Mazzocchi, Virgilio

(b Civita Castellana, bap. 22 July 1597; d Civita Castellana, 3 Oct 1646). Italian composer, brother of Domenico Mazzocchi.

1. Life.

Mazzocchi studied at the seminary in Civita Castellana and took lower orders in 1614. He moved to Rome, where, according to Pitoni, he studied music with his brother Domenico, who from 1621 was in the service of Cardinal Ippolito Aldobrandini. It was probably as a result of the cardinal's influence that Virgilio, about 1625, entered the service of Cardinal Francesco Barberini, and it was without doubt Francesco Barberini who opened the way to Virgilio's career as a church musician. From perhaps 1626 until 1629 he was maestro di cappella at the Gesù and taught at the Jesuit Collegio Romano. For this college in 1628 he wrote musical intermedi for the Latin play Crispus (1597) by Bernardino Stefonio. In 1629 he was briefly maestro at S Giovanni in Laterano and in the same year he was appointed to the Cappella Giulia at S Pietro, where he served until his death.

From about 1630 Mazzocchi's duties as maestro and court musician increased rapidly, and he sometimes delegated to Domenico the composition of music for religious feasts. He was active at several minor churches, especially those under the patronage of the Barberini family, including S Agata, S Giacomo alla Lungara delle Suore Convertite, S Chiara and S Maria in Aquiro, and at the more important churches of S Lorenzo in Damaso and S Maria in Vallicella (the Chiesa Nuova). But his main efforts were naturally directed towards S Pietro, where large musical forces were called for, particularly for the feasts of St Peter and St Paul (29 June) and the Dedication of S Pietro (18 November). For the feast of St Peter and St Paul in 1637 Mazzocchi used six choirs and six instruments in the lantern at the very top of the dome; in about 1640, according to Della Valle, there were as many as 12 or 16 choirs and an echo choir in the lantern. The echo choir was Mazzocchi's own idea and was acclaimed by his contemporaries.

Mazzocchi was active also in the new and rapidly evolving genre of oratorio. In Lent 1634 he directed the music for the Arciconfraternita del SS Crocifisso at S Marcello: ten Latin dialogues on five consecutive Fridays, four of which were possibly by Domenico Mazzocchi, whose Coro di profeti for the Congregazione dell'Oratorio (c1635) was also directed by Virgilio. In 1640 Mazzocchi performed in the Dialogo di Esther by Pietro Della Valle, playing the cembalo triarmonico, an instrument that produced, according to G.B. Doni, the ancient Greek tone genera.

As maestro di cappella to Francesco Barberini (from 1636) and the papal court, Mazzocchi also had to provide operas. Barberini preferred stories of the saints, but eventually admitted classical and humanistic plots, as well: Mazzocchi's first production, L'Egisto (or Il falcone, 1637), was based by the librettist Giulio Rospigliosi on a story by Boccaccio. In 1639, for the opening of the new Barberini theatre, the opera was repeated in a somewhat different form as Chi soffre speri, with intermedi by Marco Marazzoli. The rappresentazione sacra San Bonifazio was given in the Palazzo della Cancelleria during Carnival 1638 (libretto by Rospigliosi). The main action was performed by boys of 10 or 11, some of them from Mazzocchi's music school at S Pietro. There are 19 solo roles, and each act closes with a chorus, which was probably formed by singers from the papal chapel and S Pietro. In 1640 Cardinals Antonio and Francesco Barberini produced, in the Palazzo Rusticucci, Seneca's tragedy Troades, with a prologue and four intermedi by Rospigliosi; all the music (except perhaps one intermedio by Marazzoli) was by Mazzocchi. For the main plot, following the theories of Doni, he wrote music only for the choruses and soliloquies, employing ancient Greek rhythms and tone genera, and he again played the cembalo triarmonico.

In 1641, grand spectacle was called for by Francesco Barberini for the marriage of Marc'Antonio Colonna and Isabella Gioieni (sister-in-law of Anna Colonna Barberini). The first performance of La Genoinda, ovvero L'innocenza difesa took place in the Palazzo della Cancelleria at the end of January before about 100 Roman ladies and a few gentlemen; the music for both the main plot (with 17 solo roles and a four-part choir, all for boys) and the intermedi was by Mazzocchi. Observers emphasized the marvellous scenic effects in the manner of Bernini, created by a young nephew of Monsignor Fausto Poli. For Carnival 1643 Francesco Barberini produced a Latin play, Sancta Susanna, given by students of the seminary of S Pietro in the Palazzo Rusticucci. There was music only for Sant'Eustacchio, conceived as a series of Italian intermedi for Sancta Susanna.

