Baroque Era
1600
Elizabeth I (Eng) dismisses Earl of Essex as governor of Ireland, replacing him with Lord Mountjoy, who begins starving rebels into submission • Spanish force lands at Kinsale, Ireland • English East India Trading Company founded • Maurice of Nassau (Neth) defeats Spanish force at Nieuport • Tokugawa leyasu takes rule of Japan • Philosopher Giordano Bruno (It) is burned for heresy • Physician William Gilbert (Eng) publishes De Magneto, coining the term 'electricity' and describing the magnetic poles • William Shakespeare (Eng) publishes Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night's Dream • Christ Driving the Money Changers from the Temple painting by El Greco •
1601
The Earl of Essex (Eng) attempts rebellion against Elizabeth I and is executed for treason • Astronomer Tycho Brahe dies; Johann Kepler takes charge at Prague observatory • New Poor Law in England makes parishes responsible for providing for the needy
1602
Persia declares war on the Ottoman Empire • Victory by English governor Lord Mountjoy over Spanish-Irish force around Kinsale virtually ends Irish rebellion • Shakespeare (Eng): All’s Well that Ends Well, Troilus and Cressida and Hamlet • Bodleian Library, Oxford, opens
1603
Elizabeth I (Eng) dies; is succeeded by her distant cousin James VI of Scotland as James I of England • Sir Walter Raleigh implicated in a plot to dethrone King James; is imprisoned in Tower of London • Tokugawa leyasu appointed shogun of Japan • Geronimo Fabrizio (It) publishes first accurate description of valves in the veins
1604
James I (Eng) proposes full union of England and Scotland • Peace is restored between England and Spain • Shakespeare (Eng) writes Measure for Measure and Othello • Astronomer Johann Kepler (Ger), in Astronomiae Pars Optica, defines light rays and nature of vision • Lope de Vega (Sp): first volumes of Comedias
Giordano Bruno is burned for heresy (1600)
1600
Italian theorist and composer Giovanni Maria Artusi publishes Delle imperfezioni della moderna musica (On the Imperfections of Modern Music).
He takes particular exception to the liberal use of dissonance, criticising progressive progresses -
Claudio Monteverdi especially - for corrupting traditional musical rules and practices.
September
Claude Le Jeune, prolific French Huguenot composer remembered above all for his chansons, dies in Paris, aged about 70.
John Dowland's Second Booke of Songs or Ayres is published. Included in the collection is the affecting 'Flow my teares' (or 'Lachrimae').
Dowland - Flow My Tears
Salomone Rossi publishes his first book of five - part madrigals. It contains the earliest printed example of chitarrone accompaniment in tablature.
6 October
Jacopo Peri sings the part of Orpheus in his own pastoral opera Euridice, premiered at the wedding of Henri IV of France and Maria de Medici, in Florence. With text by Ottavio Rinucccini and various parts composed by fellow Carmerata member Giulio Caccini, Euridice is the earliest surviving opera. Peri's music to an earlier opera, Dafne (1597), is lost.
Jacopo Peri 'Al canto, al ballo' from L’Euridice
9 October
Caccini's pastoral opera Il Rapimento di Cefalo is presented for the continuing wedding celebrations of Henri IV and Maria de Medici. Virtually all of the music is now lost.
Maria de Medici's marriage by proxy with Henry IV of France
Thomas Luls de Victoria publishes a large collection of
sacred works in his Missae, Magnificat, Motecta, Psalmi, in Madrid. His polychoral masses prove very popular.
Tomas Luis De Victoria - Missa Salve Regina
Loreto Vittori, Italian castrato and composer, born.
10 November
Cavalieri argues in a letter that recitative 'was invented by me, and everyone knows it as I have already stated this in print' (i.e. in the published preface to La Rappresentatione, dated 3 September 1600).
Peri later acknowledges Cavalieri as the originator of the style, but Caccini maintains that he has been using it for the past 15 years.
Emilio de Cavalieri, Lamentatio Hieremiae Prophetae
Adam Václav Michna, Czech Catholic poet, composer, hymn writer, organist and choir leader, born.
December
The competitive Caccini completes his own version of Euridice and will beat Peri to the publisher by six weeks.
