{{Short description|English Baroque composer (c.1665–1697)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} '''John Ravenscroft''' (c. 1665 – 12 October 1697), also known as '''Giovanni Ravenscroft''' and '''Giovanni Rederi''', was an English violinist and composer of the Baroque era, who moved to Rome. He was possibly a pupil of Arcangelo Corelli, by whom he was strongly influenced, and around the middle of the 18th century some of Ravenscroft's trio sonatas were misattributed to Corelli. He is not to be confused with the English wait John Ravenscroft (fl. c. 1730).

==Biography== Ravenscroft was born c. 1665,<ref name=Barbieri_2012>Barbieri and Talbot (2012), abstract</ref> in London.<ref name=Barbieri_2011>Barbieri (2011), abstract</ref> He moved to Rome, where in 1695 he published his Opus&nbsp;1 under the name "Giovanni Ravenscroft, alias Rederi, Inglese".<ref name=Newman>Newman (1957), p. 369</ref>

He died in Rome on 12 October 1697, leaving a collection of 5 violins and 44 paintings.<ref name=Barbieri_2011/>

==Works== Opus&nbsp;1 consisted of 12 church trio sonatas. A surviving manuscript score simply ascribes them to an English pupil of Arcangelo Corelli,<ref name=Newman/> and the influence of Corelli's own sonatas is evident.<ref name=Barbieri_2012/> Around 1730, claiming them to be early works by Corelli,<ref>Rasch (2005), p. 35</ref> the Amsterdam printer Michel-Charles Le Cène published nine of the sonatas from Ravenscroft's Opus&nbsp;1 with a spurious Corelli opus number of 7.<ref name=Newman/> The error was pointed out by John Hawkins in 1776 in his ''General History of the Science and Practice of Music'': {{blockquote|In short, these Sonatas, in the title-page whereof the reader is told that they are believed to have been composed by Arcangelo Corelli before his other works, are no other than nine of twelve Sonatas for two violins and a bass, composed by a countryman of ours resident in Italy, and which were published with this title, ''Sonate a tre, doi Violini, [e] Violone, o Arcileuto col Basso per l'Organo. Dedicate all' Altezza Serenissima di Ferdinando III. Gran Prencipe di Toscana. Da Giovanni Ravenscroft, alias Rederi, Inglese, Opera Prima. In Roma, per il Mascardi, 1695.''<ref>Hawkins (1853), p. 675 (footnote)</ref> [italics added]}}

Ravenscroft's Opus&nbsp;2 was published posthumously in London in 1708. It consisted of 6 chamber trio sonatas, of which the last was a chaconne.<ref name=Baron>Baron (1998), pp. 113–14</ref>

==See also== *Robert Valentine (composer), Ravenscroft's English contemporary who also moved to Rome.<ref name=Baron/>

==Notes== {{reflist|30em}}

==References== *{{cite journal |last1=Barbieri |first1=Patrizio |year=2011 |title=John Ravenscroft and Bernardo Pasquini: The Art Collections and Instruments of Two Musicians in Late-Baroque Rome |journal=Music in Art: International Journal for Music Iconography |volume=36 |publisher=Research Center for Music Iconography, CUNY |url=http://rcmi.gc.cuny.edu/parent-page-for-pages-not-shown-in-menu/music-in-art-international-journal-for-music-iconography-xxxvi-2011/ |access-date=15 February 2013}} *{{cite journal |last1=Barbieri |first1=Patrizio |last2=Talbot |first2=Michael |date=January 2012 |title=A Gentleman in Exile: Life and Background of the Composer John Ravenscroft |journal=Early Music History |volume=31 |pages=3–35 |publisher=Cambridge University Press | doi=10.1017/S0261127912000034 |s2cid=193181708 |url=http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=8660496 |access-date=15 February 2013|url-access=subscription }} *{{cite book |title=Intimate Music: A History of the Idea of Chamber Music |last=Baron |first=John H. |year=1998 |publisher=Pendragon Press |isbn=1-57647-100-4 }} *{{cite book |title=A General History of the Science and Practice of Music |author-link=John Hawkins (author)|last=Hawkins |first=John |volume=2 |year=1853 |publisher=Novello |location=London }} *{{cite journal |last1=Newman |first1=William S |year=1957 |title=Ravenscroft and Corelli |journal=Music and Letters |volume=38 |issue=4 |pages=369–70 |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/ml/XXXVIII.4.369 }} *{{cite book |title=Music Publishing in Europe 1600–1900: Concepts and Issues Bibliography |editor1-last=Rasch |editor1-first=Rudolf |chapter=Basic Concepts |last=Rasch |first=Rudolf |year=2005 |publisher=Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag |location=Berlin |isbn=978-383050390-3 |pages=13–46 }}

==External links== *{{IMSLP|id=Ravenscroft, John|cname=John Ravenscroft}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ravenscroft, John}} Category:1660s births Category:1697 deaths Category:English Baroque composers Category:English classical violinists Category:English emigrants to Italy Category:Immigrants to the Papal States Category:English male violinists Category:17th-century English classical composers Category:Composers from London Category:Composers from Rome Category:English male classical composers Category:English male classical violinists Category:17th-century English male musicians