Giovanni Mossi

Giovanni Mossi
(b ?Rome, c1680; d Rome, 1742). Italian composer and violinist. In the frontispieces of his first five collections he is referred to as Roman.

This is probably true, since three other members of the family are known to have been in Rome between the 1670s and the 1730s: his father, Bartolomeo, and brother Giuseppe (both viola players), and Gaetano Mossi, a tenor at the papal chapel. This suggests that it was Bartolomeo who introduced Giovanni into the musical circles of Rome, where he was active as a violinist from 1694. His career there can be divided into three periods. Until 1715 he appeared regularly as an instrumentalist at the private courts of cardinals and princes, or in ecclesiastical cappelle. The second period, 1716–33, is marked by an outburst of compositional activity in instrumental genres; his work as a violinist continued as before, but in a span of 15 years he published in Amsterdam his entire catalogue of works: three sets of sonatas and three of concertos. During the third period, from 1733 until his death, he gave up composition and gradually reduced his professional commitments. His only stable position seems to have been as virtuoso at the court of Baldassarre Odescalchi (from 1709 Duke of Bracciano). It has not yet been possible to establish with certainty the duration of the engagement, but it was probably brief: evidence shows that in 1711 he was already in service, but five years later the frontispiece of op.1 made no mention of it. It is not clear what his relations were with Cardinal Wolfgang Hannibal Schrattenbach, Princess Vittoria Altieri Pallavicini and Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, to whom opp.1, 4 and 6 respectively were dedicated.