Marco Scacchi (ca. 1600 – 7 September 1662) was an Italian composer and writer on music. Scacchi was born in

Gallese Gallese is an Italian ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Viterbo, from Viterbo. It was taken by Duke Thrasimund II of Spoleto in 737 or 738, at which time it was essential to communications between Rome and Ravenna and had a large ...

, Lazio. He studied under

Giovanni Francesco Anerio Giovanni Francesco Anerio (7 July 1569 - 11 June 1630) was an Italian composer of the Roman School, of the very late Renaissance and early Baroque eras. He was the younger brother of Felice Anerio. Giovanni's principal importance in music histor ...

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 ...

. He was associated with the court at

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

from 1626, and was '' kapellmeister'' there from 1628 to 1649. His 1643 treatise ''Cribrum musicum'' accused

Paul Siefert Paul Siefert (variants: Syfert, Sivert, Sibert; 23 May 1586 – 6 May 1666) was a German composer and organist associated with the North German school. Biography He was born in Danzig (Gdańsk), Royal Prussia (a fief of the Crown of Poland) to ...

of having poor technique, leading to a war of words which lasted years. He then returned to Italy after falling ill, where he concentrated on writing about music theory. Scacchi believed that each genre of music should have its own unique style, and he devised his own system of classifying works which proved influential on later generations; Angelo Berardi quoted him at length in his 1687 treatise ''Documenti armonici''. Scacchi was a prolific composer, who wrote masses,

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, and sacred concertos. Nearly all of his stage works have been lost. He died in Gallese.

Theoretical works

*''Cribrum musicum ad triticum Siferticum, seu Examinatio succinta psalmorum ...'' Venetiis: Alessandro Vincenti, 1643 *''Lettera per maggiore informatione a chi leggerà il mio 'Cribrum Venice, 1644; lost, survives in two manuscript transcriptions *''Judicium cribri musici'' Warsaw c1649; lost, manuscript transcription in the Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale Giovanni Battista Martini, Bologna *''Breve discorso sopra la musica moderna, di Marco Scacchi romano, maestro di cappella del serenissimo & potentissimo Giovanni Casimiro rè di Polonia & Svetia, ... '' Warszawa: Peter Elert 1649

References

External links

* Italian Baroque composers Italian Baroque 1600s births 1662 deaths Italian male classical composers Italian music critics Italian music theorists 17th-century Italian composers 17th-century Italian writers 17th-century Italian male writers Writers about music 17th-century male musicians {{music-theory-stub