A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Vecchi, Orazio

VECCHI,^[1] or VECCHII, Orazio,^[2] was born, it seems at Modena, in or about the year 1551. He became the pupil of a monk named Salvatore Essenga, who was himself not unknown as a composer, and who published a volume of 'Madrigali,' containing a piece (doubtless his first essay) by Vecchi, in 1566. The latter entered holy orders and was made first, in 1586, canon, and then, five years later, archdeacon, of Correggio. Soon afterwards however he seems to have deserted his office in order to live at his native town; and by April 1595 he was punished for his non-residence by being deprived of his canonry. Possibly the real reason of his absence or of his deprivation, or both, was the singular excitability and quarrelsomeness of his disposition, of which several stories are told. Be this as it may, in October 1596 he was made chapel-master of Modena cathedral; and two years later received the same post in the court, in which capacity he had not only to act as music-master to the ducal family, but also to furnish all sorts of music for solemn and festival occasions, grand mascarades, etc. Through this connexion his reputation extended widely. He was summoned at one time to the court of the Emperor Rudolf II.; at another he was requested to compose some particular music for the King of Poland. In 1604 he was supplanted in his office by the intrigue of a pupil, Geminiano Capi-Lupi; and within a year, Sept. 19 [App. p.808 "Feb."], 1605, he died, it is said, of mortification at his ill-treatment.

Among Orazio's writings the work which calls for special notice, and which gives him an important place in the history of music, is his 'Amfiparnasso, commedia harmonica,' which was produced at Modena in 1594 and published at Venice three years later. The 'Amfiparnasso' has been claimed as the first example of a real opera, but on insufficient grounds. It marks, it is true, a distinct step towards the creation of the idea; but it is not itself an opera. It is a simple series of five-part madrigals sung by a choir, while the dramatis personæ appear in masks on the stage and act in dumb show, or at most sing but co-ordinate parts in the madrigal.^[3] At the same time, the character of the work is highly original and dramatic. The composer, in spite of his clerical standing, is entirely secular in his general treatment of the comedy. He has a strong sense of humour and of dramatic effect; and if he uses his powers in a somewhat perverse and eccentric manner, there is always imagination present in his work, and he lets us see that the madrigal style is breaking down under the weight of the declamatory and dramatic impression which it is now called upon to bear.

Orazio's other works belong to the older Venetian school, which in the 'Amfiparnasso' he was setting the example of forsaking. They fall under the following heads:—(1) Canzonette a 4 voci (four books, 1580–1590, afterwards collected with some additions by Phalesius, 1611), a 6 voci (1587), and a 3 voci (1597, 1599, the former volume in part by Capi-Lupi); (2) Madrigali a 5 e 6 voci (1589–1591, altogether five parts); (3) Lamentations (1587); (4) Motets, and Sacrse Cantiones (1590, 1597, and 1604); (5) Hymns and Canticles; (6) Masses (published in 1607); (7) Dialogues; (8) 'Convito musicale'; (9) 'Le Veglie de Siena, ovvera I varij humori della musica moderna, a 3–6 voci' (1604).^[4]

[ R. L. P. ]

1. Vecchi = old, and this may possibly mean that Orazio was the elder of two brothers or of the elder branch of his family.
2. Orazio's separate compositions are indexed in Eitner's 'Bibliographie des xvi. und xvii. Jahrhunderts,' pp. 890–895: they consist of 62 Italian and 44 Latin numbers; besides 42 (in German collections) with German words, many of which are presumably identical with compositions differently entitled in Italian or Latin.
3. See above, Opera, vol. ii. 499a.
4. See generally Fétis, s.v., and Ambros, 'Geschichte der Musik, lil. 545—552 (1st edition).