February
La rappresentatione di anima e di corpo (The Representation of Soul and Body) by Emilio de' Cavalieri is first perfonned in the church of Santa Maria in Vallicella, Rome. The staged work includes solos, instrumental sections and recitative, and incorporates a figured bass in the score—the earliest example of such in printed music. Sitting somewhere between sacred opera and oratorio, La rappresentatione is the first surviving drama with music scored throughout.
Marco Scacchi, Italian composer, born.
Giovanni Felice Sances, Italian singer and composer, born.
Giovanni Felice Sances
Giovanni Felice Sances (also Sancies, Sanci, Sanes, Sanchez, ca. 1600 – 24 November 1679) was an Italian singer and a Baroque composer. He was renowned in Europe during his time.
Sances studied at the Collegio Germanico in Rome from 1609 to 1614. He appeared in the opera Amor pudico in Rome in 1614. His career then took him to Bologna and Venice. His first opera Ermiona was staged in Padua in 1636, in which he also sang.In 1636 he moved to Vienna, where he was initially employed at the imperial court chapel as a tenor. In 1649, during the reign of Ferdinand III he was appointed vice-Kapellmeister under Antonio Bertali. He collaborated with Bertali to stage regular performances of Italian opera.
He also composed sepolcri, sacred works and chamber music.
In 1669 he succeeded to the post of Imperial Kapellmeister upon Bertali's death. From 1673, due to poor health, many of his duties were undertaken by his deputy Johann Heinrich Schmelzer. He died in Vienna in 1679.
Loreto Vittori
Loreto Vittori (1600 – 23 April 1670) was an Italian castrato and composer. From 1622 until his death, he was a mezzo-soprano singer in the papal chapel in Rome.
Vittori was born in Spoleto and educated in Rome. He then worked as a singer in Loreto and Spoleto. In 1618 Vittori was placed under the protection of the Medici family. He moved to Rome in 1621, first in the service of Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi, nephew of Pope Gregory XV, and in 1632 in the service of Cardinal Antonio Barberini, nephew of the future Urban VIII. He died in Rome, aged 69.
Vittori sang at the premiere of Lo Sposalizio di Medoro et Angelica by Jacopo Peri and Marco da Gagliano in 1619, possibly as Angelica. He was Saint Ursula in La Regina Sant'Orsola by Marco da Gagliano in 1624. Back in Rome, the man was Falsirena in La Catena d'Adone by Domenico Mazzocchi in 1626. In 1628, Vittori took an unknown role in La Flora, ovvero Il natal de' fiori (Flora, or The Birth of Flowers), an opera composed by Marco da Gagliano and Jacopo Peri to a libretto by Andrea Salvadori. He also performed at the wedding festivities of Margherita de' Medici to Odoardo Farnese in Parma, probably as Galatea in the intermezzo Mercurio e Marte by Claudio Monteverdi.
In 1637, Vittori sang in Chi Soffre, Speri by Marco Marazzoli and Virgilio Mazzocchi, possibly as Virtu and Alvida. His final stage appearance was as Angelica in Il Palazzo Incantato by Luigi Rossi with libretto by Cardinal Rospigliosi, the future Clement IX.
Giovanni Felice Sances-Stabat Mater
Adam Václav Michna
Adam Václav Michna z Otradovic – literally Adam Václav Michna of Otradovice – (c. 1600 Jindřichův Hradec – 1676, Jindřichův Hradec) was a Czech Catholic poet, composer, hymn writer, organist and choir leader of the early Baroque era. He is also known in simplified form as Adam Michna and during his life as Adamus Wenceslaus Michna de Ottradowicz. He was the most important Czech composer and poet of the early Baroque who initiated the development of Czech art in that era and became a significant inspiration for Czech artists of future generations.
Michna was descended from the noble and musical family of Michna Ottradovic in Jindřichův Hradec in South Bohemia, bearing the title of Knight. His father was the organist and trumpeter Michael Michna (many of his other relatives were also trumpeters). In the 1620s the literary fraternity in the town was restored by the highest Lord Chancellor of the Kingdom of Bohemia Vilém Slavata and that act, together with the activities of the Jesuit College, founded in 1594, contributed greatly to the development of cultural life in the town. Adam Michna became the first student at the Jesuit College, where he studied in 1611–1612 and 1615–1617 at the gymnasium. In the 17th and 18th centuries the Order of Jesuits was a great influence on musical life in the Czech lands. Many of Michna's compositions were later printed and published by Prague Jesuits.
