Mazzocchi, Domenico

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Mazzocchi, Domenico

Mazzocchi, Domenico , Italian composer, brother of Virgilio Mazzocchi; b. Veja, near Cività Castellana (baptized), Nov. 8, 1592; d. Rome, Jan. 21, 1665. A learned Roman lawyer, he studied music with Nanini and in 1621 entered the service of Cardinal Ippolito Aldobrandini. He publ. Madrigali a 5 voci in partitura (1638), in which appear, for the first time, the conventional symbols for crescendo (<) and decrescendo (>), piano (p), forte (f), and trillo (tr), which he explains in a preface. He also composed the operas La catena d’Adone (Rome, 1626) and L’innocenza difesa, several oratorios, and various pieces of church music.

Bibliography

A. Cardinali, Cenni biografici su D. e Virgilio M. (Subiaco, 1926).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire

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