president for life; and in return for the compliment he sent the association a magnificent Stabat Mater, for six voices and orchestra, and three fine madrigals. The manuscripts of these are still in existence, and the British Museum possesses a very fine Confitebor, for three voices and orchestra, of about the same period. All these compositions are very much in advance of the age in which they were written; and in his operas Steffani shows a remarkable appreciation of the demands of the stage. Notable too are his beautiful chamber-duets, which, like those of his con temporary Carlo Maria Clari (1669-1745), are chiefly written in the form of cantatas for two voices, accompanied by a figured bass. The British Museum (Add. MSS. 5,055 seq.) possesses more than a hundred of these compositions, some of which were published at Munich in 1679. Steffani visited Italy for the last time in 1727. He died at Frankfurt on Feb. 12, 1728.