(b Civita Castellana, bap. 8 Nov 1592; d Rome, 21 Jan 1665). Italian composer. By 1621 he was living in Rome, where he served Cardinal Ippolito Aldobrandini as a musician until 1638. His other patrons included Pope Urban VIII (Maffeo Barberini), who secured a lifelong benefice for him in 1637. The most elegant and expressive of his music appears in his vocal chamber works, among them motets, dialogues, sonnets (notably the lament Lagrime amare all′anima, 1638) and a book of madrigals (1638); the latter combine old and new techniques. All the published works, unusually, contain dynamic and tempo markings. Mazzocchi also composed two operas and one Italian and several Latin oratorios.

The Concise Grove Dictionary of Music. Copyright © 1994 by Oxford University Press, Inc.. All rights reserved.