Giacomo Carissimi

Biography

Giacomo Carissimi (baptized April 18, 1605 – January 12, 1674), was an Italian composer, one of the most celebrated masters of the early Baroque, or, more accurately, the Roman School of music.

The great achievements generally ascribed to him are the further development of the recitative, later introduced by Monteverdi, and of infinite importance in the history of dramatic music; the further development of the chamber-cantata, by which Carissimi superseded the concertato madrigals which had themselves replaced the madrigals of the late Renaissance; and the development of the oratorio, of which he was the first significant composer.

Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.