Strozzi, Piero (EN)

Strozzi Piero, Vincenzo *30 July 1551 Florence, †16 December 1614 Arezzo, Italian amateur composer, a member of a noble Florentine family known for its writers, poets and musicians. He played a significant role in the musical reform that began in Florence at the end of the 16th century. He was one of the key figures in Count G. Bardi’s Camerata, as evidenced, among other things, by his inclusion as one of the interlocutors in V. Galilei’s Dialogo della musica antica e della moderna (Florence, 1581) and his active membership in J. Corsi’s Camerata and M. da Gagliano’s Accademia degli Elevati. It was to him that J. Peri first presented his Galilei (Florence 1581) and an active member of J. Corsi’s Camerata and M. da Gagliano’s Accademia degli Elevati. It was to him that J. Peri first presented his new way of singing, while G. Caccini collaborated with him on the music for Il carro della notte (libretto by P. Rucellai) and Il carro di Venere (libretto by G.B. Strozzi the Younger), performed during the wedding celebrations of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Francesco I de’ Medici, and Bianca Cappello in 1579. Strozzi’s madrigal Fuor de lumido nido, sung at that time by Caccini accompanied by viols, is one of the earliest attempts at accompanied monody (the preserved version for violino and basso continuo is held at the Biblioteca Nazionale in Florence). In 1596, Strozzi composed the music for Mascherata degli accecati (libretto by O. Rinuccini), and his Coro di Amori was included in Il rapimento di Cefalo (libretto by G. Chiabrera) by G. Caccini, L. Bati and S. Venturi del Nibbio, performed in Florence in 1600 on the occasion of the wedding of Henry IV and Maria de’ Medici. Strozzi’s stage music has not survived, but two madrigals to texts by Petrarch have survived, included in Il secondo libro de madrigali a cinque voci by L. Bati, published in Venice in 1598 (Vago augelletto) and in Il secondo libro de madrigali a cinque voci by M. da Gagliano, published in Venice in 1604 (Portate aure del ciel). The madrigal from Gagliano’s print was performed on 21 February 1603 during the funeral ceremony of J. Corsi by the Florentine religious brotherhood Compagna dell’Arcangelo Raffaello, of which Strozzi was a member.

Literature: L. Schrade Les fêtes du mariage de Francesco dei Medici et de Bianca Cappello, in: Les fêtes de la Renaissance I, Royaumont 1955; E. Strainchamps Music in a Florentine Confraternity. The Memorial Madrigals for J. Corsi in the Company of the Archangel Raphael, in: Crossing the Boundaries, ed. K. Eisenbichler, Kalamazoo 1991; P. Gargiulo “Cosi d’Amo sul lido”. Madrigali e autori fiorentini ospiti nelle sillogi di area medicea (1594–1629), “Revista de musicologia” XVI, 1993; W. Kirkendale The Court Musicians in Florence during the Principate of the Medici, Florence 1993.