Little is known about his later life. He became a member of the Literary Society and the organist and choir director in 1633 at the probost church in Jindřichův Hradec. He helped to improve the musical life in the town, was a respected and wealthy citizen of Jindřichův Hradec and also the owner of the tap-room. He was twice married, but no record exists of any children. In 1673 he established a foundation for the education of needy young musicians.
Work
Adam Michna was prolific, but not all of his works were preserved and known today. There are 230 of his compositions from three Czech and two Latin collections. The majority of his creative effort was dedicated to sacred music. The best known are his three hymn cycles, Česká mariánská muzika (Czech Marian music), Loutna česká (Czech Lute) and Svatoroční muzika (Holy year music).
He composed vocal as well as vocal-instrumental music to his own lyrics. He wrote many Czech sacred songs; some are still well known and popular, such as the carol „Vánoční noc“ (Christmas Night), better known as Chtíc, aby spal, which is commonly sung today at Christmas in the Czech Republic. It is possible that Michna was familiar with early Italian Baroque compositional techniques.
Adam Vaclav Michna: Officium Vespertinum
01. Intonatio 0:00
02. Deus in adjutorium 1:02
03. Sonata a 4 1:49
04. Antiphona - Rex pacificus 5:28
05. Psalmus 109 - Dixit Dominus 5:52
06. Antiphona - Rex pacificus 8:30
07. Psalmus 110 - Confitebor 8:54
08. Psalmus 111 - Beatus vir 12:15
09. Psalmus 112 - Laudate pueri Dominum 15:38
10. Psalmus 116 - Laudate Dominum 19:26
11. Hymnus - Te lucis ante terminum 21:01
12. Antiphona - Cum ortus fuerit 25:16
13. Magnificat 25:47
14. Canzon tertii toni 29:05
15. Psalmus 113 - In exitu Israel 32:41
16. Sonata con duobus violinis 38:30
17. Antiphona - Petrus et Joannes 43:09
18. Dixit Dominus : Falso Burdon Primo tono 43:30
19. Confitebor : Falso Burdon Sexto tono 45:35
20. Psalmus 138 - Domine probasti 48:13
21. Antiphona - Tu es pastor ovium 55:44
22. Magnificat a 12 et 16 56:07
23. Ultimo Verso loco antifonae 1:06:43
Marco Scacchi
Marco Scacchi (ca. 1600 – 7 September 1662) was an Italian composer and writer on music.Scacchi was born in Gallese, Lazio. He studied under Giovanni Francesco Anerio in Rome. He was associated with the court at Warsaw from 1626, and was kapellmeister there from 1628 to 1649. His 1643 treatise Cribrum musicum accused Paul Siefert 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, madrigals, and sacred concertos. Nearly all of his stage works have been lost. He died in Gallese.
1601
Influential French harpsichordist and composer Jacques Champion de Chambonnieres is born around this time in Paris.
Luzzasco Luzzaschi composes Madrigali per cantare et sonare for the renowned "three singing ladies’ of Ferrara. Published in Rome, the collection (for one to three voices) is one of the first publications to feature a full keyboard accompaniment.
Hans Hassler composes his influential Lustgarten neuer teuscher Gesang (Pleasure Garden of New German Song).
A number of later German composers will incorporate passages and melodies from the collection into their own works, notably J. S. Bach in his St Matthew Passion.
Hans Leo Hassler - Neuer Teutscher Gesäng - "Lustgarten" Intrada 01 (1601)
Thomas Morley arranges the publication of The Triumphes of Oriana, an anthology of 25 madrigals by 23 composers honouring Elizabeth I. Contributors include himself, Thomas Weelkes, John Wilbye, Thomas Tomkins and Michael East. Each madrigal ends with the words ‘Long live fair Oriana’, the name applied to Queen Elizabeth in much poetry of the time.
February
Peri’s score to Euridice is published in Florence.
26 November
Benedetto Pallavicino dies in Mantua.
Monteverdi succeeds him as maestro di cappella to the Gonzaga court.
Jacques Champion de Chambonnières
Jacques Champion de Chambonnières (Jacques Champion, commonly referred to as Chambonnières) (c. 1601/2 – 1672) was a French harpsichordist, dancer and composer.
Chambonnières came from an old and distinguished family of musicians and succeeded his father as a musician to Louis XIII, a position he retained under Louis XIV. He also was employed at the courts of Sweden and Brandenburg and thus became one of the most widely known harpsichord players of his time.
