Marrianne Martinez: Her musical life and analysis of Keyboard Sonata in A-Major

Supparang Sujarit

1. Topic description

Among the women composers we know little about, Marianna Martines was recognized as the pupil of Haydn and a friend
of Mozart. Apart from the relation to those famous canon composers, her own life and most of her work still remain
unheard or unrecovered.

Marianna, from the ancestry of Spanish, was born and raised in Vienna. The young Joseph Haydn was her first keyboard and
singing teacher. Counterpoint was instructed by Giuseppe Bonno. Works of Hendel, Lotti, Caldara were the role models and
what she studied from. She wrote a wide range of works from solo voice, keyboard to orchestral work and from Italian
arias, psalms, cantatas , to masses. Marianna’s use of galant voice-leading schemata is noticeable and impressed among
musicians both within and outside the walls of Vienna.

In this research, I study Marianna Martinez’s life focusing on her musical life, her musical education, and her status and
reputation as a women composer in the eighteenth century. For her musical work, Keyboard Sonata in A major is the only
work that was taken as an example and is analyzed in this research. I do not examine or analyze other of her works. The
goal is in order to discover more about this unknown composer, her life and her work through the study of her life and
analysis of her music.

2. Research question
- How was Martinez’s musical life as a woman composer in terms of social status in the eighteenth century?
- How was the relationship between Martinez and Haydn/Mozart?
- What are the important elements shown in Martinez's composition?

3. Objective and benefit

- To discover more about Marianne Martinez.
- To analyze influences that are reflected in her keyboard composition.
- To identify the relations between Martinez and Haydn Mozart.
- To determine women's composer's social status in the eighteenth century.

4. Literature Review

Marianna Martines is often spelled as Martinez as she was descended from the ancestry of Spanish. She was born in Vienna
on May 4, 1744 and died in Vienna on December 3, 1812.
In 1751, With help of Pietro Metastasio the poet-librettist and Martinez’s parents' friend at age seven Marianna was first
introduced to music. She began studying music with the young Joseph Haydn. At that time Haydn was only a teenager with
no steady employment. Because Vienna within the wall was an intimate place, Metastasio could hear Haydn's boyhood
solos with the cathedral choir. So, the young Joseph Haydn became Marianna’s music teacher (and maybe an accompanist)
in return for food and living at the attics in the same building. Haydn teached her singing and keyboard for three years.
Later Haydn became Maestro di Cappella to Prince Esterhazy and became quite famous in Vienna. No one knows whether
Marianna and Haydn remain in contact with each other or not.

Other than Haydn, Marianna also studied counterpoint with Giuseppe Bonno and later she studied singing and counterpoint
with Nicola Porpora. She admired works of George Frideric Handel, Antonio Lotti, Antonio Caldara, Johann Adolph Hasse,
Niccolò Jommelli and Baldassare Galuppi.

Marianna’s works range widely over concertos, sonatas, and church music, works for vocal soloists, chorus, and orchestra.
She and her works are often mentioned in Metastasio’s letters to his poet, librettist and musician friends, this also made
both her works and her fame spread both within and outside the wall of Vienna. Marianna is known for her use of galant
voice-leading schemata is an excellent mixture of old tradition and new elements.

Charles Burney, an English music historian, composer and musician, once wrote a letter about him meeting Marianna at the
Martinez household in September 1772. He was introduced to Martinez by Metastasio and got to listen to her playing
harpsichord and singing her own composition such as Miserere in four parts, several psalms in eight parts, a Mescolanza, a
psalm for four voices with instruments, a harpsichord sonata and etc. Burney was delighted and astonished by her voice
“her voice was naturally well-toned and sweet, that she had excellent shake (trill), a perfect intonation, a facility of
executing the most rapid and difficult passages, and a touching expression…” He also described her style as “ … a mixture
of the harmony, and contrivance of old times, with the melody and taste of the present.” It could be said that Marainna
impressed Charles Burney as both a performer and a composer.

