Year 1697 (MDCXCVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Friday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar.
Giovanni Benedetto Platti (born possibly 9 July 1697 (according to other sources 1690, 1692, 1700) in Padua, belonging to Venice at the time; † 11 January 1763 in Würzburg) was an Italian composer.
Platti learnt music in Italy (mostly singing, the oboe and the violin). Whilst he was still in Italy (until 1722), he also learnt to play the recently invented fortepiano and composed sonatas specially dedicated to it.
In 1722, he was called to Würzburg to work for the prince-bishop of Bamberg and Würzburg, Johann Philipp Franz von Schönborn. There he married Theresia Langprückner, a soprano singer with whom he had eight children. Platti spent the rest of his life in Würzburg, working as a singer, instrument virtuoso and composer.
Platti is said to have composed several oratorios, none of which were recovered. Only part of his work was edited:
Nicolaus Bruhns (Nikolaus, Nicholas) (late 1665 – 29 March 1697) was a German organist, violinist, and composer. He was one of the most prominent organists and composers of his generation.
Bruhns was born in Schwabstedt, a small settlement near Husum. He came from a family of musicians and composers. His grandfather, Paul (died 1655), worked as lutenist in Lübeck. His three sons all chose musical careers; Bruhns' father, also named Paul (1640–c. 1689), became organist at Schwabstedt, possibly after studying with Franz Tunder. Nicolaus was apparently a child prodigy: according to Ernst Ludwig Gerber, he could play the organ and compose competent works for keyboard and voice already at an early age. He probably received his first music lessons from his father.
At age sixteen, Bruhns, together with his younger brother Georg, was sent to Lübeck to live with his uncle Peter, who would teach Bruhns the violin and the viola da gamba. The two brothers also studied the organ and composition, Georg under Bernhard Olffen, organist of St. Aegidien, and Nicolaus under Dieterich Buxtehude. The latter, one of the best composers of his time, was so impressed with Bruhns' talents and progress that he considered him his best pupil and eventually recommended him for Copenhagen. There Bruhns worked as organist and violinist. On 29 March 1689 he competed for the position of organist of the Stadtkirche in Husum and was unanimously accepted. In a few months he was offered a position at Kiel, but declined when the authorities at Husum increased his salary. Bruhns remained in Husum until his untimely death in 1697, at the age of 31. His only son, Johan Paul, chose a career in theology. Bruhns was succeeded in Husum by his brother Georg.
Henry Purcell ( /ˈpɜrsəl/; 10 September 1659 (?)– 21 November 1695), was an English composer. Although incorporating Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, Purcell's legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music. He is generally considered to be one of the greatest English composers; no other native-born English composer approached his fame until Edward Elgar.
Purcell was born in St Ann's Lane Old Pye Street, Westminster. Henry Purcell Senior, whose older brother Thomas Purcell (d. 1682) was also a musician, was a gentleman of the Chapel Royal and sang at the coronation of King Charles II of England. Henry the elder had three sons: Edward, Henry and Daniel. Daniel Purcell (d. 1717), the youngest of the brothers, was also a prolific composer who wrote the music for much of the final act of The Indian Queen after Henry Purcell's death. Henry Purcell's family lived just a few hundred yards west of Westminster Abbey from the year 1659 and onward.
After his father's death in 1664, Purcell was placed under the guardianship of his uncle who showed him great affection and kindness. Thomas was himself a gentleman of His Majesty's chapel, and arranged for Henry to be admitted as a chorister. Henry studied first under Captain Henry Cooke (d. 1672),Master of the Children, and afterwards under Pelham Humfrey (d. 1674), Cooke's successor. Henry was a chorister in the Chapel Royal until his voice broke in 1673, when he became assistant to the organ-builder John Hingston, who held the post of keeper of wind instruments to the King.