His Pièces de clavecin (published 1670) reflect in style and texture the compositions of the noted lutenist-composer Denis Gaultier and thus emphasize the roots of the early harpsichord style in lute music. The Pièces are highly ornamented and rich in harmony and are grouped by key into suites of dances (usually an allemande, one or more courantes, a sarabande, and sometimes a gigue) and miniature pieces with fanciful titles. There is no thematic relationship between the movements of a single suite, the aim being rather for contrast within a given key. This flexible scheme was a model for later composers, including those of south Germany. Chambonnières was one of the first to attach tables of ornaments to his works, indicating the manner of performance of the many embellishments so vital to his free-voiced style.
Chambonnières was a noted teacher and included among his students many of the outstanding clavecinistes of the next generation, notably Louis Couperin, Nicolas Lebègue, and Jean-Henri d’Anglebert.
Work
The vast majority of Chambonnières's pieces are allemandes, courantes, sarabandes, and gigues, standard dance types of the era. The courantes completely outnumber all other genres: there are more than 60 of them. Also extant are Chambonnières's forays into other dance types, the most important of which are four pavanes and three or four chaconnes. Interestingly, no preludes by Chambonnières exist, although the genre was very popular: indeed, he is the only major composer of the period who has none to his credit (although nine anonymous unmeasured preludes from the manuscript B-Bc 27220 may have been composed by him). Numerous pieces exist in several versions, which presents considerable problems for scholars and performers, since the versions may differ dramatically. The Bauyn manuscript versions of the published works, for instance, are almost completely unornamented, whereas the published versions abound in ornaments. One particularly striking example is the Pavane L'entretien des Dieux. It has a single trill in the Bauyn version, while in the published version that very trill is omitted—but 62 other ornaments appear. Another example, Sarabande Jeunes zéphirs, is found in 11 sources, and no two versions are identical. Finally, the grouping of the pieces is another problem for scholars. Chambonnières chose to publish his works as suites defined by key; frequently there are musical connections between the pieces of a single suite. However, such suites are absent from manuscript sources, where pieces appear grouped by key only and do not form suites.
Chambonnières - Suite No. 1 in a-minor
1602
Caccini's influential Le nuove musiche for solo voice and basso continuo is published in Florence. Featuring madrigals and strophic arias, the collection incorporates a treatise on the new monodic style of composition, which Caccini claims to have invented.
11 March
Composer and Camerata affiliate Emilio de’ Cavalieri dies in Rome, aged about 52.
Cesare Negri (c. 1535 – c. 1605), was an Italian dancer and choreographer, publishes his dance treatise Le gratie d’amore, detailing contemporary practices of social and theatrical dance music.
Progressive Italian-Jewish composer Salamone Rossi publishes his second book of madrigals, with basso continuo.
Lodovico da Viadana publishes the first instalment of his Cento concerti ecclesiastici in Venice.
Written for one to four voices, it is the first publication of sacred works to incorporate basso continuo.
Viadana - Concerto Ecclesiastico - O Dulcissima Maria
14 February
Pietro Caletti-Bruni, who will later change his name to Cavalli (Francesco Cavalli) in honour of his patron, Federico Cavalli, is born in Crema.
Michelangelo Rossi, Italian composer, violinist and organist, born.
Marco Marazzoli, Italian composer, born.
Christopher Simpson, English composer, born.
1 May
English composer William Lawes, brother of composer Henry Lawes (b. 1596), is baptised in Salisbury.
October
Influential English madrigalist Thomas Morley dies in London, aged about 44.
5 December
Caccini’s opera Euridice, based on Rinuccini's libretto (of 1600), is premiered in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence. Caccini writes in the preface of the opera about his use of stile rappresentativo (theatrical style) and draws attention to his use of a figured bass.
