CARISSIMI, Giacomo
b Marini, near Rome, baptised 18 April 1605
d Rome, 12 January 1674, aged sixty-eight

He was the youngest son of an artisan. He became a member of the choir of Tivoli Cathedral from 1623 to 1625, then remained there as organist until 1627. He worked at Assisi from 1628 to 1629, when he was appointed to the Collegio Germanico in Rome as maestro di cappella, becoming a priest there in 1637. Despite attractive offers of work elsewhere he remained at the Collegio until his death. He was one of the most influential of seventeenth-century composers, and the first important composer of oratorios. His colossal output, chiefly undated, comprised masses and many motets, oratorios and cantatas.