GIUSEPPE OTTAVIO

PITONI (1657-1743)  , Italian musical composer, was born at Rieti on the 18th of March 1657 . He came to Rome as a boy and sang in the choir of SS Apostoli . Foggia gave him instructions in counterpoint, and he became maestro di Cappella, first at Terra di Rotondo and later (1673) at Assisi . In 1676 he went to Rieti, and in 1677 to Rome, where he held various appointments, dying on the 1st of February 1743 as maestro di Cappella at St Marco, where he was buried . Pitoni appears to have devoted himself exclusively to church music, and although he did not disdain the modern style with instrumental accompaniment, he is best known by his Masses and other works in the manner of Palestrina . Several volumes of his autograph composition are in the Santini Library at Ibliinster .