A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Bonno, Giuseppe

BONNO or BONO, Giuseppe, son of one of the imperial running footmen, born at Vienna 1710. Studied composition at Naples at the Emperor's cost, and in 1738 was taken into the Imperial Hof-kapelle as Hof-scholar, from which he rose to be Hof-compositeur (1739), and, on Gassmann's death, Hof-kapellmeister (1774). He was essentially a court-musician. His oratorios were executed after Lent at the court chapel, and his 'festi teatrali,' or occasional cantatas, were mostly performed by archduchesses before their imperial parents. Bonno was for many years vice-president of the Ton-künstler Societät, and the society executed his oratorio of 'Il Giuseppe ricognosciuto.' His Scores are preserved in the Imperial Library and the Musik-Verein at Vienna, and they show a very moderate amount of invention, sufficient to meet the wants of the time and the society in which he lived, but no more. He must however have had some qualities to make up for these defects, for Mozart (writing April 11, 1781, of the performances of one of his symphonies under Bonno's direction) calls him 'der alte ehrliche brave Mann.' He died April 15, 1788. A fine Amen by him, in the grand Italian style, is engraved in the Fitzwilliam music.

[ C. F. P. ]