Orazio Vecchi (6 December 1550 (baptized) in
Modena – 19 February 1605) was an Italian composer of the late
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...
. He is most famous for his
madrigal comedies, particularly ''
L'Amfiparnaso
''L'Amfiparnaso'' is a madrigal comedy by composer Orazio Vecchi. It was published in Venice in 1597.
Composition history
Madrigal comedy, or Commedia harmonica (as known in the 16th century Italian vernacular) was a genre that flourished br ...
''.
Life
He was born in
Modena, and studied with
Salvatore Essenga, a
Servite
The Servite Order, officially known as the Order of Servants of Mary ( la, Ordo Servorum Beatae Mariae Virginis; abbreviation: OSM), is one of the five original Catholic mendicant orders. It includes several branches of friars (priests and brothe ...
monk there. In addition he prepared for holy orders with early education at the
Benedictine
, image = Medalla San Benito.PNG
, caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal
, abbreviation = OSB
, formation =
, motto = (English: 'Pray and Work')
, foun ...
monastery, and took holy orders sometime before 1577.
By the end of the 1570s he was well-connected with the composers of the
Venetian school (for example
Claudio Merulo
Claudio Merulo (; 8 April 1533 – 4 May 1604) was an Italian composer, publisher and organist of the late Renaissance period, most famous for his innovative keyboard music and his ensemble music composed in the Venetian polychoral style. He wa ...
and
Giovanni Gabrieli
Giovanni Gabrieli (c. 1554/1557 – 12 August 1612) was an Italian composer and organist. He was one of the most influential musicians of his time, and represents the culmination of the style of the Venetian School, at the time of the shift f ...
) since he collaborated with them in writing a
sestina
A sestina (, from ''sesto'', sixth; Old Occitan: ''cledisat'' ; also known as ''sestine'', ''sextine'', ''sextain'') is a fixed verse form consisting of six stanzas of six lines each, normally followed by a three-line envoi. The words that end ...
for a ducal marriage. During this period he accompanied Count
Baldassare Rangoni on his travels, going to
Bergamo and
Brescia
Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo ...
.
He was ''maestro di cappella'' (director of music) at the
Salò
Salò (; la, Salodium) is a town and ''comune'' in the Province of Brescia in the region of Lombardy (northern Italy) on the banks of Lake Garda, on which it has the longest promenade. The city was the seat of government of the Italian Socia ...
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
Antonio Allegri da Correggio (August 1489 – 5 March 1534), usually known as just Correggio (, also , , ), was the foremost painter of the Parma school of the High Italian Renaissance, who was responsible for some of the most vigorous and sens ...
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
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
, Venice,
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...
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.
![Title pages](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/11/Title_pages.jpg)
In 1594 his
madrigal comedy 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 ...
, ''L'Amfiparnaso'', premiered in
Modena and was published in 1597 in a lavishly illustrated edition.
italianopera.org
/ref> That same year he visited Venice, where he published a collection of canzonette
In music, a canzonetta (; pl. canzonette, canzonetti or canzonettas) is a popular Italian secular vocal composition that originated around 1560. Earlier versions were somewhat like a madrigal but lighter in style—but by the 18th century, especial ...
. 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.
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
Jacopo Peri (20 August 156112 August 1633), known under the pseudonym Il Zazzerino, was an Italian composer and singer of the transitional period between the Renaissance and Baroque styles, and is often called the inventor of opera. He wrote th ...
's opera ''Euridice''. Afterwards he returned to Modena where he continued to serve in the cathedral until his death in 1605.
Music and influence
Vecchi was renowned for his madrigal
A madrigal is a form of secular vocal music most typical of the Renaissance music, Renaissance (15th–16th c.) and early Baroque music, Baroque (1600–1750) periods, although revisited by some later European composers. The Polyphony, polyphoni ...
s, 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
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...
.
In addition, Vecchi published books of canzonette, a lighter alternative to the madrigal, midway in complexity and seriousness between it and the villanella
In music, a villanella (; plural villanelle) is a form of light Italian secular vocal music which originated in Italy just before the middle of the 16th century. It first appeared in Naples, and influenced the later canzonetta, and from there also ...
. He also composed serious madrigals, though not in the quantity of composers like Marenzio
Luca Marenzio (also Marentio; October 18, 1553 or 1554 – August 22, 1599) was an Italian composer and singer of the late Renaissance.
He was one of the most renowned composers of madrigals, and wrote some of the most famous examples of the f ...
, as well as some sacred music. The sacred music in particular shows the influence of the Venetian school, with polychoral
An antiphon (Greek ἀντίφωνον, ἀντί "opposite" and φωνή "voice") is a short chant in Christian ritual, sung as a refrain. The texts of antiphons are the Psalms. Their form was favored by St Ambrose and they feature prominently ...
writing as well as contrasting duple- versus triple-time sections.
References
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.
* Gustave Reese
Gustave Reese ( ; 29 November 1899 – 7 September 1977) was an American musicologist and teacher. Reese is known mainly for his work on medieval and Renaissance music, particularly with his two publications ''Music in the Middle Ages'' (1940) ...
, ''Music in the Renaissance''. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1954.
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vecchi, Orazio
Italian classical composers
Italian opera composers
Male opera composers
Renaissance composers
1550 births
1605 deaths
16th-century Italian composers
Italian male classical composers
Musicians from Modena
16th-century classical composers