Asprilio Pacelli

Asprilio Pacelli
Monument in Saint John's Archcathedral in Warsaw, Poland
Born	1570 Vasciano, Stroncone, Province of Terni, Umbria, Italy
Died	4 May 1623 (aged 52–53) Warsaw
Nationality	Italian
Occupation	Composer
Style	Baroque

Asprilio Pacelli (or Pecelli) (1570 – 4 May 1623) was an Italian Baroque composer. He was born in Vasciano near Narni in Stroncone, Province of Terni, Umbria, Italy; and died in Warsaw.

Life

He was a boy chorister at Cappella Giulia under Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. He served at two Roman churches: Santa Maria in Monserrato and Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini. Maestro di cappella of the Collegio Germanico (from 1595), he held the same position at S Pietro from 1602, but he left the post to Francesco Soriano from 1 January 1603; in the same year Pacelli became Maestro di cappella of King Sigismund III of Poland, who had one of the most important royal chapels in Europe.^[1] He remained at that position until his death. In appreciation, the King ordered an epitaph commemorating Pacelli to be constructed in the St. John's Cathedral in Warsaw.^[2] The original epitaph with the composer's portrait was destroyed when the Cathedral was also destroyed during the Planned destruction of Warsaw;^[3] it was nonetheless reconstructed after the war.

References

1. Luca Marenzio, Marco Scacchi and Giovanni Francesco Anerio were musicians at the same court.
2. Polska Akademia Umiejętności, Instytut Historii (Polska Akademia Nauk) (1935). Polski słownik biograficzny (in Polish). Skład główny w księgarni Gebethnera i Wolffa. p. 754. Dla uczczenia jego pamięci Zygmunt III zlecił wmurowanie epitafium w warszawskiej katedrze Św. Jana. Gliński M., Asprilio Pacelli, Citta del Vaticano 1941.
3. "Archikatedra Warszawska św. Jana Chrzciciela". www.kapitula.org (in Polish). Retrieved 2011-08-18. Od 1603 roku aż do swojej śmierci w roku 1623 dyrygentem kapeli był wybitny kompozytor Asprillio Pacelli (...) W Archikatedrze istniał jego wspaniały pomnik, zniszczony w powstaniu warszawskim w 1944r.

Bibliography

• Mirosław Perz, Asprilio Pacelli, in «New Grove Dictionary»;
• Cristina Santarelli, Asprilio Pacelli, in «Dizionario Enciclopedico Universale della Musica e dei Musicisti», Torino, 1985;
• Alberto Cametti, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Ed. Ricordi, 1894.

External links

• Glinski: ‘Asprilio Pacelli e i suoi madrigali’: Opera omnia, Rome, 1947
• Free scores by Asprilio Pacelli in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)