Giovanni Battista Fontana

Giovanni Battista Fontana (c. 1571, Brescia, Italy – c. 1630, Padova, Italy) was an Italian Baroque composer and violinist.

He worked in Brescia, Rome, Padova. He died in 1630 during a plague.

Nearly all information preserved about him comes from the preface of his posthumously published 18 (sometimes incorrectly stated 12) sonatas (Sonate a 1.2.3. per il violino, o cornetto, fagotto, chitarone, violoncino o simile altro istromento, Venice, 1641). They are among the earliest sonatas of this form, consisting of 6 sonatas for solo violin/cornetto with continuo and 12 sonatas for various instruments.

External links

• Free scores by Giovanni Battista Fontana (composer) in the International Music Score Library Project
• Free scores by Giovanni Battista Fontana (composer) in the Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA)
• Sheet music at freescores.com
• Biography
• Giovanni Battista Fontana: Sonatas for one, two, and three parts with basso continuo by Thomas D. Dunn at Google Book
• Two versions of Sonata XIII at youtube.com [1] [2]