Giacomo Carissimi

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"Carissimi" redirects here. For the album by Frankmusik, see Carissimi (album).

(Gian) Giacomo Carissimi (Italian pronunciation:

Kerll in Germany and Charpentier in France, and the wide dissemination of his music.[2]

Biography

Carissimi's exact birthdate is not known, but it was probably in 1604 or 1605 in

Marino near Rome
, Italy. Of his early life almost nothing is known. Giacomo's parents, Amico (1548–1633, a cooper by trade) and Livia (1565–1622), were married on 14 May 1595 and had four daughters and two sons; Giacomo was the youngest.

Nothing is known of his early musical training. His first known appointments were at

priest
.

In 1656

Christina of Sweden, who was then living in Rome, appointed Carissimi as her maestro di cappella del concerto di camera. Lars Englund of Uppsala University has hypothesized that Christina’s early involvement with Carissimi's music, and other church music from Rome, "was part of a deliberate self-transformation, from a ruling Lutheran regent to a Catholic Queen without a land."[3]

Carissimi seems to have never left Italy at all during his entire lifetime. He died in 1674 in Rome.[1]

Carissimi's successor as maestro di cappella at the Collegium Germanicum in 1686 described him as tall, thin, very frugal in his domestic affairs, with very noble manners towards his friends and acquaintances, and prone to melancholy.[4][full citation needed]

Music

The great achievements generally ascribed to Carissimi are the further development of the

madrigals which had themselves replaced the madrigals of the late Renaissance; and the development of the oratorio, of which he was the first significant composer.[1]

Carissimi's position in the history of

Luigi Rossi was his predecessor in developing the chamber cantata, Carissimi was the composer who first made this form the vehicle for the most intellectual style of chamber music, a function which it continued to perform until the death of Alessandro Scarlatti, Emanuele d'Astorga and Benedetto Marcello.[1]

Carissimi is also noted as one of the first composers of

Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.[1]

Carissimi was active at the time when

secular forms, were predominant. In addition, Carissimi was important as a teacher, and his influence spread far into Germany and France. Much of the musical style of Johann Caspar Kerll and Marc-Antoine Charpentier
, for instance, was influenced by Carissimi.

Selected works

Oratorios

Cantatas

  • Piangete, aure, piangete, cantata for soprano & continuo
  • Così volete, così sarà, cantata for soprano & continuo 1640
  • Vittoria, mio core (Amante sciolto d'amore), cantata for soprano & continuo 1646
  • Ferma Lascia Ch'Io Parli (Lamento della Regina Maria Stuarda), cantata for soprano & continuo 1650
  • Sciolto havean dall'alte sponde (I naviganti), cantata for 2 sopranos, baritone & continuo 1653
  • Apritevi inferni (Peccator penitente), cantata for soprano & continuo 1663

Motets

  • Lamentationes Jeremiae Prophetae, motet for mezzo-soprano, soprano & continuo
  • Exulta, gaude, filia Sion, motet for 2 sopranos & continuo 1675
  • Exurge, cor meum, in cithara, motet for soprano, 2 violins, viole & continuo 1670
  • Ardens est cor nostrum [meum], motet for soprano, alto, tenor, bass & continuo 1664
  • Desiderata nobis, motet for alto, tenor, bass & continuo 1667

Masses

  • Missa "Sciolto havean dall'alte sponde," mass for 5 voices & continuo

In popular culture

Samuel Pepys was delighted with Carissimi's music. His Diary records that he met "Mr. Hill, and Andrews, and one slovenly and ugly fellow, Seignor Pedro, who sings Italian songs to the theorbo most neatly, and they spent the whole evening in singing the best piece of musique counted of all hands in the world, made by Seignor Charissimi, the famous master in Rome. Fine it was, indeed, and too fine for me to judge of."[6]

Carissimi is the viewpoint character for the "Euterpe" series of short stories by Enrico M. Toro within the 1632 series of books edited by Eric Flint.

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c d e f Chisholm 1911.
  2. ^ a b Andrew V. Jones, "Giacomo Carissimi", Grove Music Online
  3. ^ "Seminari in lingua inglese 2019: Lars Berglund (Professor at the Department of Musicology, Uppsala University) presents his ongoing research Queen Christina and Giacomo Carissimi: From Curiosity to Musical Patronage Svenska Institutet i Rom/ Istituto Svedese di Studi Classici a Roma Archived 2021-11-30 at the Wayback Machine access date 4 May 2021
  4. ^ Sorini, Simone. Gli Oratori Latini di Giacomo Carissimi: Jephte e Jonas
  5. ^ a b c Recorded in 1988 by John Eliot Gardiner and the English Baroque Soloists, Erato 2292-45466-2
  6. ^ Diary, 22 July 1644.

References

  • Jones, Andrew V. (2001). "Carissimi, Giacomo". In
    ISBN 978-1-56159-239-5
    .    ‎
  •  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Carissimi, Giacomo". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 5 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 338.

External links

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