Marianna Martines

Marianna Martines, also Marianne von Martinez (4 May 1744 – 13 December 1812), was an Austrian composer, pianist, and singer of the Classical period, based in Vienna. Early life Marianna Martines’s paternal grandfather was a Spanish soldier who had settled in Naples. Her father, Nicolo Martines, grew up there and for a time pursued a career as a soldier. He later changed careers, serving in Vienna as Maestro di Camera (major-domo) at the papal nuncio; that is, the Pope’s embassy to the Austrian Empire. For service to the Empire, Marianna’s brother Joseph in 1774 acquired a patent of nobility, hence the “von” in the family surname. In his youth in Italy, Nicolo had befriended the poet Pietro Trapassi, who wrote under the name Metastasio. The latter had risen in eminence, to the point that in 1730 he was called to Vienna to serve as the Poet Laureate of the Empire. Metastasio resided with the Martines family for the entire rest of his life (from about 1734 to 1782). His presence would prove crucial to Marianne’s career. The Martines family lived in an apartment in a large building on the Michaelerplatz in Vienna, “a stately building still standing in the Kohlmarkt”, the so-called “Al