The Music Plays On — Marianna Martines
Marianna Martines is an intriguing figure. She was a gifted keyboard soloist, a singer whose voice was frequently heard at court, and a composer of renown throughout Europe. Yet, she and her works are barely known today.
Martines was born in Vienna in 1744 to a family of influence. Her father, Nicolo Martines was the major domo (master of ceremonies) for the Papal embassy in Vienna. Her father, while he was living in Naples, had befriended the poet, Metastasio, who in 1730 became the Poet Laureate for the Habsburg Empire. From 1734 until his death in 1782, he lived with the Martines family and he would prove to be an enormous influence on Marianna’s development and education.
The Martines family lived in a prominent building that still stands today on the Michaelerplatz. As was common then, the bottom floor were reserved for nobility, in this case the Dowager Princess of the Estaházy, and the third floor was where the Martines’s lived, as well as the famous composer and singing teacher, Nicola Porpora. In the top floor attic, lived the young Joseph Haydn, trying to make a living as a freelance musician.
