Giovanni Battista Bassani

Giovanni Battista Bassani was an Italian composer, violinist, and organist.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article on Giovanni Battista Bassani.

From the period sources

Giovanni Battista Bassani, an Italian composer and violinist, was born in Padua around 1657 and later died in Ferrara in 1716. He held significant musical posts, serving as maestro di cappella of Bologna Cathedral and, from 1685, holding the same position at Ferrara, according to the Cyclopedia of Music and Musicians (1888). Bassani was also an active member of musical societies, becoming ‘principe’ of the Accademia dei Filarmonici of Bologna in 1682, and an organist of the Accademia della Morte at Ferrara as early as 1677, as noted in Grove’s Dictionary (1904). He was an excellent violinist and a prolific composer whose works were held in high esteem, as stated in the Dictionary of Music (1896, 1908). Notably, the celebrated violinist Arcangelo Corelli is generally believed to have been his pupil, a fact mentioned across several sources including A Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (1900) and Grove’s Dictionary (1904). Bassani’s music, which included six operas, thirty-one masses, cantatas, motets, and sonatas, was characterized by “extreme delicacy in the management of pathetic effects, careful construction, and uniform religious feeling,” according to Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (1886). English composer James Kent notably borrowed “freely from Italian composers, without acknowledgment,” taking the chorus “Thy righteousness” from Bassani’s Magnificat in G minor and the “Hallelujahs” from his “Alma Mater” “note for note,” as detailed in A History of English Cathedral Music (1908) and Grove’s Dictionary (1906).