Carlo d'Ordonez

Carlo d'Ordonez (Carlo d'Ordoñez." [A. Peter Brown, "Ordonez [Ordoñez, Ordonitz, Ordonetz] , Carlo d' [Karl von] " in "The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians", ed. Stanley Sadie. New York: Macmillan Publishers Limited (1980): 13 702 - 703. "His surname (never apparently spelt with a tilde in 18th-century documents) is probably from his mother, who may have gone to Vienna as a member of the court of Charles VI."] , Karl von Ordonetz) (April 19, 1734 - September 16, 1786) Austrian violinist and composer.

Born in Vienna, Ordonez was a government bureaucrat and one of the founding members of the Tonkünstler-Sozietät and a Masonic lodge, and some of his music was conducted by Joseph Haydn. Not much is known about Ordonez' life because a 1927 fire at the Justizpalast probably destroyed many documents that could've been useful to musicologists interested in him. [A. Peter Brown, Introduction to Carlo d'Ordonez, "The Symphony Series B Volume IV: Carlo d'Ordonez: Seven Symphonies", ed. A. Peter Brown & Peter M. Alexander. New York: Garland Publishing (1979): ix]

His opus 1 string quartets are credited as containing "some of the most sophisticated pre-19th-century techniques of cyclic unification." [Brown, ibid.] His orchestral music gives greater prominence to the viola section than most of his contemporaries. Ordonez' music includes two stage works, a cantata, at least 70 symphonies, a violin concerto, various chamber music.

See also list of compositions by Carlo d'Ordonez.

References