# Are there any classical experts around? My search for the music of Anna Maria della Pieta



## Hoopyfrood (May 5, 2022)

Hope this is OK here as it's not about a soundtrack, but I thought there might be some people with some deep knowledge of classical music on these forums who might be able to help satisfy my curiosity. It stems from me learning about Vivaldi's time about the Ospedale della Pietà, an orphanage turned conservatory, where Vivaldi worked teaching mostly female orphans how to make a living through music. Apparently he wrote many of his pieces, including the Four Seasons suite, specifically for them to perform, which I thought was really cool.

Anyway, one of his best students and proteges was Anna Maria della Pieta, a violin virtuoso who stayed at the orphanage as a performer and teacher her whole life and apparently drew in crowds of tourists just to hear her play. Vivaldi wrote a lot of pieces specifically for her to perform, like these. But the wiki page mentions she was a composer as well, and so I really wanted to hear some of her work, but I'm struggling to find anything by her instead of things written by Vivaldi for her.

Part of the problem could be her being an orphan she was given her surname by the orphanage, and was also known as Anna Maria della Violin due to the practice of naming instruments that they were best at, but due to her talent she's apparently also recorded as Anna Maria della Oboe, Cello etc...

I did find this, which is purportedly cadenzas from her notebook, but the comments seem to indicate that nobody knows if she wrote them copied them as part of some school exercise. So it might be a long shot, but does anybody know if there are any works definitely attributed to her?


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## Hoopyfrood (May 7, 2022)

Edward Givens said:


> I noticed some papers linked from her wikipedia page. Maybe in there?
> 
> You might consider contacting A baroque violinist - Monica Huggett maybe, or Andrew Manze. You never know who might be approachable - it's certainly an interesting topic. I could totally believe the candenzas are hers - in the renaissance (more my area) musicians absolutely wrote out their ornaments.
> 
> Good luck


OK thanks, maybe I'll look them up.


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