Caccini, Giulio "Romano"

important Italian composer of MONODY, an originator of opera and teacher, father of Francesca Caccini; b. probably in Tivoli, Oct. 8, 1551; d. Florence (buried), Dec. 10, 1618. Caccini was a pupil of Scipione delle Palla in singing and lute playing. His first compositions were MADRIGALS in the traditional POLYPHONIC style. Influenced by the new ideas coming out of Florence, however, Caccini began to write vocal works in RECITATIVE form (then termed musica in stile rappresentativo), which he sang with consummate skill to his own accompaniment on the THEORBO.

These first compositions in a dramatic idiom were followed by his settings of separate scenes written by Giovanni de' Bardi, including Il combattimento d'Apolline col serpente (Apollo's battle with a serpent). Next came two collaborations, Euridice (libretto by Rinuccini, 1600) and Il rapimento di Cefalo (libretto by Chiabrera, 1600). In 1602 he composed the opera Euridice as his own.

Caccini is best known for two volumes of Le nuove musiche, sets of madrigals for solo voice with bass, which were published in Florence in 1601 and 1614. The song Amarilli mia bella from volume 1 remains popular. From the mid-1560s Caccini lived in Florence as a singer at the Tuscan court. Angelo Grillo called him "the father of a new style of music," and Bardi said of him that he had "attained the goal of perfect music."