Giovanni Paolo Colonna

Born at Bologna, 1637; died in the same city, 28 November, 1695. After studying under Agostino Fillipucci in his native city, Antonio Abbatini and Oragio Benevoli in Rome, Colonna became organist at the church of S. Apollinaris in the latter city. In 1659 he accepted the post of choir-master at the church of S. Petronio in Bologna. He not only was a charter member of the Accademia Filarmonica but founded a school of his own which has produced distinguished musicians, among them Giovanni Maria Buononcini. Colonna was one of the most noted church composers of the seventeenth century and has left a large number of works (masses, psalms, motets, litanies, antiphons, requiems, lamentations) for from one to eight voices with either organ or orchestra accompaniment. These compositions are but seldom performed at present, both on account of their not having the form or the spirit of the great period of church music, the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and because of the elaborate apparatus required for their performance.