composer

Agazzari, Agostino

Agostino Agazzari (1578-1640) was an Italian composer of the late Renaissance. Although he is mainly famous because of his major work on Basso continuo: Del sonare sopra il basso con tutti stromenti en dell’ uso loro nel conserto (1607), he wrote several books of sacred music and madrigals. In 1605 he published his pastoral drama Eumelio.
He was born in Siena (Tuscany) to an aristocratic family. After working in Rome, as a teacher at the Roman College, he returned to Siena in 1607, to be first organist and later choirmaster of the Siena cathedral, where he stayed the rest of his life.
He was a close friend of Lodovico da Viadana, the innovator of the basso continuo.
His pastoral drama Eumelio is stylistically similar to the famous Rappresentazione di Anima e di Corpo by Emilio de’ Cavalieri (1600), a significant work in the development of the oratorio.
Most of his compositions are sacred music, all accompanied by basso continuo in an early baroque style. His madrigals however are all a cappella in the late Renaissance style. Here Agazzari shows his skills in both styles: remarkably conservative in secular music and progressive in sacred music. In most composers this is the other way around.