CARISSIMI, GIACOMO

Italian composer; b. Marino, April 18, 1605; d. Rome, Jan. 12, 1674. Nothing definite is known about his early training. After having served as a singer and organist at the cathedral in Tivoli and as maestro di cappella at the cathedral in Assisi, he became maestro di cappella on Dec. 15, 1629, at the church of San Apollinare (attached to the German College) in Rome, where he remained until his death. He was also active at the Oratory of San Marcello and, in July 1656, was named maestro di cappella del concerto di camera at the Roman court of Christina of Sweden. Such eminent musicians as M.A. charpentier, Bernhard, Kerll, and G. P. Colonna were his students, and the wide dissemination of his music, especially in Germany and France, won him an international reputation. Attempts were made to persuade him to work in Venice and in the Low Countries, but Carissimi refused to leave Rome. He was influential in introducing into sacred music techniques of the stile moderno employed in secular music, thus hastening the demise of the stile antico. Very little of his liturgical music (Masses, motets, psalms, sacrae contiones ) is available in modern editions, but the use of concertato devices and monody is seen in the few examples that are at hand. His contribution to the nonliturgical Latin oratorio was of fundamental importance for that form, which he was the first to make artistically significant. (In fact handel borrowed whole scenes from his work.) His 16 oratorios are not only important historically, they are also excellent music.

Bibliography: f. ghisi, Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, ed. f. blume (Kassel-Basel 1949–) 2:842–845. r. eitner, Quellen-Lexikon der Musiker und Musikgelehrten, 10 v. (Leipzig 1900–04; New York n.d. [1947]) 2:332–335. j. loschelder, "Neue Beiträge zu einer Biographie Giacomo Carissimis," Archiv für Musikforschung, 5 (1940) 220–229. m. f. bukofzer, Music in the Baroque Era (New York 1947) 123–126. p. h. lÁng, Music in Western Civilization (New York 1941). a. c. lewis, Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. e. blom, 9 v. (5th ed. London 1954) 2:70–73. p. m. young, The Choral Tradition (New York 1962). t. culley, A Documentary History of the Liturgical Music at the German College in Rome, 1573–1674 (Ph.D. diss. Harvard University 1965). r. w. ardrey, The Influence of the Extended Latin Sacred Works of Giacomo Carissimi on the Biblical Oratorios of George Frederic Handel (Ph.D. diss. Catholic University of America 1964). f. cruciani, "II motetto O Stupor et Gaudium attribuito a Giacomo Carissimi," Esercizi: Musica e Spettacolo 16–17 (1997–98) 77–86. g. dixon, Carissimi (Oxford 1986). g. massenkeil, "Giacomo Carissimi," in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. s. sadie, v. 3 (New York 1980) 785–794. d. m. randel, ed., The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music (Cambridge, Mass. 1996) 135–136. n. slonimsky, ed., Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (8th ed. New York 1992) 293. b. a. stein, Between Key and Mode: Tonal Practice in the Music of Giacomo Carissimi (Ph.D. diss. Brandeis University 1994).

[t. culley]