Ascanio Mayone (ca. 1565 – 1627) was a Neapolitan composer and harpist. He trained as a pupil of Giovanni de Macque in

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

, and worked at Santissima Annunziata Maggiore there as organist from 1593 and ''maestro di cappella'' from 1621; he was also organist at the royal chapel from 1602. He published

madrigal A madrigal is a form of secular vocal music most typical of the Renaissance (15th–16th centuries) and early Baroque (1580–1650) periods, although revisited by some later European composers. The polyphonic madrigal is unaccompanied, and the ...

s, but his main work is his two volumes of keyboard music, ''Capricci per sonar'' (1603, 1609). These contain canzonas,

toccatas Toccata (from Italian ''toccare'', literally, "to touch", with "toccata" being the action of touching) is a virtuoso piece of music typically for a keyboard or plucked string instrument featuring fast-moving, lightly fingered or otherwise virt ...

, variations, and arrangements of vocal pieces, many of which are distinctively

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

rather than Renaissance in style.

Works

*''Il Primo libro di diversi capricci per sonare'', Naples, 1603 (modern edition by Christopher Stembridge, Padua, 1981) *''Il primo libro di madrigali'', 5 vv, Naples, 1604 (facs. partly damaged) *''Primo libro di ricercari a 3'', Naples, 1606, (modern ed. F. Sumner: ''Italian instrumental music of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries'' ; vol. 18, Garland Publishing, New York,1995) *''Secondo libro di diversi capricci per sonare'', Naples, 1609 (modern edition by Christopher Stembridge, Padua, 1984) *2 madrigals in ''Teatro de madrigali a cinque voci. De diversi eccellentiss. musici napoletani…'', Naples 1609 (facs. partly damaged) *Messe e vespri, 8vv *Laetatus sum, 9vv *Magnificat, 8vv

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mayone, Ascanio Italian Renaissance composers Italian Baroque composers Italian classical organists Italian male classical organists 1560s births 1627 deaths 17th-century Italian composers Italian male classical composers 17th-century Italian male musicians