Claudio Pari

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Claudio Pari (1574 – after 1619) was an Italian composer, of Burgundian birth, of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras. He was a competent madrigalist, well regarded by his peers, as well as a late representative of the musical style/ethos known as musica reservata. As has been recently established, he was born in Salines (Salins-les-Bains), Burgundy. While little is known about his early life, he probably came to Italy or Sicily early in his life. He was at the monastery of S. Domingo in Palermo in 1598, where he fell afoul of the Inquisition; at an auto-da-fé there he was sentenced to row in the galleys for five years, on a charge of heresy. By 1611 at the latest he was back in Palermo, since he published a book of madrigals there. Whatever his history as a heretic may have been, he must have been forgiven, for he was appointed to be music director at a Jesuit institution at Salemi (in western Sicily) in 1615. His final publication—his fourth book of madrigals—was in 1619 and nothing further is known about his life. Much of Pari's music is in the manneristic style which was characteristic of the transformation of Renaissance into Baroque, and in addition conforms closely to the idea of musica reservata: music of intense expressiveness, careful text setting, and elaborate contrapuntal techniques, most likely intended for an audience of connoisseurs. In this regard it resembles that of some of his contemporaries, including the madrigalists Gesualdo, Sigismondo d'India,

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