Biography
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Born
18 October 1553
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Born In
Coccaglio, Brescia, Lombardia, Italy
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Died
22 August 1599 (aged 45)
Luca Marenzio (also Marentio) (October 18? 1553? – August 22, 1599) was an Italian composer of the late Renaissance. He was one of the most renowned composers of madrigals, and wrote perhaps the finest examples of the form in its late stage of development, prior to its early Baroque transformation by Monteverdi.
it] Life
Marenzio was born at Coccaglio, near Brescia, and died in Rome. A birthdate of October 18, 1553 has been proposed because of a statement by his father giving his age in years, and that he may have been named after the saint with his feast day on October 18.
After early training in Brescia and possibly some years spent in Mantua, he moved to Rome, where he was employed by Cardinal Cristoforo Madruzzo until 1578, evidently as a singer; after the cardinal's death he served at the court of Cardinal Luigi d'Este, during which time he began to establish a reputation as a composer. By 1581 his music had become immensely popular, as shown by the frequency with which his published books of madrigals were reprinted, and also by the increasingly common appearance of his madrigals in anthologies. In 1587 he moved to Florence where he entered the service of Ferdinando I de' Medici for two years; in 1589 he returned to Rome, where he spent most of his last years, except for a trip to Poland from 1596 to 1597, during which time he was employed at the court of Sigismund III Vasa in Warsaw. According to some sources the trip to Poland ruined his health, and he died in Rome in 1599, shortly after returning from Poland.
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