Vecchi was the leading composer of lighter forms in Italy around 1600, and his canzonette, which were much imitated both in Italy, and in England and Germany, are marvellously fresh and lively works. These seven canzonette are taken from Canzonette di Horatio Vecchi da Modena, Libro Terzo a Quattro Voci, Venice,1585.
Orazio Vecchi (1550-1605) was born in Modena, which is where he spent most of his working life, though he did work away from home for a few years in Reggio. He must have been a fairly precocious musician, as his teacher Salvatore Essenga included one of his pieces in a collection of madrigals published in 1566, when Vecchi was only sixteen. He quickly established himself as one of the leading composers of light vocal music, specialising particularly in canzonette , of which he published six books, four in four parts, one in three, and one in six. He was also one of the main exponents of the so-called madrigal comedy his I’Ampfiparnaso (1597) was one of the earliest and most successful examples of this form, with its skilful parodies of serious madrigals. His canzonette were known outside Italy. In Germany Valentin Haussmann issued many of them with German texts.
