Horatius [Orazio] Crescentii [Crescenzi] {Gregory XIII-Paul V}
Contralto; Naples; admitted 18 December 1579 at the same time as Silvio Frontini, by a vote of 15 in favor out of 26 (this was a bit below the 17 votes required for admission); mandati : January 1580 -November 1586 ; DS lists of 1587-1590; died in Rome on 28 November 1617 at the age of 55 and was buried in Santa Maria del Popolo. He may have been related to other singers named Crescenzi: Leonardo Crescenzi, who was in the Cappella Giulia from 1579-90 and in the Cappella Sistina from 1591-1618 (although this Crescenzi came from Bologna), and the Orazio Crescenzi was was a boy in the Cappella Giulia in 1584.
CELANI gives his epitaph
D.O.M./HORATIUS CRESCENTIUS/NEAPOLITANUS/CAPELLAE PONTIFICIAE CANTOR/LV ANNUM AGENS/SIBI VIVENS POSUIT/MDCX[V]II
DOCUMENTS
DS 11
117v: entry dated 18 December 1579
D.ns magister cappelle cum cantores fecit congregationem in Cappella Sixti et proposuit D.ns Silvius Fran.ci et D. Oratius Cresentio fuerunt examinati inter 26 cantores postea fuerunt votati justa formam constitutionis cappelle per fabam nigram et blancam. D. Silvius habbuit decem et settem vota in favorem et D. Oratius habbuit quindecim in favorem vota et obtinuerunt cottam per manum dicte magister cappelle.
118r: entry dated 20 December 1579
D. Oratius N. solvit suam intratum cantorum.
DS
entry dated 28 November 1617 [CELANI, p. 759]
Questo istesso giorno è passato da questa a miglior vita il sig. Horatio Crescentio nostro fratello, quale N. S. Iddio l’abbia in gloria, et tutti li sig. compagni collegialmente sono andati ad accompagnarlo da casa sua sino all Madonna del Popolo, et li si è cantato il Libera me Domine, come il solito.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: CELANI, p. 759; ROSTIROLLA, Giancarlo. "La Cappella Giulia in San Pietro degli anni Palestriniani." in Francesco Luisi, ed. Atti del Convegno di Studi Palestriniani , (Palestrina, 1977), pp. 233, 236.