Odoardo Ceccarelli

Odoardo Ceccarelli (c. 1600 – 7 March 1668) was an Italian singer, composer, and writer prominent in the Sistine Chapel Choir and the Barberini court.

The first record of his activity in Rome is from 1620 when he was listed as a choir member at the church of Santo Spirito in Sassia.

He remained resident there for a year, but continued to sing in the choir of Sant'Apollinare, the Collegium's church, on multiple occasions up to 1645.

In addition to his activities with the Papal choir, Ceccarelli sang in the festivities in Parma celebrating the marriage of Margherita de' Medici and Odoardo Farnese in 1628 as well as at the court of Ferdinando II in 1635 and at the church of San Luigi dei Francesi on several occasions between 1631 and 1653.

[8] The musicologist Alberto Iesuè has speculated that his true voice type was probably a bass and that he sang tenor parts in falsetto.

He spent his later years as a prominent member of the Confraternity of the Most Holy Crucifix and served as maestro di cappella of its associated church, San Marcello, until 1667.

[6][2] Described by Adami, Liberati, and Fétis as an erudite man of letters and an excellent writer of poetic texts for music in both Latin and Italian, Ceccarelli also authored two prose works on images of the Virgin Mary in Rome, both published in 1647.