Giulio Caccini - L'Euridice (1600)
Prologo
1. Aria di Romanesca
2. La Tragedia : Io che d’alti sospirAtto primo
Scena prima
3. Pastore del Coro : Ninfe ch’i bei crin d’oro
4. Euridice : Donne ch’a miei diletti
5. Coro : Al canto, al ballo
Scena seconda
6. Orfeo : Antri ch’a miei lamenti
7. Dafne Nunzia : Lassa, che di spavento
8. Dafne Nunzia : Per quel vago boschetto
9. Orfeo : Non piango e non sospiro
10. Arcetro : Ahi mort’ invid’ e ria
11. Ninfa del coro : Cruda morte
Scena terza
12. Arcetro : Se fato invido e rio
13. Coro : Se de’ boschi i verdi onoriAtto secondo
Scena quarta
14. Aria di Romanesca Venere : Scorto da immortal guida
15. Orfeo : Funeste piagge, ombrosi orridi campi
16. Plutone : Ond’ e cotanto ardire
17. Plutone : Trionfi oggi pietà ne’ campi inferni
18. Coro : Poi che gli etern’imperi
19. Aria di Romanesca Arcetro : Già del bel carro ardente
20. Aminta : Voi che si ratte il volo
21. Orfeo : Gioite al canto mio Ninfa : Tu sei, tu sei pur quella
22. Coro : Biondo arcier che d’alto monte Aureo fonte
William Lawes
William Lawes (April 1602 – 24 September 1645) was an English composer and musician.
Lawes was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire and was baptised on 1 May 1602. He was the son of Thomas Lawes, a vicar choral at Salisbury Cathedral, and brother to Henry Lawes, a very successful composer in his own right.
His patron, Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, apprenticed him to the composer John Coprario, which probably brought Lawes into contact with Charles, Prince of Wales at an early age. Both William and his elder brother Henry received court appointments after Charles succeeded to the British throne as Charles I. William was appointed as "musician in ordinary for lutes and voices" in 1635 but had been writing music for the court prior to this.
Lawes spent all his adult life in Charles's employ. He composed secular music and songs for court masques (and doubtless played in them), as well as sacred anthems and motets for Charles's private worship.
When Charles's dispute with Parliament led to the outbreak of the Civil War, Lawes joined the Royalist army and was given a post in the King's Life Guards, which was intended to keep him out of danger. Despite this, he was "casually shot" by a Parliamentarian in the rout of the Royalists at Rowton Heath, near Chester, on 24 September 1645. Although the King was in mourning for his kinsman Bernard Stuart (killed in the same defeat), he instituted a special mourning for Lawes, apparently honouring him with the title of "Father of Musick."
The author of his epitaph, Thomas Jordan, closed it with a lachrymose pun on the fact that Lawes had died at the hands of those who denied the divine right of kings:
Will. Lawes was slain by such whose wills were laws.
Lawes' body was lost or destroyed and his burial site is unknown.
Fantasia - William Lawes
Michelangelo Rossi
Michelangelo Rossi (Michel Angelo del Violino) (ca. 1601/1602 – 1656) was an important Italian composer, violinist and organist of the Baroque era.
Rossi was born in Genoa, where he studied with his uncle, Lelio Rossi (organist from 1601-1638), at the Cathedral of San Lorenzo. Around the year 1624 he moved to Rome to enter the service of Cardinal Maurizio of Savoy. It was there that he met the madrigal composer Sigismondo d'India as well as the keyboard composer Girolamo Frescobaldi, with whom he may have studied. Rossi's two books of madrigals, which have only comparatively recently come to scholarly attention, were likely written during this period. Rossi's madrigal output from this period is remarkably chromatic, to a level matched only by the music of such experimental composers as Carlo Gesualdo.
His opera Erminia sul Giordano was premiered during the Carnival of 1633 at the theatre of the Palazzo Barberini (Rossi himself apparently sang on stage as the sun-god Apollo), and appeared in print four years later. A second opera, Andromeda (1638, partly lost) was first performed in Ferrara in 1638. By 1649, Rossi had returned to Rome and was residing in the palace of Camillo Pamphili (a relative of Pope Innocent X), perhaps in semi-retirement. He died in Rome in July 1656 and may have been buried in the church of Sant'Andrea delle Fratte.
Michelangelo Rossi - Toccata Settima
Marco Marazzoli
Marco Marazzoli (1602? – 26 January 1662) was an Italian priest and Baroque music composer.
Born at Parma, Marazzoli received early training as a priest, and was ordained around 1625. He moved to Rome in 1626, and entered the service of Cardinal Antonio Barberini. In 1631, he and other musicians such as Filippo Vitali and Landi accompanied the cardinal on a trip to Urbino and may have accompanied him on other official travels. In 1637, Marazzoli was appointed Barberini's aiutante di camera, and became a tenor in the papal chapel that same year; in 1639 he was awarded the position of musico under Barberini.
