Great Composers Note Reading Worksheet – Martini

Giovanni Martini was born in Bologna, Italy. He began studying violin with his father. He then went on to study singing and harpsichord at a music school. Martini took orders in the Catholic Church and was known as “Father” or “Padre” Martini. Padre Martini began to compose and was so good at it he opened a school to teach composition. Even Leopold Mozart came to ask Padre Martini about teaching methods and techniques for his young son, Wolfgang Amadeus. He also taught one of Johann Sebastian Bach’s sons, Johann Christian Bach. Introduce your students to the great composers and reinforce their staff reading.

Martini wrote a music history textbook on ancient music, Storia Della Musica. While the historical part is not necessarily accurate, Martini wrote a musical puzzle at the beginning and end of each chapter. He wrote the puzzles as canons. And the reader had to discern when the other part was to enter and at which interval to begin. Luigi Cherubini another great composer from the Classical/Romanic era is said to have solved all of Martini’s puzzles in this book.