Felice Anerio

Composer from Italy
- 1614, September 26th in Rome, Italy

Felice Anerio (c. 1560-1614) was an Italian composer of the Roman School, active at the turn of the Renaissance and the early Baroque, and the successor of Palestrina as composer to the papal choir. Born in Rome, he was a boy chorister at Santa Maria Maggiore from 1568 and then sang in the Cappella Giulia at St Peter's, at the time when Palestrina was its maestro, before continuing as an alto until 1580.

By 1584 he was maestro di cappella at the English College in Rome, and he also directed the Compagnia dei Musici di Roma, the society that gathered the leading musicians of the city. On 3 April 1594, shortly after Palestrina's death, he was appointed official composer to the papal chapel. He was ordained a priest around 1607 and, together with Francesco Soriano, worked on the reform of the Roman Gradual following the Council of Trent. He died in Rome in September 1614. He was the elder brother of the composer Giovanni Francesco Anerio.

His output is mostly sacred vocal music: masses, motets, Magnificats, hymns (two books, 1596), Holy Week responsories for four voices (1606) and two books of Madrigali spirituali (1585), alongside a book of canzonettas (1586) and five books of secular madrigals. His style is conservative and closely modelled on Palestrina's polyphony, with occasional touches of the more progressive northern Italian manner. Many of his motets and hymns were reprinted by Karl Proske in the nineteenth-century anthology Musica Divina, and they remain part of the repertoire of the Sistine Chapel Choir. Source: Rondo DB

Usual Name Felice Anerio
On Wikipedia Felice_Anerio
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