Marenzio, Luca
Marenzio, Luca
Marenzio, Luca, important Italian composer; b. Coccaglio, near Brescia, 1553 or 1554; d. Rome, Aug. 22, 1599. Little is known of his early life. He may have studied with Giovanni Contino in Brescia. About 1574 he entered the service of Cardinal Cristoforo Madruzzo in Rome. Following Madruzzo’s death in 1578, he entered the service of Cardinal Luigi d’Este; he made an extended visit with the cardinal to the court of Duke Alfonso II d’Este in Ferrara, where he spent the months of Nov. 1580 to May 1581; he dedicated 2 vols. of madrigals to the duke and his sister Lucrezia. After the death of the cardinal in 1586, he entered the service of Ferdinando de’ Medici, the grand duke of Florence (1588). In 1589 he returned to Rome, where he apparently received the patronage of several cardinals. About 1593 he entered the service of Cardinal Cinzio Aldo-brandini, and then subsequently served at the court of Sigismund III of Poland (1596–98). He then returned to Rome, where he died the following year. Marenzio was one of the foremost madrigalists of his time; his later works in the genre are historically significant for their advanced harmonic procedures. He also composed about 75 motets. He was called by his contemporaries “il piu dolce cigno d’Italia” and “divino compositore.” B. Meier and R. Jackson ed. the Opera omnia in Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae (1976), and S. Ledbetter and P. Myers ed. his secular works (1977 et seq.).
Works
vocal: secular:Il primo libro de madrigali for 5 Voices (Venice, 1580); Il primo libro de madrigali for 6 Voices (Venice, 1581); 11 secondo libro de madrigali for 5 Voices (Venice, 1581); It terzo libro de madrigali for 5 Voices (Venice, 1582); 11 secondo libro de madrigali for 6 Voices (Venice, 1584); Madrigali spirituali for 5 Voices (Rome, 1584; enl. ed., 1610); Il quarto libro de madrigali for 5 Voices (Venice, 1584); Il primo libro delle villanelle for 3 Voices (Venice, 1584); Il quinto libro de madrigali for 5 Voices (Venice, 1585); It terzo libro de madrigali for 6 Voices (Venice, 1585); Il secondo libro delle canzonette alla napolitana for 3 Voices (Venice, 1585); Madrigali...libro primo for 4 Voices (Rome, 1585); It terzo libro delle villanelle for 3 Voices (Venice, 1585; 4th ed., enl., 1600); Il quarto libro de madrigali for 6 Voices (Venice, 1587; 3rd ed., rev., 1593); Il quarto libro delle villanelle for 3 Voices (Venice, 1587; 4th ed., rev., 1600); Il quinto libro delle villanelle for 3 Voices (Venice, 1587); Madrigali...libro primo for 4, 5, and 6 Voices (Venice, 1588); Il quinto libro de madrigali for 6 Voices (Venice, 1591); Il sesto libro de madrigali for 5 Voices (Venice, 1594); Il sesto libro de madrigali for 6 Voices (Venice, 1595); Il settimo libro de madrigali for 5 Voices (Venice, 1595); L’ottavo libro de madrigali for 5 Voices (Venice, 1598); Il nono libro de madrigali for 5 Voices (Venice, 1599); also 11 secondo libro de madrigali for 4 Voices, which is not extant. sacred:Motectorum pro festis totius anni cum Communi Sanctorum for 4 Voices (Venice, 1585); Completorium et antiphonae for 6 Voices (Venice, 1595; not extant); Motetti for 12 Voices (Venice, 1614); Sacrae cantiones for 5, 6, and 7 Voices (Venice, 1616).
Bibliography
P. Guerrini, L. M., il piu dolce cigno d’Italia nel centenario della nascita (Brescia, 1953); H. Engel, L. M. (Florence, 1956); D. Arnold, M. (London, 1965); S. Ledbetter, L. M.: New Biographical Findings (diss., N.Y.U., 1971); J. Chater, L. M. and the Italian Madrigal 1577–1593 (2 vols., Ann Arbor, 1981); B. Janz, Die Petrarca-Vertongungen von L. M.: Dichtung und Musik in späten Cinquecento- Madrigal (Tutzing, 1992).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire