Wolfgang Iten (1712-1769) - Majestas Domini (1748)

★ Follow music ► Composer: Wolfgang Iten (1712-1769) Work: Majestas Domini (1748) Performers: EnsembIe Arcіmbοldο Painting: Hans Memling () - Musicerende engelen Image in high resolution: Further info: Listen free: --- Wolfgang (Vital) Iten [Itten] (Unter-Ägeri, near Zug, 18 December 1712 - Auw, 2 January 1769) Swiss composer. He entered the school of the Benedictine monastery at Engelberg in 1725 and took his monastic vows on 20 February 1729. He was probably taught music by Ildephons Straumeyer, phonascus and choir director at Engelberg, and by the composer Benedikt Deuring between 1733 and 1736. Deuring’s sacred works were almost entirely lost in a fire at the monastery on 29 August 1729, together with works by Italian and south German composers (including Corelli, Steffani and J.V. Rathgeber), and after the fire Iten composed a new repertory. His first dated works are from December 1735. In 1737 he was made principal Kapellmeister at the monastery; he also played the trumpet. The majority of Iten’s 149 extant works are motets, offertories and Marian antiphons for soloists and choir, usually with two violins and organ; two works include parts for the Trumpet marine: Pastorella, 1738, and Aria de . Benedicto, 1751. A Missa brevis solemnis, dated 2 February 1739, has also been ascribed to him; it is for four voices and instruments (including two trumpets and timpani). Iten’s music exemplifies the prevailing, Neapolitan-influenced concertante style, including recitatives and arias. It is not without a certain elegance, though marred by the occasional clumsiness. He also provided Latin contrafacta for the 40 Italian arias op.1 by his friend Franz Joseph Leonti Meyer von Schauensee (1720-89) and wrote two German Passion plays. For one of these, intended for use on Good Friday 1757 by his congregation in Auw, where he had become parish priest in 1754, he also supplied songs.