Giovanni de Macque

Giovanni de Macque was a Netherlandish composer of the late Renaissance and early Baroque, who spent almost his entire life in Italy. He was one of the most famous Neapolitan composers of the late 16th century; some of his experimentation with chromaticism was likely influenced by Carlo Gesualdo, who was an associate of his.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article on Giovanni de Macque.

From the period sources

Giovanni de Macque, a Flemish musician, was a pupil of Philippe de Monte, according to Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1904). He settled in Italy, residing in Rome from 1576 to 1582, and then in Naples from 1586. He served as organist to the Vice-King of Naples around 1540, and later as maestro di cappella there around 1592, a position he held until about 1613, as noted in Cyclopedia of Music and Musicians (1889) and The New Encyclopedia of Music and Musicians (1924). The latter also suggests that “another Macque (his father?)” was court-organist in Naples from 1540. Macque’s publications, extending from 1576 to 1613, consisted “almost entirely of madrigals,” including two books for six voices, six for five voices, two for four voices, and two titled “Madrigaletti e Napolitane” for six voices, though some are now lost or incomplete, as detailed by Grove’s Dictionary (1904). His compositions were highly regarded, with some included in Morley’s 1598 collection of “best approved Italian authors,” and two adapted to English words in Yonge’s Musica Transalpina of 1588, according to A General History of the Science and Practice of Music (1875) and A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1880). His work also appeared in significant European anthologies, such as Pierre Phalèse’s 1583 Musica divina and the 1601 Il Trionfo di Dori, a collection where each madrigal concluded with “Viva la bella Dori,” as recorded in Biographie universelle des musiciens (1866) and A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1880).