Cavazzoni (also called da Bologna and d’Urbino), Marco Antonio

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Cavazzoni (also called da Bologna and d’Urbino), Marco Antonio

Cavazzoni (also called da Bologna and d’Urbino), Marco Antonio, Italian composer and singer, father of Girolamo Cavazzoni; b. Bologna, c. 1490; d. c. 1570 (the date appearing on his will is April 3, 1569). He went to Urbino about 1510 and became acquainted with Cardinal Pietro Bembo. He then became a musician in the private chapel of Pope Leo X (1515). In Venice (1517) he was employed by Francesco Cornaro, nephew of the Queen of Cyprus. Returning to Rome (1520), he was again in the employ of Pope Leo X. From 1522 to 1524. From 1528 to 1531 he was in Venice, and in 1536–37 was organist at Chioggia. From 1545 to 1559 he was a singer at S. Marco (Venice), where Adriaen Willaert was maestro di cappella. As a youth wrote a Mass, Domini Marci Antonii, so named because he derived its theme from the solmization syllables of his Christian names. His most important work is a collection of keyboard pieces, Recerchari, motetti, canzoni, Libro I (Venice, 1523). The ricercari are toccata-like rather than contrapuntal, and the motets and canzonas are instrumental transcriptions of vocal pieces. Modern reprints (with biographical notes) are found in Benvenuti’s I classici musicali italiani (Milan, 1941) and in K. Jeppesen, Die italienische Orgelmusik am Anfang des Cinquecento (Copenhagen, 1943).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire

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Cavazzoni (also called da Bologna and d’Urbino), Marco Antonio

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