Giovanni Antonio Leoni was a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

violinist and composer in the 17th century. Little is known about Leoni's life besides that he was an active composer in Rome. The only major work by Leoni that is preserved is a publication in 1652 titled ''Sonate di violino a voce sola ... Libro primo Opera terza'', a score with a violin part. Leoni explains in the preface of the piece that he previously had composed many sonatas and symphonias, and it is dedicated to cardinal

Giovanni Battista Maria Pallotta Giovanni Battista Maria Pallotta (also Palotta or Palotto) (23 January, 1594 – 22 January, 1668) was an Italian Catholic Cardinal. Early life Pallotta was born in 1594 in Caldarola to a well respected family. He was the nephew of Cardinal Gio ...

. The work is a collection of thirty one sonatas for violin and ''

basso continuo Basso continuo parts, almost universal in the Baroque era (1600–1750), provided the harmonic structure of the music by supplying a bassline and a chord progression. The phrase is often shortened to continuo, and the instrumentalists playing th ...

'', the first known collection to be entirely dedicated to solo violin. Leoni's work as a musician is first evidenced in 1634, when he was paid to play violin for a church.

References

Italian male classical composers Italian classical violinists 17th-century Italian composers Year of birth missing Year of death missing Male classical violinists 17th-century male musicians {{Italy-composer-stub