Biography
Giacomo Carissimi ranks among the foremost Italian composers of the seventeenth century and is frequently credited with establishing the essential character of the oratorio. His reputation rests chiefly on his oratorios and cantatas, works that brought him early acclaim and were performed across Italy, England, and much of the continent. Composers of the succeeding generation frequently adopted the stylistic and structural advances he introduced.
Born in the vicinity of Rome, Carissimi was baptized on 18 April 1605; his precise date of birth remains unknown. The youngest son of an impoverished cooper, he nevertheless acquired substantial musical grounding by 1623, when records list him among the singers of Tivoli Cathedral. Appointed organist there in 1625, he soon began to compose. He remained at the cathedral until 1627, after which he served for a single year as organist at the Cathedral of San Rufino in Assisi. During these formative years his language was shaped by Capece and Manelli and, most decisively, by the contrapuntal discipline of Palestrina.
In 1629 Carissimi was named maestro di cappella of Rome’s Collegio Germanico, then a principal seat of Jesuit scholarship. The post carried considerable authority, and he retained it for the remainder of his life. His responsibilities encompassed the musical education of the students, direction of the choir, and the preparation of music for services at Sant’Apollinare. Among those who studied under him at the college were Kaspar Förster and Vincenzo Albrici; once his stature grew, he also accepted private pupils, including Marc-Antoine Charpentier and Johann Kaspar Kerll. Offers of other distinguished posts reached him: he declined to succeed Monteverdi at St. Mark’s in Venice and likewise refused a position at the court of the governor of the Netherlands.
Carissimi took holy orders in 1637. Between 1650 and 1660 he contributed to the musical presentations at the Oratorio del Crocifisso, although his most celebrated oratorio, Jephte, had already been completed by 1648. The works are distinguished by their lucid text setting, the prominent role assigned to the chorus, and the deployment of expressive gestures that underscore textual meaning. The impact of early opera, particularly Monteverdi, is apparent in the fluid alternation of aria and recitative passages—an approach that helped refine the dramatic potential of recitative itself. All such resources, however, served sacred purposes; unlike the largely secular entertainments Handel would fashion a century later, Carissimi’s oratorios remained devotional compositions. Although he did not originate the chamber cantata, the genre’s subsequent prominence owes much to his example. Roughly one hundred and fifty such cantatas, many of them written for the Roman court of Queen Christina of Sweden, circulated widely and accounted for the breadth of his contemporary reputation. He also produced nearly one hundred motets and at least one mass.
On his deathbed Carissimi is reported to have declared that he owed the Jesuits his entire livelihood, since their employment had lifted him from extreme want. Pope Clement X subsequently prohibited the sale of the numerous manuscripts he left behind. After the suppression of the Jesuit order in 1773, however, the archives of Sant’Apollinare fell into neglect, and the greater part of their contents was eventually lost. Virtually no autograph manuscripts of Carissimi’s music survive, and many works have disappeared altogether, rendering precise cataloguing and dating exceedingly difficult.
Born in the vicinity of Rome, Carissimi was baptized on 18 April 1605; his precise date of birth remains unknown. The youngest son of an impoverished cooper, he nevertheless acquired substantial musical grounding by 1623, when records list him among the singers of Tivoli Cathedral. Appointed organist there in 1625, he soon began to compose. He remained at the cathedral until 1627, after which he served for a single year as organist at the Cathedral of San Rufino in Assisi. During these formative years his language was shaped by Capece and Manelli and, most decisively, by the contrapuntal discipline of Palestrina.
In 1629 Carissimi was named maestro di cappella of Rome’s Collegio Germanico, then a principal seat of Jesuit scholarship. The post carried considerable authority, and he retained it for the remainder of his life. His responsibilities encompassed the musical education of the students, direction of the choir, and the preparation of music for services at Sant’Apollinare. Among those who studied under him at the college were Kaspar Förster and Vincenzo Albrici; once his stature grew, he also accepted private pupils, including Marc-Antoine Charpentier and Johann Kaspar Kerll. Offers of other distinguished posts reached him: he declined to succeed Monteverdi at St. Mark’s in Venice and likewise refused a position at the court of the governor of the Netherlands.
Carissimi took holy orders in 1637. Between 1650 and 1660 he contributed to the musical presentations at the Oratorio del Crocifisso, although his most celebrated oratorio, Jephte, had already been completed by 1648. The works are distinguished by their lucid text setting, the prominent role assigned to the chorus, and the deployment of expressive gestures that underscore textual meaning. The impact of early opera, particularly Monteverdi, is apparent in the fluid alternation of aria and recitative passages—an approach that helped refine the dramatic potential of recitative itself. All such resources, however, served sacred purposes; unlike the largely secular entertainments Handel would fashion a century later, Carissimi’s oratorios remained devotional compositions. Although he did not originate the chamber cantata, the genre’s subsequent prominence owes much to his example. Roughly one hundred and fifty such cantatas, many of them written for the Roman court of Queen Christina of Sweden, circulated widely and accounted for the breadth of his contemporary reputation. He also produced nearly one hundred motets and at least one mass.
On his deathbed Carissimi is reported to have declared that he owed the Jesuits his entire livelihood, since their employment had lifted him from extreme want. Pope Clement X subsequently prohibited the sale of the numerous manuscripts he left behind. After the suppression of the Jesuit order in 1773, however, the archives of Sant’Apollinare fell into neglect, and the greater part of their contents was eventually lost. Virtually no autograph manuscripts of Carissimi’s music survive, and many works have disappeared altogether, rendering precise cataloguing and dating exceedingly difficult.