Vincenzo D'Elia

Vincenzo D'Elia was a composer and organist born in Palermo, whose career unfolded in seventeenth-century Sicily. The date of his death is not known with certainty; according to some accounts, he died in Palermo around 1655, although this detail is doubtful.

In January 1636 he signed the dedication of his only known work, describing himself as lieutenant of the Royal Chapel and organist of San Pietro in the Royal Palace of Palermo. That same year, in March, he succeeded Cornelio Drago as maestro di cappella on the latter's death. In December 1653 he became a member of the Unione dei musici de Palermo.

His collection Salmi ed inni di vesperi ariosi, published in Palermo in 1636, resurfaced in 1979 in the archives of the cathedral of Mdina, in Malta. It contains nineteen pieces with organ basso continuo: some for four voices, others for four soloists and four-part choir, and others for two four-part choirs. The first group consists of invitatories and psalms 'in concerto', based on the contrast between solo voices and tutti; the second forms a complete cycle of Marian vespers with a Magnificat and four hymns. In the pieces for double choir the style is spare and concise, with the two choirs of equal importance.

His legacy is modest, but his sole surviving work documents Palermitan musical practice at the beginning of the seventeenth century and the use of the concertato style in Sicilian liturgy.