Marco Marazzoli

Marco Marazzoli (1602? – 26 January 1662) was an Italian priest and Baroque music composer.

Born at Parma, Marazzoli received early training as a priest, and was ordained around 1625. He moved to Rome in 1626, and entered the service of Cardinal Antonio Barberini. In 1631, he and other musicians such as Filippo Vitali and Landi accompanied the cardinal on a trip to Urbino and may have accompanied him on other official travels. In 1637, Marazzoli was appointed Barberini's aiutante di camera, and became a tenor in the papal chapel that same year; in 1639 he was awarded the position of musico under Barberini.

About this time, it becomes possible to trace some of Marazzoli's compositions to specific places and functions. In 1638, he composed the music for a ballet La piazza d'Orlando for the Carnival of Venice and the intermedi for Chi soffre, speri for the Carnival of 1639. These two pieces were performed at the Palazzo Barberini.

After 1640, he began composing more for patrons in Ferrara and Venice, including an opera, L'Amore trionfante dello Sdegno (or L'Armida), for a Ferrarese wedding in 1641.

Also in 1641, the Barberini were embroiled in the Wars of Castro, and Marazzoli set the events of the battle fought by Taddeo Barberini and Luigi Mattei in October 1641 to music in Le pretensioni del Tebro e del Po, probably composed late in 1641. Marazzoli's L'Armida was performed in a revised version in January 1642 at a celebratory fete. At Carnival in 1642, Marazzoli had another opera performed, Gli amori di Giasone e d'Isifile; following this, Marazzoli returned to Ferrara and directed another performance of Le pretensioni to celebrate Taddeo Barberini's return to the city in March 1642.

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