View source for Giacomo Carissimi

{{short description|Italian composer (1605–1674)}}
{{redirect|Carissimi|the album  by Frankmusik |Carissimi (album)}}
('''Gian''') '''Giacomo Carissimi''' ({{IPA|it|ˈʒaːkomo kaˈrissimi|-|it-Giacomo Carissimi.ogg}}; baptized 18 April 1605{{snd}}12 January 1674) was an [[Italians|Italian]] [[composer]] and music teacher. He is one of the most celebrated masters of the early [[Baroque music|Baroque]] or, more accurately, the [[Roman School]] of music.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}  Carissimi established the characteristic features of the Latin [[oratorio]] and was a prolific composer of [[Mass (music)|masses]], [[motet]]s, and [[cantata]]s. He was highly influential in musical developments in northern European countries through his pupils, like [[Johann Kaspar Kerll|Kerll]] in Germany and [[Marc-Antoine Charpentier|Charpentier]] in France, and the wide dissemination of his music.<ref name="Grove">Andrew V. Jones, "Giacomo Carissimi", ''Grove Music Online''</ref>

==Biography==
Carissimi's exact birthdate is not known, but it was probably in 1604 or 1605 in [[Marino, Italy|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 [[Tivoli Cathedral]], under the maestri di cappella Aurelio Briganti Colonna, Alessandro Capece and [[Francesco Manelli]]; from October 1623 he sang in the choir, and from October 1624 to October 1627 he was the organist. In 1628 Carissimi moved north to [[Assisi]], as [[Kapellmeister|maestro di cappella (chapel master)]] at the [[Assisi Cathedral|Cathedral of San Rufino]].<ref name="Grove" /> In 1628 he obtained the same position at the [[Sant'Apollinare, Rome|church of Sant'Apollinare]] belonging to the [[Collegium Germanicum]] in Rome, which he held until his death.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} This was despite his receiving several offers to work in very prominent establishments, including an offer to take over from [[Claudio Monteverdi]] at [[San Marco di Venezia]] in [[Venice]]. In 1637 he was ordained a [[Priesthood (Catholic Church)|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."<ref>[http://www.isvroma.it/public/New/Italiano/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=331&Itemid=120 "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] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211130144551/http://www.isvroma.it/public/New/Italiano/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=331&Itemid=120 |date=2021-11-30 }} access date 4 May 2021</ref>

Carissimi seems to have never left Italy at all during his entire lifetime. He died in 1674 in Rome.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

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.<ref>Sorini, Simone. ''Gli Oratori Latini di Giacomo Carissimi: Jephte e Jonas''</ref>{{full citation needed|date=February 2012}}

==Music==
The great achievements generally ascribed to Carissimi are the further development of the [[recitative]], introduced by Monteverdi, which is highly important to the history of dramatic music; the further development of the [[chamber music|chamber]] [[cantata]], by which Carissimi superseded the [[stile concertato|concertato]] [[Madrigal (music)|madrigal]]s which had themselves replaced the madrigals of the late [[Renaissance music|Renaissance]]; and the development of the [[oratorio]], of which he was the first significant composer.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Carissimi's position in the history of [[church music|church]], [[vocal]] and chamber music is somewhat similar to that of [[Francesco Cavalli]] in the history of [[opera]]. While [[Luigi de Rossi|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]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Carissimi is also noted as one of the first composers of [[oratorio]]s, with ''[[Jephte (Carissimi)|Jephte]]'' as probably his best-known work, along with ''Jonas''. These works and others are important for establishing the form of oratorio unaccompanied by dramatic action, which maintained its hold for 200 years. The name comes from their presentation at the [[Oratory of Santissimo Crocifisso]] in Rome. He may also be credited for having given greater variety and interest to the instrumental accompaniments of vocal compositions. [[Charles Burney]] and [[John Hawkins (author)|John Hawkins]] both published specimens of his compositions in their works on the history of music, while [[Henry Aldrich]] collected an almost complete set of his compositions, which are currently housed at the library of [[Christ Church, Oxford]]. The [[British Museum]] also possesses numerous works by Carissimi. Most of his oratorios are in the [[Bibliothèque Nationale]] in [[Paris]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Carissimi was active at the time when [[secular music]] was about to usurp the dominance of sacred music in Italy. The change was decisive and permanent. When Carissimi began composing, the influence of the previous generations of Roman composers was still heavy (for instance, the style of [[Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina|Palestrina]]) and when his career came to a close the [[opera]]tic forms, as well as the instrumental [[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 ===
*''Baltazar'', oratorio for 5 voices, 2 violons & continuo
*''Dives Malus'' (The wicked rich man) also known as ''Historia Divitis'' for 2 sopranos, tenor, bass (c.&nbsp;1640), about the [[Rich man and Lazarus]].
*''Ezechia'', oratorio for 5 voices, 2 violons & continuo
*''[[Jephte (Carissimi)|Jephte]]'', oratorio for 6 voices & continuo  1648<ref name="Erato">Recorded in 1988 by John Eliot Gardiner and the English Baroque Soloists, Erato 2292-45466-2</ref>
*''Jonas'', oratorio for soloists, SATB double chorus, 2 violins & continuo<ref name="Erato" />
*''Judicium Extremum'', oratorio for soloists, chorus & continuo<ref name="Erato" />
*''Judicium Salomonis'', oratorio for 4 voices, 2 violins & continuo
*''Vanitas Vanitatum'', oratorio for 5 voices, 2 violins & continuo
*''Oratorio Della Santissima Vergine''

=== 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."<ref>Diary, 22 July 1644.</ref>

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==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==References==
*{{Cite Grove |last=Jones |first=Andrew V. |title=Carissimi, Giacomo}}
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Carissimi, Giacomo|volume=5|page=338}}

==External links==
*{{ChoralWiki}}
*{{IMSLP|id=Carissimi, Giacomo}}
*{{allmusicguide|id=giacomo-carissimi-mn0001168215}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carissimi, Giacomo}}
[[Category:1605 births]]
[[Category:1674 deaths]]
[[Category:17th-century Italian composers]]
[[Category:Italian classical composers of church music]]
[[Category:Italian Baroque composers]]
[[Category:Italian male classical composers]]
[[Category:17th-century Italian Roman Catholic priests]]
[[Category:Oratorio composers]]
[[Category:People from Marino, Lazio]]
[[Category:17th-century Italian male musicians]]