Marenzio, Luca, 1553-1599, Italian composer, in whose works the Renaissance madrigal reached its peak of development. He served the Gonzaga family in Mantua, the Medicis in Florence, and in the households of several cardinals, and toward the end of his life attended the court of Sigismund III of Poland.

(born 1553, Coccaglio, near Brescia, Republic of Venice—died Aug. 22, 1599, Rome) Italian composer. He was probably trained as a choirboy in Brescia, and he was in service with Cardinal Luigi d'Este in Rome from 1578 to 1586. The cardinal's patronage enabled the publication in the 1580s of the first 10 of his 25 books of madrigals, the works for which he is best known and whose style became influential in Italy and England. His later madrigals, more serious in tone, use dissonance and chromaticism to reflect their texts, and they are sometimes linked into cycles. He also composed some 75 sacred motets.

Learn more about Marenzio, Luca with a free trial on Britannica.com.

See Luca Marenzio