1623 in music

The year 1623 in music involved some significant events.

Events

• Drum cymbals are first made commercially by the predecessor of the Avedis Zildjian Company at Constantinople in Ottoman Turkey. Zildjian /ˈzɪldʒⁱən/ cymbals were created in 1618 by Avedis Zildjian, an alchemist who was looking for a way to turn base metal into gold; he created an alloy combining tin, copper, and silver into a sheet of metal that could make musical sounds without shattering. Avedis was given the name of Zildjian (Zilciyân) by the Sultan Osman II[3] (from the Turkish word zil cymbal, dji maker/seller, -ian a common suffix used in Armenian last names) and begins an industry in this year, the details of whose main product remain secret for generations as it becomes family tradition that only the company's heirs would know the manufacturing process. The company will still be operating, from Massachusetts, in the 21st century.

Classical music

• Alessandro Piccinini – Intavolatura di liuto, et di chitarrone
• Salamone Rossi – השירים אשר לשלמה (Ha-shirim asher l'Shlomo, The Songs of Solomon), a collection of Jewish liturgical music

Births

• July 6 – Jacopo Melani, violinist and composer (died 1676)
• August 5 – Antonio Cesti, composer (died 1669)
• date unknown – Johann Heinrich Schmelzer, violinist and composer (died 1688)
• probable – Dietrich Becker, violinist and composer (died c.1679)

Deaths

• January/February – Mogens Pedersøn, instrumentalist and composer (born c.1583)
• May 4 – Asprilio Pacelli, composer (born 1570)
• May 5 – Philip Rosseter, musician and composer (born 1567/8)
• July 4 – William Byrd, composer (born 1543)
• November 30 – Thomas Weelkes, English composer (born 1576)
• date unknown
  • Giovanni Bernardino Nanino, composer, teacher and singing master (born c.1560)
  • Tulsidas, Hindu philosopher, composer, and poet (born 1532)

References