Italian composer. A pupil of Cipriano di Rore in Ferrara, he served at the court chapel there from 1567, becoming organist by 1576 and also being employed at the Accademia della Morte and (possibly) the cathedral. He was Frescobaldi's teacher, and published eight books of madrigals without accompaniment, one with accompaniment, and one book of motets. Even in quite early madrigals he expressed himself in an individual, chromatic idiom that anticipated Gesualdo, but his most important works were the Madrigali per cantare et sonareof 1601, brilliantly written for three voices and (written-out) keyboard accompaniment -- the earliest example of this texture in madrigals though firmly in the tradition of virtuoso professional court music.