A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Cifra, Antonio

by Edward H. Pember

CIFRA, Antonio, was born at Rome during the latter part of the 16th century, and was one of the few pupils actually taught by Palestrina during the short time that the great master associated himself with the school of Bernardino Nanini. In 1610 he was Maestro at Loreto, but in 1620 removed to San Giovanni in Laterano. Two years later he entered the service of the Archduke Charles, and in 1629 returned to Loreto, where he died. That he was an erudite and elegant musician is shown by the fact that the Padre Martini inserted an Agnus Dei of his, as a specimen of good work, in his essay on counterpoint. He himself published a large quantity of his Sacred Motets, Madrigals, and Psalms, at Rome and at Venice, of which a specific catalogue need hardly be given here. After his death Antonio Poggioli of Rome published a volume containing no less than 200 of his Motets for 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8 voices. The title-page of this book contains a portrait of him taken in the 45th year of his age. Underneath the engraving are the following exceedingly poor verses—

    'Qui poteras numeris sylvas lapidesque movere,
        Siccine præruptus funere, Cifra, siles?
    Fallimur; extincto vivis Iætissimus ævo,
        Et caneris propriis clarus ubique modis.'

Cifra is among the 'masters flourishing about that time in Italy,' of whose works Milton sent home 'a chest or two of choice music books.' (Phillips's Memoir.)

[ E. H. P. ]