Marazzoli may have composed the prologue to a ballet by Jean-Baptiste Lully in 1657 entitled L'Amour malade, but this is not certain. From 1655 Marazzoli composed works commissioned by Pope Alexander VII, including festival cantatas.
Marazzoli was seriously hurt in an accident during a mass at the Sistine Chapel on 25 January 1662, and died the following day.
Oratorio di S.Tommaso - M. Marazzoli - finale -CHI DI FEDE HA ARMATO IL SENO
Christopher Simpson
Christopher Simpson, Simpson also spelled Sympson, (born c. 1602–06, Egton?, Yorkshire, Eng.—died between May 5 and July 29, 1669, London), English composer, teacher, theorist, and one of the great virtuoso players in the history of the viol.
A Roman Catholic, he fought on the Royalist side in the English Civil War (1643–44) and subsequently became tutor to the son of a prominent Catholic, Sir Robert Bolles. During his life Simpson was highly regarded as a musician.
As a composer, chiefly of solo and ensemble works for viol, he is noteworthy for his exploitation of the instrument’s resources and his development of variation form. His influential theoretical works were The Division-violist (1st ed., 1659; modern ed., 1955, reprinted 1998), discussing viol technique and the improvisation of descants and divisions (variations on a ground); and The Principles of Practical Musick (1665; modern ed., 1970), praised for its excellence by Henry Purcell and other contemporary composers.
Christopher Simpson - The Monthes - January
1603
John Dowland publishes his Third and Last Book of Songs or Ayres, in London.
What if I never - speed from The Third Book of Ayres (1603) - John Dowland
German composer Melchior Franck is appointed Kapellmeister to the Duke of Saxe-Coburg, in whose service he will remain for the rest of his life.
Victoria composes his stunning Officium defunctorum for the funeral of Empress Maria of Austria. The Spanish composer calls it his ‘swan song’.
"Officium Defunctorum" (Requiem) à 6 by Tomás Luis de Victoria
1. Taedet animam meam 3:19
2. Introitus: Requiem aeternam 6:13
3. Kyrie 2:35
4. Graduale 3:08
5. Offertorium: Domine lesu Christe 4:35
6. Sanctus & Benedictus 2:55
7. Agnus Dei I, II, & III 2:47
8. Communio: Lux aeterna 3:44
9. Funeral Motet: Versa est in luctum 3:37
10. Responsory: Libera me 9:05
Monteverdi publishes his Fourth Book of Madrigals, in Venice.
Monteverdi: Madrigais, Book 4
01. Monteverdi: Ah, Dolente Partita 4:05
02. Monteverdi: Cor Mio, Mentre Vi Miro 2:38
03. Monteverdi: Cor Mio, Non Mori? 3:54
04. Monteverdi: Sfogava Con Le Stelle 4:37
05. Monteverdi: Volgea L'Anima Mia Soavemente 4:17
06. Monteverdi: Anima Mia, Perdona 3:20
07. Monteverdi: Che Se Tu Se'Il Cor Mio 4:17
08. Monteverdi: Luci Serene E Chiare 3:54
09. Monteverdi: La Piaga C'Ho Nel Core 2:57
10. Monteverdi: Voi Pur Da Me Partite In Anima Dura 4:49
11. Monteverdi: A Un Giro Sol De'Belli Occhi Lucenti 2:46
12. Monteverdi: Ohime, Se Tanto Amate 3:42
13. Monteverdi: Io Mi Son Giovinetta 2:34
14. Monteverdi: Quell'Augellin Che Canta 2:29
15. Monteverdi: Non Più Guerra, Pietate 3:35
16. Monteverdi: Si In Ch'Io Vorrei Morire 4:03
17. Monteverdi: Anima Dolorosa 3:49
18. Monteverdi: Anima Del Cor Mio 3:17
19. Monteverdi: Longe Da Te In Cor Mio 3:38
20. Monteverdi: Piagn'E Sospira 5:14
Thomas Weelkes, aged about 26, gains his Bachelor of Arts degree in music from New College, Oxford.
17 February
Maestro di cappella of St Mark’s since 1590, Baldassare Donato dies in Venice, aged about 73.
Giovanni Croce succeeds him, having served as vicemaestro for the last ten years.
Benedetto Ferrari, Italian composer, born.
Caspar Kittel, German theorbist and composer, born.
