Draft:Simone Vesi

Simone Vesi (c1610–after 1667) was an Italian composer and cleric in Padua. His surviving works are almost all settings of psalms, the Mass and other liturgical works.

Biography
Simone Vesi was born in Forlì around 1610. His name is spelled in his printed editions variously as Simon, Simone or Simeone, and in one publication in the Latinate form Simone Vesius; he referred to himself in some of his publications as "Simone Vesi da Forli".

He spent all of his known career in nearby Padua, where he was employed by Padua Cathedral first as a tenor and then as a chaplain. Vesi unsuccessfully applied to be Maestro di capella at the cathedral, but did take on additional duties running the private chapel of Giorgio Cornaro (cardinal), the bishop of Padua.

Cornaro is the dedicatee of three of Vesi's published collections. Perhaps indicating another unsuccessful job application, his 'Messi e salmi' of 1646 is dedicated to Carlo Rossetti, who had been consecrated bishop of Faenza three years earlier.

Vesi's music was considered worthy enough to be included in two contemporary anthologies, the Musica Sacra of 1656 (published in Venice) and the 1659 collection by Johannes Havemann of mostly Italian music entitled Geistlicher Concerten. Records indicate that Vesi's own publications were in libraries outside Italy during his own lifetime, along with manuscript copies made by others.

He retired from his posts at Padua Cathedral in 1667.

Music
There are six contemporary publications of Vesi's music, of which five contain settings of liturgical texts. Most of his music are motets and settings of the Psalms for the service of Vespers. The music ranges from settings for single voice with continuo to works for double choir, instruments (most commonly two violins) and organ. His musical style is typical of Italian church music in the concertato style of the second half of the 17th-century, with alternating sections of solo recitative-like florid vocal writing and polyphonic or homophonic choral sections.

By contrast, his Opus 5 publication "Le Mascherate" is a sequence of seven madrigals with an introductory 'dialogue', dedicated to the Paduan music and instrument collector Andrea Mantova. Their musical style is, unsurprisingly, a departure from Vesi's liturgical music, with conversational dialogue between the different characters. The texts of the seven madrigals are by an unknown librettist, possibly Vesi himself, while the introductory dialogue borrows its text from an opera libretto by contemporary Venetian librettist, Pietr'Angelo Zaguri.

Works

 * Messi e salmi for 6 voices and instruments [Op. 1]. (Venice, 1646)
 * Motetti e salmi Op 2 for solo voice and instruments (Venice, 1648)
 * Motetti Op 3 for solo voice and continuo (Venice, 1652)
 * Salmi concertati Op 4 for 3-6 voices, second chorus and instruments (Venice, 1656)
 * Le Mascherate Op 5 for 4 voices, 2 violins and continuo (Venice, 1660)
 * Salmi ariosi Op 6 for 8 voices (Venice, 1663)
 * Individual works by Vesi appear in other contemporary publications, and in a collection of manuscript transcriptions held at Uppsala University