Vincenzo Tozzi

Vincenzo Tozzi was an Italian composer of the seventeenth century, born in Rome around 1612 and who died in Messina, at a date placed around 1675 and, in any case, before 8 April 1679. His biography presents some uncertain dates, so they should be taken as approximate.

According to the testimony of Pitoni, who put his age at around twenty-eight, Tozzi left the service of Cardinal Vincenzo Costaguti in Rome in 1640 to take up the post of maestro di cappella of the city of Messina. He is known to have held that office from 1649 at least until 1664, and probably for longer. In Messina he collaborated with the literary academies of the Abbarbicati and the Accademia della Fucina, which provided texts for some of his works, among them the intermezzos I pasticcieri and Le gare di Natura e di Fortuna, the latter composed on the occasion of the birth of the heir to the Spanish throne.

His sacred output survives in part in Il primo libro de concenti ecclesiastici, published in Rome in 1662, whose twenty-five pieces combine brief sections of contrasting tempo and metre, with repeated and transposed phrases. His son Francesco served in the royal chapel of Messina from 1679 until 1722 and was maestro di cappella from 1720.