Marianna Martines

Marianna wrote the Sinfonia in C Major in 1770 (the year Beethoven was born) at age 26. It has been a delight to get to know more about Marianna and her fabulous compositions this year.

Marianna Martines left a significant amount of music including over 200 secular vocal works, sacred vocal works, three sonatas for keyboard, three concertos for keyboard, and the Sinfonia in C Major for orchestra.

Marianna spent her entire career in Vienna. Born May 4, 1744 to Nicolò and Maria Theresia di Martines, to was raised in the Michaelerhaus and lived in a six-room apartment on the third floor (a middle floor apartment where members of the middle class resided) above the Princess Maria Octavia Esterházy.

Viennese court poet Pietro Metastasio lived with the Martines family and was responsible for educating the Martines children in the languages of Italian, French, English, and in music. It was clear that Marianna possessed considerable talent in music. Auspiciously, Metastasio was aware of a very bright, and then unknown, keyboard instructor - Joseph Haydn, who happened to live in the attic room of Michaelerhaus. Pietro arranged free board for Haydn in the exchange of daily lessons for Marianna for three years.

As a young woman, Marianna was admired for her musical talent and was invited to perform in the finest homes in Vienna. Charles Burney came to Vienna in 1772, where he was introduced to Martines and Metastasio. Burney’s description of Martines on her singing, keyboard and compositional abilities are flattering and most interesting:

Sunday 6th. [With Metastasio] The discourse then became general and miscellaneous, till the arrival of a young lady, who was received by the whole company with great respect. She was well dressed, and had a very elegant appearance…. After the high encomiums bestowed by the Abbate Taruffi on the talents of this young lady, I was very desirous of hearing and conversing with her; and Metastasio was soon so obliging as to propose her sitting down to the harpsichord, which she immediately did, in a graceful manner, without the parade of diffidence, or the trouble of importunity. Her performance indeed surpassed all that I had been made to expect. She sung two airs of her own composition, to words, of Metastasio, which she accompanied on the harpsichord, in a very judicious and masterly manner; and, in playing the ritornels, I could discover a very brilliant finger….
Her voice and manner of singing, both delighted and astonished me! I can readily subscribe to what Metastasio says, that it is a style of singing which no longer subsists elsewhere, as it requires too much pains and patience for modern professors.
(Women Composers Music Through the Ages, p. 70)

It is interesting to think that when Martines was 29 years old, she met Mozart for the first time. Singer Michael Kelly wrote that “Martines was a favorite of Mozart and witnessed that Mozart was an almost constant attendant at her weekly musical parties. Kelly further stated that he had heard Mozart play duets of his own composition on the pianoforte with Martines.” (Women Composers Music Through the Ages, p. 70)

Following the death of her father, Martines moved from the Michaelerhaus and lived with her brother Joseph and sister Antonia. She continued her dedication to the arts. Marianna established a singing school and continued to arranged musical events open to all in the musical society until her death at age 68 from tuberculosis.

For more information on Marianna please see:

A Modern Reveal - Marianna Martines

Encyclopedia of World Biography - Marianna Martines

Marianna Martines - A Woman Composer in the Vienna of Mozart and Haydn

by Irving Godt and Edited by John A. Rice