1623 in music

Events

• Drum cymbals are first made commercially by the predecessor of the Avedis Zildjian Company at Constantinople in Ottoman Turkey. Zildjian cymbals were created in 1618 by Avedis Zildjian, an alchemist who was looking for a way to turn base metal into gold; he created an alloy combining tin, copper, and silver into a sheet of metal that could make musical sounds without shattering. Avedis was given the name of Zildjian by the Sultan Osman II and begins an industry in this year, the details of whose main product remain secret for generations as it becomes family tradition that only the company's heirs would know the manufacturing process. The company will still be operating, from Massachusetts, in the 21st century.

Publications

• Antonio Cifra – Sixth book of madrigals for five voices with basso continuo
• Ignazio Donati – Salmi boscarecci for six voices plus a six-voice ripieno, also includes a mass
• Melchior Franck
• *Gemmulæ Evangeliorum Musicae for four voices, settings of gospel texts for the whole year
• *Neues liebliches Musicalisches Lustgärtlein for five, six, and eight voices or instruments, a collection of secular songs
• *Viertzig Neue Deutzsche lustige Musicalische Täntze for four, five, and six voices or instruments, a collection of songs and dances
• *Newes fröliches Hochzeitgesang Auß dem 4. Capitel deß Hohenlieds Salomonis for five voices, a wedding motet
• *Newes Fröliches Hochzeitgesang Auß dem Ersten Capittel deß Hohenlieds Salomonis for six voices, a wedding motet
• *Neues Christliches Grabgesänglein for four voices, a funeral motet
• Orlando Gibbons – The Hymns and Songs of the Church
• Sigismondo d'India – Fifth book of le musiche for solo voice and accompaniment
• Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger
• *Second book of arias
• *Fourth book of villanelle for one and more voices with guitar
• Carlo Milanuzzi – Third book of ariose vaghezze for solo voice and accompaniment, Op. 9
• Claudio Monteverdi – Lamento d'Arianna, the only surviving excerpt from his opera, L'Arianna
• Peter Philips – Litaniae Beatae Mariae Virginis, in ecclesia Loretana cani solitae for four, five, six, eight, and nine voices with organ bass
• Alessandro Piccinini – Intavolatura di liuto, et di chitarrone, Libro Primo
• Isaac Posch – Harmonia Concertans for one, two, three, and four voices or instruments with organ bass

Classical music

• Salamone Rossi –, a collection of Jewish liturgical music

Births

• July 6 – Jacopo Melani, violinist and composer
• August 5 – Antonio Cesti, composer date unknown – Johann Heinrich Schmelzer, violinist and composer probable – Dietrich Becker, violinist and composer

Deaths

• January/February – Mogens Pedersøn, instrumentalist and composer
• May 4 – Asprilio Pacelli, composer
• May 5 – Philip Rosseter, musician and composer
• June 11 – Gutierre Fernández, South American composer and priest of Spanish birth
• July 4 – William Byrd, composer
• November 30 – Thomas Weelkes, English composer date unknown
• * Giovanni Bernardino Nanino, composer, teacher and singing master
• * Tulsidas, Hindu philosopher, composer, and poet