CARISSIMI, Giacomo, one of the most celebrated masters of the Italian, or, more accurately, the Roman school of music. Of his life almost nothing is known, and Fétis, who has made his biography a subject of special study, has been able to do little more than correct inaccurate or fictitious statements of previous writers. The only authenticated facts are the following. Carissimi was born about 1604, at Marino, near Rome, and received his first musical education at home. At the age of 20 he became chapel-master at Assisi, and in 1628 he obtained the same position at the church of St Apollinaris, belonging to the Collegium Germanicum in Rome, which he held till his death in 1674. He never seems to have left Italy, the rumour of his prolonged stay in Paris, mentioned by De Fresneux, being entirely unfounded. By his education he belonged to the old Roman school of music, but his compositions show little of the severe grandeur of the earlier masters. He marks indeed the turning-point from the traditions of the Renaissance period to the incipient aspirations of modern music, and for that reason his name is representative in the history of art. The two great achievements generally ascribed to him are the further development of the recitative, lately introduced by Monteverde, and of infinite importance in the history of dramatic music, and the invention of the cantata, a smaller form of the oratorio, by which Carissimi superseded the madrigals formerly in use. He also may claim the merit of having given greater variety and interest to the instrumental accompaniments of vocal compositions. Carissimi’s numerous compositions consist of masses, cantatas, motets, and oratorios. The complete collection of his works, formerly said to have existed in the musical archives of the ...