Agostino Steffani

Agostino Steffani (25 July 1654 – 12 February 1728) was an Italian ecclesiastic, diplomat and composer. Steffani was born at Castelfranco Veneto. At a very early age he was admitted as a chorister at San Marco, Venice. In 1667 the beauty of his voice attracted the attention of Count Georg Ignaz von Tattenbach, by whom he was taken to Munich, where his education was completed at the expense of Ferdinand Maria, Elector of Bavaria, who appointed him Churfürstlicher Kammer- und Hofmusikus and granted him a liberal salary. After receiving instruction from Johann Kaspar Kerll, in whose charge he lived, 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...