However, there were also some critics that expressed no great fondness for the music of Marianna such as a Viennese
historical novelist, Caroline Pichler. Her criticism on Martines’s work “I found neither her compositions (mentioned Maria
Theresia von Paradis) nor those of Fräulein Martinez (the only works by female composers that were known to me) to be
of much interest.”

Eduard Hanslick, the influential critic, accepted Pichler’s opinion as “completely trustworthy”. Although in 1869, it was
reported that all of Marianna’s works were lost. Until 1990 only two keyboard works had been found.

Pichler also mentioned Mariana in the autobiography that “In my long life, and especially in my youth, through frequent
contacts with the musical world, I have known only two [women] who worked in it: Fräulein von Martinez, pupil of the
celebrated Metastasio who lived with her parents and undertook the education of this in many respects distinguished
woman, which was for him a pleasant task; and my friend the blind Fräulein von Paradis.” The phrase “which was for
him a pleasant task” reis believed referring to the rumor of Metastasio and Marianna relationship as some (including
Pichler) believe that Marianna was Metastasio's mistress. Later Anton Schmid brought up these arguments: when Marianna
was 16. Metastasio was already 62. The age difference is too much to cause such “sordid motives”. This kind of rumor
targets Metastasio makes no sense. In the Metastasio-Martines household there were also three brothers of Marianna’s who
reached maturity and remained unmarried. Another reason was that Vienna knew Marianna as a gifted aristocratic women
composer, singer and keyboard player who played for the pleasure of the Empress Maria Theresa. She was fond of and
often summoned by such royalty. The trust and favor from the strictly moral empress could prove the moral purity of
Marianna.

Marianna wrote over 200 works in a wide range. According to Anton Schmid’s list in the 1840s, there are 156 arias and
cantatas, 31 piano sonatas, and 12 keyboard concertos. He also said that much of her works for solo voice are lost. Sadly
not many of her works survive these days. 69 from all of her works are presently verifiable: 4 masses, 2 litanies, a Regina
caeli for double chorus, 2 Latin psalms (one accompanied by basso continuo only, one accompanied by full orchestra), 4
Italian psalms for soloists, chorus, and orchestra, 2 Italian oratorios, 7 solo motets, 27 Italian arias, 7 Italian cantatas, 4
keyboard concertos, 1 independent overture and 3 keyboard sonatas.

In 1773 Marianna was elected to Accademia Filarmonica in Bologna, an association of musicians in Bologna. After
Metastasio’s death She started giving soiree in 1782 , where in 1786-1787 Mozart joined her soiree playing one of his
four-hand piano sonatas. ( K.497 in F August 1, 1786 and K.521 in C May 29, 1787). Then Marianna opened her own singing
school in the 1790s. In 1796 The Yearbook of Music at Vienna and Prague hailed her as one of the most knowledgeable
and accomplished among those who called themselves amateurs.

5. Research methodology
1. Finding sources and studying about Martinez from academic articles, literature (including Charles Burney’s Letter) ,
scores (Keyboard Sonata in A-Major) and internet websites.
2. Data analysis
2.1 Martinez's Musical Life
2.2 analysis of keyboard sonata in A-Major
3. Writing research results
4. Presentation and publication of information for future possibilities such as Thai Wikipedia webpage or a
performance with Marainna Martinez’s work in the programme.

6. Results

Analysis of Marianna Martinez’s Keyboard Sonata in A-Major’s.

 Example 1: Marianna Martinez’s Keyboard Sonata in A-Major, First movement, measure 1-3.

First movement (Allegro) started in A major with the Sonata form. The exposition, from measure 1-16, started with a dotted
rhythmic motif accompanied by the eighth note interval in the left hand. triplet could be found both in the melody
switching with the accompaniment. In the development section, the key changed to E major. The rhythmic motives and
character from the first section still remained. Until measure 32-34 there is the tension building up and finally released as it
entered the recapitulation in measure 35.

Example 2: Marianna Martinez’s Keyboard Sonata in A-Major, Second movement, measure 1-3.

