Striggio, Alessandro

Striggio, Alessandro, eminent Italian instrumentalist and composer; b. Mantua, c. 1540; d. there, Feb. 29, 1592. By the 1560s he was the major composer at the court of Cosimo I de’ Medici, Duke of Florence; in 1584 he was active at the court of Alfonso II d’Esté in Ferrara, but that same year went to Mantua as court composer; all the same, he remained associated with the courts in Ferrara and Florence until his death; also wrote works for the Munich court. His importance rests upon his music for intermedi, stage works, and madrigals, including the 3 musical intermezzi Psiche ed Amore (1565). He publ, several books of madrigals and II cicalamento delle donne (1567; descriptive songs in the manner of Janequin); many compositions by Striggio are found in collections of the period. His son, Alessandro, known as Alessandrino (b. Mantua, c. 1573; d. Venice, June 15, 1630), was a librettist, musician, diplomat, and nobleman. He studied law in Mantua and then was a diplomat in the service of the Gonzaga family there; was made secretary to Duke Vincenzo I in 1611 and later was ambassador to Milan; died of the plague while on a diplomatic mission to Venice. He wrote the librettos to Monteverdi’s Orfeo (Mantua, 1607), Lamento d’Apollo (not extant), and probably Tirsie Clori (1615).

Bibliography

R. Tadlock, The Early Madrigals of A. S.(diss., Univ. of Rochester, 1958).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire