Giovanni Battista De Bellis

Giovanni Battista De Bellis was an Italian composer and organist of the early Baroque, active in the Kingdom of Naples between the late sixteenth century and the first half of the seventeenth century. His date of birth is placed around 1585-1590 in Itri, near Formia, though this is approximate; the date of his death, between 1623 and 1637 in Gaeta, is likewise not confirmed with precision.

De Bellis left Itri for Naples, where he enjoyed the patronage of the Carafa family. Two of his first books of five-part madrigals are dedicated to members of that house. In 1619, when he signed the dedication of his first book of four-part madrigals, he was already living in Gaeta. In that same edition he announced a second volume of sacred works, which never came to light, just as the first had not. According to Pietro della Valle, who sought him out in Gaeta in 1637, the composer had died by then, and he described him as maestro di cappella, a post he probably held at the city's cathedral.

His madrigals are conservative: they barely use chromaticism, insist on imitation and rely on stereotyped imitative motifs, formed by repeated notes or by stepwise movement within a narrow range. Stretti with thirds and doubled tenths abound. A third book comes closer to the contemporary Neapolitan madrigal, with more open textures and more clearly defined melodic phrases. Della Valle also praised his canzonettas and the Lamento di Orfeo, whose recitatives he judged well constructed, but both works have been lost. His legacy survives above all in his books of madrigals.