English composer and Catholic refugee Peter Philips publishes his Second Book o f Madrigals, in Antwerp.
O beatum et sacrosanctum diem - Peter Philips
4 July
Philippe de Monte, Flemish composer of masses, motets, and more than 1,000 madrigals, dies in Prague, aged about 81.
Benedetto Ferrari
Benedetto Ferrari (ca. 1603 – 1681) was an Italian composer, particularly of opera, librettist, and theorbo player.
Ferrari was born in Reggio nell'Emilia. He worked in Rome (1617–1618), Parma (1619–1623), and possibly in Modena at some time between 1623 and 1637. He created music and libretti in Venice and Bologna, 1637-1644. Ferrari's Andromeda, with music by Francesco Manelli, was the first Venetian opera performed in a public theatre (in 1637). Subsequently he provided both the text and the music for two operas, both presented in Venice: La maga fulminata (1638) and Il pastor regio (1640). The 1641 Bolognese staging of the latter included, as its final duet, the text "Pur ti miro, pur ti godo," which was later reused, possibly with Ferrari's music, for the final duet in the surviving manuscripts of Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea.
Ferrari went to Vienna in 1651, serving the emperor Ferdinand III. Upon returning to Modena in 1653 he was appointed court choirmaster. His post was eliminated in 1662 but reinstated in 1674, after which he served until his death at Modena. Many sources recount his virtuosity as a theorbo player.
Though the last were composed within a relatively short time span, they reflect the changing style of accompanied monody, from the emergence of recitar cantando (midway between song and speech) to the vocal style that is typical of mid-17th century opera, with a more distinctive melody and a clearer rhythm.
Benedetto Ferrari - Cantata spirituale
Benedetto Ferrari - Queste pungenti Spine
Caspar Kittel
Caspar Kittel (1603–1639) was a German Baroque theorbist and composer at the Dresden Hofkapelle. He was a pupil, then colleague of Heinrich Schütz, and preceded Schütz on the Kapellmeister's second sojurn in Italy from 1624.
Caspar Kittel - Oime Amor, wie schnell hast' mich
1604
John Dowland publishes his most famous instrumental collection, Lachrimae, or Seaven teares, containing 21 pieces for five viols and lute. Included in the set are seven contrapuntal pavans, each a variation on the descending "flow my tears" motif of Dowland’s song Lachrimae (1600).
Dowland - Lachrimae
Michael East brings out his first collection of Madrigales apt for Viols and Voices, in London.
Follow me by Michael East
Alfonso Ferrabosco the Younger, London-born composer of Italian descent, becomes viol teacher to Prince Henry of Wales.
Girolamo Frescobaldi, aged about 21, is appointed organist at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome.
Orlande de Lassus’s Magnum opus musicum, containing 516 motets, is published ten years after the composer’s death, in Munich.
"Magnum Opus Musicum" Orlando Di Lasso
Michael Praetorius is promoted from organist to Kapellmeister at the court of Duke Heinrich Julius
of Brunswick in Wolfenbuttel.
Leading Dutch composer Jan P. Sweelinck publishes the first of his polyphonic Psalter settings, 50 pseaumes de David, in Amsterdam.
Psalm 42, from "Pseaumes de David"
4 May
Claudio Merulo, innovative composer, organist and publisher, dies in the service of the ducal chapel at Parma, aged 71.
28 June
Composer Heinrich Albert, cousin of Heinrich Schutz, is born in Voigtland, Saxony.
Heinrich Albert
Heinrich Albert, (born July 8, 1604, Lobenstein, Saxony [Germany]—died Oct. 6, 1651, Königsberg, Prussia [now Kaliningrad, Russia]), German composer of a famous and popular collection of 170 songs, the most representative examples of German solo song from the early Baroque period.
Albert studied composition with his cousin Heinrich Schütz at Dresden. While he attended the University of Leipzig his musical activities were encouraged by Johann Hermann Schein. By 1631 he was cathedral organist at Königsberg. His Arien (1638–50), published in eight volumes, are generally strophic settings for one or more voices and continuo, with texts by his friend Simon Dach, himself, and other contemporary poets.
The songs are also important for the study of basso continuo performance practice, for some of the continuo parts are realized in score notation. He also composed a cantata and several motets.
Heinrich Albert - Sonata 1
El Greco - Christ Driving the Money Changers from the Temple