Poglietti, Alessandro

-1683

Seventeenth Century composer of program music, organist of St. Steven's chapel, Vienna, from 1661 to his death, which occurred during the Turkish invasion in 1683. Nothing else has yet been found about his career. His name was formerly thought to be Polietti and he is sometimes considered of German birth, but he was probably an Italian of the Venetian School, as his works attest. His compositions, chiefly for the organ and clavier, have, for the most part, remained in manuscript. His best known work is twelve ricerari for the organ, strikingly similar to Bach's fugues. Of his clavier music four suites have been published. Certain movements of these suites are descriptive, imitating the cackling of a hen, the crowing of a cock, and the song of a nightingale. Other numbers bear such titles as the Bohemian Bagpipes, Dutch Flageolet, Hungarian Fiddles, and Juggler's Rope-dance. Three of these suites have been published recently in the Denkmaler der Tonkünst in Oesterreich.