Giacomo Carissimi, (baptized
April 18, 1605,
Marino, near
Rome [Italy]—died
Jan. 12, 1674, Rome) one of the greatest Italian composers of the 17th century, chiefly notable for his
oratorios and secular
cantatas.
Following brief appointments at Tivoli and
Assisi, Carissimi settled in Rome in the late 1620s as director of
music
at the German College and its associated Church of Sant’Apollinare and
retained this post until he died. Although not an operatic composer,
Carissimi helped to satisfy the Italians’ enthusiasm for
opera
by making its pastoral or dramatic content available in the home and in
the church through his numerous oratorios and cantatas. His 16
oratorios on Old Testament subjects were “substitute operas” that could
be performed during Lent, when operas were forbidden. Those episodes in
which the narrative is interrupted and the characters express emotions,
as in opera, show Carissimi’s basic interest and talents. In his
cantatas he consolidated the pioneer work of Luigi Rossi, but in
oratorio he was himself a pioneer.
Carissimi’s
works are marked by emotional balance and an ideal fusion of the
lyrical and the dramatic, and when working on a large scale his
pronounced feeling for tonality prevents any tendency to diffuseness.
His genius is well displayed in his oratorio
Jephtha,
lasting about 20 minutes, where both solo narrator and chorus act as
commentators and the latter also take the roles of opposing groups in
the story. George Frideric Handel expanded this basic scheme in his
oratorios. Carissimi greatly influenced later music not only through his
compositions but also through his numerous pupils. A renewed interest
in the music of Carissimi has resulted in performances of some of his
oratorios, including
The Judgment of Solomon, Baltazar, and
Judicium Extremum.
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