Vecchi, Orazio 01/01/1550 - 01/01/1605

Orazio Vecchi (1550-1605) was an Italian madrigalist, whose most important contribution to the development of music was the concatenation of madrigals into a unified work. His most significant work "L'Amfiparnasso" (1594?) must be imagined as a ballet or pantomime, in which the chorus incorporates the musical element in place of the orchestra. Although it is in the end nothing more than a series of madrigals, Vecchi called it commedia harmonia and brought it to the stage. Not a single voice is assigned to a particular character; a parallel to this work may be found in Stravinsky's "Les Noces."