Year 1684 (MDCLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar and a leap year starting on Tuesday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar.
Johann Rosenmüller (1619 – September 10, 1684), was a German Baroque composer, who played a part in transmitting Italian musical styles to the north.
Rosenmüller was born in Oelsnitz, near Plauen, Germany. He studied at the University of Leipzig, graduating in 1640. He served as organist of the Nikolaikirche Leipzig from 1651, and had been assured of advancement to cantor. However, in 1655 he was imprisoned in a scandal involving alleged homosexual activities.
Escaping from prison, he fled to Italy, and by 1658 was employed at Saint Mark's in Venice. He composed many vocal works while teaching at an orphanage for girls, (Ospedale della Pietà). The works of Giovanni Legrenzi and Arcangelo Corelli were among his Italian influences and his sacred compositions show the influence of Heinrich Schütz.
In his last years, Rosenmüller returned to Germany with Duke Anton-Ulrich of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, at whose court he served as choir master. He died at Wolfenbüttel on 10 September 1684, and is buried there.
Francesco Durante (31 March 1684 – 30 September 1755) was a Neapolitan composer.
He was born at Frattamaggiore, in the Kingdom of Naples, and at an early age he entered the Conservatorio dei poveri di Gesù Cristo, in Naples, where he received lessons from Gaetano Greco. Later he became a pupil of Alessandro Scarlatti at the Conservatorio di Sant'Onofrio. He is also supposed to have studied under Bernardo Pasquini and Giuseppe Ottavio Pitoni in Rome, but there is no documentary evidence. He is said to have succeeded Scarlatti in 1725 at Sant' Onofrio, and to have remained there until 1742, when he succeeded Porpora as head of the Conservatorio di Santa Maria di Loreto, also in Naples. This post he held for thirteen years, till his death in Naples. He was married three times.
His fame as a teacher was considerable, and Niccolò Jommelli, Giovanni Paisiello, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Niccolò Piccinni and Leonardo Vinci were amongst his pupils. As a teacher, he insisted on the unreasoning observance of rules, differing thus from Scarlatti, who treated all his pupils as individuals. A complete collection of Durante's works, consisting almost exclusively of sacred music, was presented by Selvaggi, a Neapolitan art collector, to the Paris library. A catalogue may be found in Fétis's Biographie universelle. The imperial library of Vienna also preserves a valuable collection of Durante's manuscripts. Two requiems, several masses (one of which, a most original work, is the Pastoral Mass for four voices) and the Lamentations of the prophet Jeremiah are amongst his most important settings.
Francesco Onofrio Manfredini (22 June 1684 – 6 October 1762) was an Italian Baroque composer, violinist, and church musician.
He was born at Pistoia to a trombonist. He studied violin with Giuseppe Torelli in Bologna, then a part of the Papal States, a leading figure in the development of the concerto grosso. He also took instruction in composition from Giacomo Antonio Perti, maestro di capella of the Basilica of San Petronio from 1696 when the orchestra was temporarily disbanded.
Although he composed oratorios, only his secular works remain in the repertoire. A contemporary of Johann Sebastian Bach and Antonio Vivaldi; his extant work shows the influence of the latter.
He became a violinist, circa 1700, in the orchestra of the Church of San Spirito in Ferrara. In 1704, however, he returned to Bologna, employed again in the re-formed orchestra of San Petronio. He became a member of the Accademia Filarmonica in the same year he published his first compositions, a set of twelve chamber sonati he named Concertini per camera, Op. 1. In 1709, he also published Sinfonie da chiesa, Op. 2, ostensibly chamber pieces, they, in fact, complemented the earlier chamber sonati.