MARENZIO, Luca
b Coccaglia, near Brescia, 1553
d Rome, 22 August 1599, aged forty-six

He studied the organ, and became maestro to two courts in Rome. He was in the service of the King of Poland, either from 1588 to 1590 or 1591 to 1593, and was appointed to the Papal Chapel in 1595. He wrote much church music and was particularly famous for his madrigals, of which he left: sixteen books; one book of five-part spiritual madrigals; three books of motets; one book of Sacri Concerti; six books of villanelles.