Emanuele d'Astorga (11 December 1681 - 21 August 1736, by some reports) was an Italian composer. December 11 is the 345th day (346th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Events March 4 - Charles II of England grants a land charter to William Penn for the area that will later become Pennsylvania. ... August 21 is the 233rd day of the year (234th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Events January 26 - Stanislaus I of Poland abdicates his throne. ... A composer is a person who writes music. ...

He was born at Naples. No authentic account of Astorga's life can be successfully constructed from the obscure and confusing evidence that has been until now handed down, although historians have not failed to indulge many pleasant conjectures. According to some of these, his father, a baron of Sicily, took an active part in the attempt to throw off the Spanish yoke, but was betrayed by his own soldiers and publicly executed. His wife and son were compelled to be spectators of his fate; and such was the effect upon them that his mother died on the spot, and Emanuele fell into a state of gloomy despondency, which threatened to deprive him of reason. By the kindness of the princess Ursini, the unfortunate young man was placed in a convent at Astorga, in Leon, where he completed a musical education which is said to have been begun in Palermo under Francesco Scarlatti. Here he recovered his health, and his admirable musical talents were cultivated under the best masters. On the details of this account no reliance can safely be placed, nor is there any certainty that in 1703 he entered the service of the duke of Parma. Location within Italy Naples (Italian Napoli, Neapolitan Napule, from Greek Νέα Πόλις - Néa Pólis - meaning New City) is the largest city in southern Italy and capital of Campania Region. ... Sicily (Sicilia in Italian) is an autonomous region of Italy and the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, with an area of 25,700 sq. ... Astorga (Latin Asturica Augusta) is a city in the province of León, Spain. ... LEON is an open source 32-bit RISC CPU. It is SPARC V8 instruction compatible, and designed by Gaisler Research. ... Location within Italy Palermo (Palermo in Italian) (Palermu or Palemmu in Sicilian) (population 680,000) is the principal city and administrative seat of the autonomous region of Sicily, Italy. ... The Duchy of Parma was a small Italian state between 1545 and 1802, and again from 1814 to 1860. ...

Equally untrustworthy is the story that the duke, suspecting an attachment between his niece Elizabeth Farnese and Astorga, dismissed the musician. The established facts concerning Astorga are indeed few enough. They are: that the opera Dafne was written and conducted by the composer in Barcelona in 1709; that he visited London, where he wrote his Stabat Mater, possibly for the society of "Antient Musick"; that it was performed in Oxford in 1713; that in 1712 he was in Vienna, and that he retired at an uncertain date to Bohemia, where he died on the 21st of August 1736, in a castle which had been given to him in the domains of Prince Lobkowitz, in Raudnitz. Elizabeth Farnese (October 25, 1692 - July 11, 1766), Queen consort of Spain, was the only daughter of Odoardo II, prince of Parma. ... Barcelona within Barcelonès Population (2003) 1,582,738 Area 1004 Km2 Population density (2001) 15,764/Km2 Barcelona is the capital of Catalonia, an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, and the countrys second-largest city (after Madrid). ... St Stevens Tower - The Clock Tower of the Palace of Westminster which contains Big Ben London (see also different names) is the capital city of the United Kingdom and of England. ... Mater dolorosa became an iconic type, as in this 16th-century Spanish version by Luis de Morales (ca 1510 - 1586) Stabat Mater is a Roman Catholic hymn of the 13th century, attributed to Jacopone da Todi, that meditates on the suffering of Mary, mother of Jesus during his crucifixion. ... Oxford is a city and local government district in Oxfordshire, England, with a population of 134,248 (2001 census). ... Vienna (German: Wien [viːn]) is the capital of Austria, and also one of Austrias nine federal states (Bundesland Wien). ... Bohemia Bohemia (Czech: Čechy; German: Böhmen) is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western and middle thirds of the Czech Republic. ...

Astorga deserves remembrance for his dignified and pathetic Stabat Mater, and for his numerous chamber-cantatas for one or two voices. He was probably the last composer to carry on the traditions of this form of chamber music as perfected by Alessandro Scarlatti. Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. ... Alessandro Scarlatti (May 2, 1660 – October 24, 1725) was a Baroque composer especially famous for his operas and chamber cantatas. ...

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... The Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1911) in many ways represents the sum of knowledge at the beginning of the 20th century. ...