An important figure in the development of dramatic music in late-16th-century Italy, Orazio Vecchi was associated for many years with the city of Modena, where he served as director of music at the cathedral, as a priest, and at the court of Cesare d’Este.

Sacred and Secular Music
Vecchi wrote a certain amount of church music but he is principally known for his collections of canzonette and, above all, the comic L’Amfiparnaso. This and Il convito musicale, a musical banquet, offer examples of madrigal comedy, the first with its mixture of pastoral amours and commedia dell’arte figures and the second with its very varied contents.