A many-sided musician: the life of Francesco Barsanti (c.1690–1775) revisited

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Much of Francesco Maria Barsanti’s music is known and admired today, but generally only in isolated fragments: the sonatas for wind instruments; the concerti grossi with horns and timpani; the motets; the arrangements of Scottish national airs. By comparison, the biographical picture is more unified, thanks to an account by Sir John Hawkins (1776), which appears to be based on information supplied by the composer himself — but not necessarily perfectly remembered or transmitted with total accuracy. Most accounts since Hawkins have added little reliable new information, but some important steps forward have been made, notably in biographical articles by Walter Bergmann (1961) and Ian G. Sharman (1989). The present article aims to continue that process.