Giuseppe Felice Tosi (28 February 1619 – before 14 December 1693) was an Italian

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

and

organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ (music), organ. An organist may play organ repertoire, solo organ works, play with an musical ensemble, ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumentalist, instrumental ...

, and the father of

Pier Francesco Tosi Pier Francesco Tosi (c. 16531732) was a castrato singer, composer, and writer on music. His ''Opinoni de' cantori antichi e moderni...'' was the first full-length treatise on singing and provides a unique glimpse into the technical and social asp ...

, also a successful composer. Tosi was born and died at

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

. He started out as a singer and only started composing in his late fifties. He was among the paid musicians in

San Petronio The Basilica of San Petronio is a minor basilica and church of the Archdiocese of Bologna located in Bologna, Emilia Romagna, northern Italy. It dominates Piazza Maggiore. The basilica is dedicated to the patron saint of the city, Saint Petronius ...

, from 1636 to 1641, which possibly means that he received his musical education there. He was a founding member of the Bolognese Accademia Filarmonica in 1666 and was elected its conductor in 1679. His first musical work was the

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

''Il Celindo'' which, although composed in 1674, premiered in 1677. He composed a ''Dixit Dominus'' for the annual celebration of the academy in San Giovanni in Monte on 4 July 1675. From 1680 to 1683 he was ''maestro di cappella'' of the Accademia della Morte,

Ferrara Ferrara (, ; egl, Fràra ) is a city and ''comune'' in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital of the Province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream ...

, and in 1682–1683 of

Ferrara Cathedral Ferrara Cathedral ( it, Basilica Cattedrale di San Giorgio, ''Duomo di Ferrara'') is a Roman Catholic cathedral and minor basilica in Ferrara, Northern Italy. Dedicated to Saint George, the patron saint of the city, it is the seat of the Archb ...

as well. In 1686 he served temporarily as ''maestro di cappella'' of San Giovanni in Monte, Bologna. From 7 July 1692 until early December 1693 he was second organist at San Petronio. In addition to several operas, Tosi composed sacred music in the typical late 17th-century Bolognese style.

Sources

* Thomas Walker/Marc Vanscheeuwijck. The ''

New Grove Dictionary of Opera ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' is an encyclopedia of opera, considered to be one of the best general reference sources on the subject. It is the largest work on opera in English, and in its printed form, amounts to 5,448 pages in four volu ...

'', edited by Stanley Sadie (1992). and {{DEFAULTSORT:Tosi, Giuseppe Felice 1619 births 1693 deaths Italian Baroque composers Italian male classical composers Italian opera composers Male opera composers 17th-century Italian composers 17th-century male musicians