From 1636 Mazzocchi also directed musical academies for Francesco Barberini and the papal court in the Palazzo del Quirinale. There he probably performed his own madrigals and cantatas, along with other music by, for example, Gesualdo and Domenico Mazzocchi. The singers were mainly boys, the preferred instruments viols. Mazzocchi was known as an excellent teacher; his pupils included G.A. Bontempi, Francesco Benedetti, Giovanni Carpano and M.A. Giroppi. According to Bontempi (p.170), Mazzocchi's choirboys received a profound and comprehensive training which equipped them for taking part in academies and operas.

In September 1646 Mazzocchi went with his singers from the Cappella Giulia to Civita Castellana, where he became suddenly ill and died. Pitoni described him as ‘amiable in manner, small in height and full in body’. Doni wrote that, like his brother Domenico, he was remarkable for a ‘natural modesty and gentleness’.

2. Works.

Fine examples of Mazzocchi's church music for large forces are to be found in the Psalmi vespertini (1648). In Beatus vir, an outstanding masterpiece, he used in places closely interlocking imitative counterpoint. Rhythmic and dynamic contrasts are sharp, brief tutti passages occur within solo sections, and the choral arias in ternary metre sometimes recall Gastoldi. Other psalms, such as Laudate nomen Domini, are less complex; they show a practical attempt to provide easier music for the more common liturgical occasions. The Magnificat from the 1648 collection occupies a middle level of complexity, balancing musical quality with practical considerations. The exordium exemplifies free homophony, pure (homorhythmic) homophony being also present in the sections that follow, and the imitative counterpoint is seldom very involved. The verse ‘Fecit potentiam’ receives emphasis from its cantus-firmus structure.

Examples of Mazzocchi's motets for smaller forces may be seen in the Sacrae flores of 1640. Vocal virtuosity resides here largely in the older traditions of gorgheggi and passaggi (as in the motets of Domenico); more modern, short concertante motifs play as yet little part. Some of these motets may have had a didactic as well as a liturgical purpose. Sequences made up by scales, as in Ideo jure jurando, are often in the nature of vocal exercises. Worthy of mention is the presence of ostinato basses, as in Ecce radix Jesse. Especially in the Piae meditationes (1648) Mazzocchi succeeded in matching practical with liturgical demands. These little motets for a cappella choir alternating with plainchant served a particular purpose. They were written for the Chapel of the SS Crocifisso at S Pietro, where each Friday the seminarists of the Vatican sang a meditation on the Passion. Intended for non-professional singers, they are particularly easy but never tedious. Mazzocchi's only surviving oratorio, Ego ille quondam, is entirely reflective, with choruses, recitatives and ariosos, but no fully developed arias.

Mazzocchi's most important operatic work is Chi soffre speri (1639), with intermedi composed by Marazzoli. The Boccaccio plot was enriched by the librettist Giulio Rospigliosi with an allegorical framework (for Ozio, Sentimento and Virtù) and commedia dell'arte characters – the Neapolitan Coviello, the Bergamasque Zanni, Moschino and others – using dialect. Mainly because of its commedia dell'arte elements, Chi soffre speri has been considered an early example of comic opera. Recitative is generally in a lively parlando style nearer to recitativo secco than to Florentine monody. But there is also, in Act 3, an expressive soliloquy showing a masterly formal disposition. The arias are characterized by relaxed counterpoint and lovely sweet melodic contours.

WORKS

sacred

secular

BIBLIOGRAPHY

PitoniN, ii

SmitherHO, i

G.A. Angelini Bontempi: Historia musica (Perugia, 1695/R)

H. Goldschmidt: Studien zur Geschichte der italienischen Oper im 17. Jahrhundert, i (Leipzig, 1901/R), 89–96, 312–24

H. Prunières: L'opéra italien en France avant Lulli (Paris, 1913/R)

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W. Witzenmann: Domenico Mazzocchi, 1592–1665: Dokumente und Interpretationen, AnMc, no.8 (1970); review by L. Bianconi, NRMI, vi (1972), 275–8

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W. Witzenmann: ‘Beiträge der Brüder Mazzocchi zu den musikalischen Akademien Kardinal Francesco Barberinis’, Akademie und Musik: Erscheinungsweisen und Wirkungen des Akademiegedankens in Kultur- und Musikgeschichte: … Festschrift für Werner Braun, W. Frobenius, N. Schwindt-Gross and T. Sick (Saarbrücken, 1993), 181–214

B. Schrammek: Die Kapelle im Schatten: Sozialstruktur und kirchenmusikalische Praxis der Cappella Giulia in den Jahren 1625 bis 1650 (thesis, U. of Berlin, 1997)

P. Barbieri: ‘Gli strumenti poliarmonici di G.B. Doni e il ripristino dell'antica musica greca (c.1630–50)’, AnMc, no.30 (1998), 79–114

WOLFGANG WITZENMANN