Malvezzi, Cristofano

Malvezzi, Cristofano, Italian organist and composer; b. Lucca (baptized), June 28, 1547; d. Florence, Jan. 22, 1599. He most likely received musical training from his father, the organist at Lucca Cathedral and later at S. Lorenzo in Florence. It was in Florence that he pursued his career. He found a patron in Isabella de’ Medici, who secured for him the position of canonico supernumerario at S. Lorenzo in 1562. After serving as organist at S. Trinità (1565–70), he was maestro di cappella at the Cathedral and at S. Giovanni Battista (from 1573). In 1574 he also succeeded his father as organist at S. Lorenzo. Malvezzi prepared some music for the intermedi of Giovanni Fedini’s Le due Persilie (1583). He also collaborated with Alessandro Striggio and Giovanni de’ Bardi in musical intermedia for Bardi’s drama L’amico fido (1586), and contributed music for the grand intermedi for the marriage celebrations of Grand Duke Ferdinando I and Christine of Lorraine in 1589. Malvezzi compiled an ed. version of his intermedi in 1591. He also publ. Il primo libro de recercari for 4 Voices (Perugia, 1577; ed. in Recent Researches in the Music of the Renaissance, XXVI, 1977) and 3 vols. of madrigals (Venice, 1583, 1584, 1590). His brother, Alberigo Malvezzi (b. probably in Lucca, c. 1550; d. Florence, Dec. 29, 1615), was also an organist and composer. He was organist at S. Lorenzo (c. 1570–1615) and the Florence Cathedral (1590–1615). He publ. a vol. of madrigals (Venice, 1591).

Bibliography

F. Borromeo, Notizie istoriale sulla vita e l’opera di C. M. (diss., Univ. of Florence, 1966).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire