CESTI, MARCO ANTONIO. - A gifted opera composer, b. at Arezzo in 1623, baptized with the name Pietro, he took the name Antonio upon entering the Minor Conventuals in 1637; he was maestro di cappella at the seminary of Volterra (where he was perhaps ordained a priest in 1646), then at Venice, Arezzo, Florence, Lucca, at Innsbruck (1653), at Rome (supernumerary cantor of the papal chapel from 1659 to 1662), then again at Florence, Venice, at Vienna (where he was probably maestro di cappella at Court), and thereafter at Venice and at Florence, where he died in 1669. Besides theatrical music he also wrote sacred music, examples of which are found in the Estense Library at Modena (motets for one and more voices from 1620), 14 vocal compositions for 1 to 8 voices, and in the British Museum in London (a composition for 4 voices, Filiae Ierusalem).

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: F. Coradini, P. A. C., in Riv. Mus. Ital., 30 (1923), pp. 371-88; R. Rolland, L'opera au XVIIᵉ siècle en Italie, in A. Lavignac, Encyclopédie de la musique, Paris 1921.

Luisa Cervelli

@incollection{ec3_cesti_marco_antonio, author = {Cervelli, Luisa}, title = {Cesti, marco antonio}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {III}, pages = {1363}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1949}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/cesti-marco-antonio} }

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Cesti, Marco Antonio

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