Marco da Gagliano

Marco da Gagliano (1 May 1582 – 25 February 1643) was an Italian composer of the early Baroque era. He was important in the early history of opera and the development of the solo and concerted madrigal. Life Gagliano was born on 1 May 1582 in Florence and lived most of his life there. After study with a religious confraternity and Luca Bati, he was employed for six years from 1602 by the church of San Lorenzo as a singing instructor. In 1607, he went to Mantua, where he wrote music for the Gonzaga family, including his impressive operatic setting of La Dafne. In 1609, he returned to Florence to become maestro di cappella at the Compagnia dell’Arcangelo Raffaello, the organisation from which he had received his boyhood musical training. Later that same year, the Medici made him maestro di cappella of their court, a position he held for 35 years. He died on 25 February 1643. Music and influence Gagliano wrote an enormous quantity of music, both sacred and secular, for the Medici; in addition, he was a singer and instrumentalist who entertained them privately. His works include fourteen published operas, of which two survive, La Flora (1628) set to a libretto by Andrea Salvadori and L