Matteis [Matheis], Nicola (ii) [Nicholas]

Matteis [Matheis], Nicola (ii) [Nicholas]

Michael Tilmouth, revised by Andrew D. McCredie and Neal Zaslaw

https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.18088
Published in print: 20 January 2001
Published online: 2001

(b ?late 1670s; d Vienna, Oct 23, 1737). English violinist and composer, son of Nicola Matteis. That he was
probably born in the late 1670s is suggested by a ‘Balleto for Young Nicola’ in a manuscript volume by his
father that can be dated to about 1682. He received instruction in violin playing from his father, though
Roger North, who had seen him ‘in coats play to his father’s Guittarre’, found his playing effeminate
compared with his father’s virile manner. Towards the close of the century he was very successful as a
performer in London but soon left for Vienna, where he became a violinist at the Habsburg court on 1 July
1700. He married the widow, Susanna Timperley, in the same year. In 1712 he became director of
instrumental music there and for much of his life in Vienna he was also principal violinist of the Hofkapelle
and musical director for court balls. From 1714 one of his principal duties was to compose music for the
ballets in the court operas, following the tradition of Wolfgang Ebner, J.H. Schmelzer and others. This he
continued to do after his retirement in 1730 from active service as a violinist.

The slow movements of Matteis’s violin sonata published in 1704 suggest a mastery of Corelli’s cantabile
style. Some of his other instrumental music was known at Dresden; a violin concerto was performed there
in 1710 by a distinguished group including Antonio Lotti. The bulk of his surviving work, however, consists
of ballet music written for insertion into the opere serie of the Vienna court composers, most notably Fux,
Conti, Ziani, Caldara and Predieri. The ballets generally provide conclusions for each act but occasionally
have a dramatic function within an act. Music of a lighter character is written in short score for treble and
bass only, but on occasions, such as in Costanza e Fortezza, written in collaboration with Fux for the
coronation of Charles VI at Prague, a fuller ensemble is required, including antiphonal brass or chorus with
a four-part string ensemble. French forms and styles predominate among the dances, but exotic or
programmatic elements are conspicuous too. About 20 of the dances are designated ‘aria grotesca’, a type
of dance that involved unusual leaps, movements and gestures, with a predomination of syncopation. The
unity of tonality in Matteis’s ballets is on occasion tempered by the introduction of related or even alien
tonal centres, distinguishing these works from his violin sonatas. As regards instrumentation, he drew
upon the diverse resources of the Habsburg Hofkapelle, sometimes incorporating instruments such as the
cornett and chalumeau; e.g. the ballet music for Caldara’s Ormisda includes a passecaille with a trio for two
flutes and chalumeau. Extravagant figuration in Matteis’s string writing points to the possible influence of
Matteis the elder’s compositions and style of performance.

Works

Music for 59 ballets written between 1714 and 1737 for insertion into ops by Conti, Ziani, Caldara, Lotti, Fux, Bononcini, etc.
(listed in McCredie, 1967)

edn of Costanza e Fortezza (op by Fux with ballet music by Matteis), in DTÖ, xxxiv–xxxv, Jg.xvii (1910/R)

Page 1 of 2
Printed from Grove Music Online. Grove is a registered trademark. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an
individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy).

Subscriber: CONSERVATORIO DI MUSICA DI TORINO; date: 19 November 2023

Matteis [Matheis], Nicola (ii) [Nicholas]

Lo sciocco deluso (ballet), 1729, A-Wn, D-W

Sonata, vn, bc (London, 1704)

Sonata, vn, bc, GB-Lbl

Sonata da camera, 2 vn, bc, D-Dl

Conc., vn, Dl

Bibliography
MoserGV

P. Nettl: ‘An English Musician at the Court of Charles VI in Vienna’, MQ, 28 (1942), 318–28

P.A. Scholes: The Great Dr Burney (London, 1948/R), 1, 17–18

J. Wilson, ed.: Roger North on Music (London, 1959)

P. Keuschnig: Nicola Matteis Junior als Ballettkomponist (diss., U. of Vienna, 1968) [incl. thematic index]

A.D. McCredie: ‘Nicola Matteis the Younger: Caldara’s Collaborator and Ballet Composer in the Service of the Emperor,
Charles VI’, Antonio Caldara: Essays on his Life and Times, ed. B.W. Pritchard (London, 1987), 152–82

N. Zaslaw: ‘The Vanishing Violinist: Nicola Matteis the Younger’, Country Life, 182/12 (1988), 176 only

Page 2 of 2
Printed from Grove Music Online. Grove is a registered trademark. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an
individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy).

Subscriber: CONSERVATORIO DI MUSICA DI TORINO; date: 19 November 2023