The second movement is set in expressive melancholic adagio. As it started in A minor, a dotted motif has also shown up
since the first measure. Then the key suddenly changed into C major in measure 8 introducing the new melody
accompanied by an Alberti bass and later octave transfer. The key changed back to C major again around measure 15. The
whole thing repeated again but this time started with C major from measure 26- 42. The first time once introduced in A
minor came back in measure 43 towards the end. Trills, and dotted rhythms, as well as non chord tones known as
appoggiaturas are found throughout the entire movement.
 Example 3: Marianna Martinez’s Keyboard Sonata in A-Major, Third movement, measure 1-11.

The minuet in the last movement opened with the A major scalic motif with quite grand and lively manner. The interesting
part is how the composer combined technique of repeating motives to increase tension with the octave transferring in
measure 23 and 25. In measure 34, it started over again in the minor mode. The triplets also stand out throughout the
section. Not so long until measure 46 it gets back to the first theme in A major until the end in measure 74.

One of the interesting things about this particular work is the structure the composer used: Sonata form, Rondo, and
Minuet. Plus, the style and usage of Neapolitan galant characteristics which are polite yet playful as described in Robert O.
Gjerdingen’s Music in the Galant Style such as “the Prinner”

Prinner's treatise, important more for its typicality than its originality, covered a range of topics deemed necessary
for the aspiring provincial musician. Under the heading "Instruction for the Organ," he treats what an accompanist
should know of figured and unfigured basses. His discussion follows the time-honored practice of describing
counterpointing voices as proper responses to a motion in a reference voice. In earlier centuries

the reference voice would have been a tenor. In Prinner's seventeenth century, it had become the bass. He
dutifully shows how the counterpointing voices should behave if the bass ascends or descends one step, two
steps, three steps, and so on. When he comes to a bass that descends four steps, he notates the proper responses
as follows (I have added the indications of scale degrees for comparison with later examples)
 Example 4.1: Prinner, Musicalischer Schlissl [The Key to Music], fol.58 (1677)

Example 4.2: Prinner, Marianna Martinez’s Keyboard Sonata in A-Major, First movement, measure 4.
7. Conclusions

As a woman composer in the eighteenth century, Marianna Martinez’s life gave a fair example. She was born in an
aristocratic family with a supportive patronage. Pietro Metastasio played an important role by leading her to music
education and connection within both aristocratic and musical society such as Joseph Haydn, Giuseppe Bonno, Charles
Burney, and etc. Although Marianna began to be well known, her performance other than her own soiree and the court has
not been found. So as other evidence than a few paragraphs of the critics from Caroline Pichler and Eduard Hanslick, her
story mentioned in the conversation in Metastasio’s letters, and her music especially solo voice pieces are mostly gone. In
the current situation where most of the women composers are mostly forgotten by people, Marianna’s relation to those
canon composers: Haydn and Mozart is an interesting point that makes us notice her existence and brings us to know her
more. Being the pupil of Joseph Haydn and giving a soiree with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart are just the first steps that lead
us to this fascinating lady. We sure have a lot more stories of Marianna Martinez which are waiting to be discovered.

Here are some possible area for future research:

1. If more evidence is discovered, the area for studying about Martinez will be wider.
2. Her composition for voice would be interesting to study, language knowledge should be applied.
3. Publication in Thai is yet to be found, so translating the paper into Thai or writing about Martinez in Thai
Wikipedia may help Thai people and musicians to know more about Martinez.
8. Bibliography
- Music Review, IA (2019). Marianna Martínez= Martínez: pupil of Haydn and friend of Mozart. Inter-American Music
Review , 11 (1), p. 25 – 44. Retrieved from https://iamr.uchile.cl/index.php/IAMR/article/view/53053
- Neuls-Bates, Carol. “Marianne Von Martinez: Composer and Singer.” Essay. In Women in Music: An Anthology of
Source Readings from the Middle Ages to the Present, Reviseded., 80–84. Northeastern Univ. Press, 1996.
- Godt, Irving. Marianna Martines: A Woman Composer in the Vienna of Mozart and Haydn. Edited by John A. Rice.
Firsted. University of Rochester Press, 2010.
- Gjerdingen, Robert O. Music in the Galant Style. Oxford University Press, 2020.