The Italian singer and composer Giovanni Felice Sances was born in Rome and worked also in Bologna and Venice. He then entered the imperial musical establishment in Vienna, continuing there as Kapellmeister from 1649 until his death 30 years later.

Vocal Music

Sances, in addition to his six operas, three of which are lost, wrote a series of sepolcri: oratorios intended, in Vienna, for dramatic performance in Holy Week. He composed a quantity of liturgical music, including nearly 60 Mass settings and a number of secular cantatas, of which one of the finest is said to be the lover’s complaint Cantada sopra il passacaglio, based on the conventional, descending bass figure of the Baroque form.