Orazio Vecchi (December 6, 1550 (baptized) – February 19, 1605) was an Italian composer of the late Renaissance. He is most famous for his madrigal comedies, particularly L'Amfiparnaso. December 6 is the 340th day of the year (341st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Events February 7 - Julius III becomes Pope. ... February 19 is the 50th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1605 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar). ... Renaissance music is European music written during the Renaissance, approximately 1400 to 1600. ... Madrigal comedy is a term for a kind of entertainment music of the late 16th century in Italy, in which groups of related, generally a cappella madrigals were sung consecutively, generally telling a story, and sometimes having a loose dramatic plot. ...

Life

He was born in Modena, and studied with Salvatore Essenga, a Servite monk there. In addition he prepared for holy orders with early education at the Benedictine monastery, and took holy orders sometime before 1577. Modena (Mòdna in Modenese dialect) is a city and a province on the south side of the Po valley, in Emilia-Romagna, Italy. ... The Servite Friars or Servants of Mary are one of the five original mendicant orders. ... Munichs city symbol celebrates its founding by Benedictine monks—the origin of its name A Benedictine is a person who follows the Rule of St Benedict. ... Events March 17 - formation of the Cathay Company to send Martin Frobisher back to the New World for more gold May 28 - Publication of the Bergen Book, better known as the Solid Declaration of the Formula of Concord, one of the Lutheran confessional writings. ...

By the end of the 1570s he was well-connected with the composers of the Venetian school (for example Claudio Merulo and Giovanni Gabrieli) since he collaborated with them in writing a sestina for a ducal marriage. During this period he accompanied Count Baldassare Rangoni on his travels, going to Bergamo and Brescia. Significant Events and Trends Transition from the Muromachi to the Azuchi-Momoyama period in Japan Categories: 1570s ... In music history, the Venetian School is a term used to describe the composers working in Venice from about 1550 to around 1610; it also describes the music they produced. ... Claudio Merulo (Merlotti, Merulus, also Claudio da Correggio) (April 8, 1533 – May 4, 1604) was an Italian composer, publisher and organist of the late Renaissance, famous for his innovative keyboard music and his ensemble music in the Venetian polychoral style. ... Giovanni Gabrieli Giovanni Gabrieli (c. ... The sestina is a highly structured form of poetry, invented by the Provençal troubadour Arnaut Daniel the late 12th century. ... Small street (via della Noca) leading to città alta. ... For the Italian administrative area, see Province of Brescia. ...

He was maestro di cappella (director of music) at the Salò cathedral between 1581 and 1584. Following this, he was the choirmaster at the cathedral of Reggio Emilia, until 1586. In that year he moved to Correggio where he was appointed canon of the cathedral there; he composed copiously during his time there, though he felt isolated from the major musical centers of Italy such as Rome, Venice, Florence and Ferrara. Eventually he attempted to correct this by moving back to Modena, where he attained the rank of mansionario (a priest who also had charge of the choir). He seems to have had considerable financial difficulties during this time, which he alluded to in his letters, and occasionally in his compositions. Salo (Italian: Salò) is a small town in the Province of Brescia in the region of Lombardy in northern Italy on the banks of Lake Garda. ... Events January 16 - English Parliament outlaws Roman Catholicism April 4 - Francis Drake completes a circumnavigation of the world and is knighted by Elizabeth I. July 26 - The Northern Netherlands proclaim their independence from Spain in the Oath of Abjuration. ... 1584 was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar or a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. ... Country Italy Region Emilia-Romagna Province Reggio Emilia (RE) Mayor Graziano Delrio (from July 1, 2004) Elevation 58 m Area 231 km² Population  - Total 141,383  - Density 612/km² Time zone CET, UTC+1 Coordinates Gentilic Reggiani Dialing code 0522 Postal code 42100 Frazioni see list Patron San Prospero  - Day... Correggio is the name of a town in Italy and of a famous painter who was born there. ... Nickname: Motto: SPQR: Senatus Populusque Romanus Location of the city of Rome (yellow) within the Province of Rome (red) and region of Lazio (grey) Coordinates: Region Lazio Province Province of Rome Founded 21 April 753 BC Government  - Mayor Walter Veltroni Area  - City 1,285 km²  (580 sq mi)  - Urban 5... Florence (Italian: ) is the capital city of the region of Tuscany, Italy. ... Ferrara is a city in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, capital city of the province of Ferrara. ...

In 1597 he visited Venice, where he published a collection of canzonette. In addition he published a huge amount of other music that same year, evidently his complete production of the last 16 years in Correggio and the other towns. One of the pieces he published was L'Amfiparnaso, which is his best-known composition. In music, a canzonetta (pl. ...

Duke Cesare d'Este hired Vecchi in 1598 to be his maestro di corte, i.e. the master of music at his court, and Vecchi accompanied him to Rome and Florence in 1600; while in Florence he heard Jacopo Peri's opera Euridice. Afterwards he returned to Modena where he continued to serve in the cathedral until his death in 1605. Jacopo Peri (August 20, 1561 – August 12, 1633) was an Italian composer and singer, often called the inventor of opera. ...

Music and influence

Vecchi was renowned for his madrigals, especially his grouping of them together in a new form called the "madrigal comedy." This was a light, popular, and dramatic entertainment form of the late 16th century, sometimes regarded as one of the precursors to opera. A madrigal is a setting for two or more voices of a secular text, often in Italian. ... (15th century - 16th century - 17th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 16th century was that century which lasted from 1501 to 1600. ... The Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Italy. ...

In addition, he published books of canzonette, a lighter alternative to the madrigal, midway in complexity and seriousness between it and the villanella. He also composed serious madrigals, though not in the quantity of composers like Marenzio, as well as some sacred music. The sacred music in particular shows the influence of the Venetian school, with polychoral writing as well as contrasting duple- versus triple-time sections. In music, a villanella (pl. ... Luca Marenzio (1553? - August 22, 1599) was an Italian composer of the late Renaissance. ... In music history, the Venetian School is a term used to describe the composers working in Venice from about 1550 to around 1610; it also describes the music they produced. ... This article is about the musical term. ... Particularly, this article is not about Hymn meters, as often found on hymn tunes Meter (UK spelling: metre) is the measurement of a musical line into measures of stressed and unstressed beats, indicated in Western music notation by a symbol called a time signature. ...

External links

• Free scores by Orazio Vecchi in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• Free scores by Orazio Vecchi in the Werner Icking Music Archive

The Choral Public Domain Library (CPDL) is a sheet music archive which focuses on choral and vocal music in the public domain. ... The Werner Icking Music Archive, often abbreviated WIMA, is a web archive of public domain sheet music. ...

References and further reading

• Article "Orazio Vecchi," in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. ISBN 1-56159-174-2
• Gustave Reese, Music in the Renaissance. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1954. ISBN 0-393-09530-4