Biography
Grammazio Metallo (Bisaccia, about 1540 - Rome?, After 17 August 1615) was an Italian composer.
He was born in Bisaccia in 1540, since in his will, drawn up on 17 August 1615, he declares to be a native of this city and to be seventy-five years old. Son of Felice Metallo di Bisaccia, he taught music in Sant'Angelo dei Lombardi , Vallata and Bisaccia, as well as in Naples , where he gave lessons to some members of the Brancaccio family. All this comes from the interrogation he underwent in 1571, when he was arrested in Naples by the Inquisition. On 1 September 1577 he signed by Bisaccia the dedication of his Second book of songs for three and four voices ... with a Moorish (Naples, M. Cancer, 1577) to Francesco Braida, son of the "master of the city of Bisaccia".
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After being choirmaster in Treviso , he moved to San Vito al Tagliamento , where on behalf of the community he held the same position in the parish church from 23 April 1581 to May 1583.
In May 1582 he presented an application to succeed the deceased Giorgio Mainerio as teacher the chapel of the cathedral of Aquileia (1582); although he had presented some collections of music given to the press ("nonnullos libros musicales sub sua lui nomine impressos et editos"), Pandolfo Rappa from Mantua was preferred. In 1594 Metallo was choirmaster of the Cathedral of Bassano. On this occasion he is mentioned in the documents as "Prè Grammatico Metallo da Parma", perhaps because he resided in this city; the title preceding his name suggests that he was ordained a priest.
In 1601-1602 he decided to go to the Holy Land , making a long journey not without misfortunes: the musician was in fact arrested in Crete and tried for reasons we do not know, undergoing "travails for injustice and tyrannies, made me as an unjust judge"; released from prison, he then went to Alexandria in Egypt , Damietta (29 September 1601), Jerusalem (8 December 1601), Nazareth , Bethany , Cairo (2 February 1602) and Crete.
Returning to Venice in 1602, he became choirmaster of the church of S. Marcuola (Ss. Ermacora e Fortunato), maintaining this position until 1610.
On 17 August 1615, now elderly and ill, he made his will in Rome, where he had settled and probably died shortly after.
His most successful work was the collection of the two-voice Researchers per sonare et cantare , printed for the first time in 1591 and reprinted several times even after the author's death until 1685, which established itself as the most widespread in Italy for almost the entire seventeenth century .
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.