1590 in music

Events

* Year 1590 was the approximate peak year of the late Italian madrigal style, as represented by Gesualdo, Luzzaschi, Monteverdi, Marenzio, Monte and others.
* The Serpent is invented by Canon Edmé Guillaume in Auxerre, France - it was a common instrument in Western European churches for the next several hundred years.
* Baldassare Donato becomes "maestro di cappella" at St. Mark's in Venice, taking over on the death of Gioseffo Zarlino.
* October 16 - Carlo Gesualdo, Italian composer of madrigals, murders his wife and her lover.
* Claudio Monteverdi, Italian composer, is engaged as string player at court of Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga at Mantua.
* Emilio de' Cavalieri, Italian composer, produces Tasso's "Aminto", likely with his own music, for the Medici, at Carnival in Florence.

Publications

* Giovanni Croce - "Mascarate piacevoli et ridicolose per il carnevale"
* Andrea Gabrieli publishes works posthumously, in Venice, under the direction of his nephew Giovanni Gabrieli.
* Giovanni Gabrieli publishes works in the "cori spezzati" style, in Venice.
* Hans Leo Hassler - "Canzonette", published in Nuremberg
* Orlande de Lassus, Franco-Flemish composer, publishes "Neue teutsche, unnd etliche frantzösische Gesäng", a collection of secular songs for six voices, in Munich
* Claudio Monteverdi – "Il secondo libro de madrigali a cinque voci di Claudio Monteverde Cremonese discepolo del Sig.r Ingegneri" – (second book of madrigals "a"5), published in Venice.
* Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina publishes his fifth book of masses, in Rome.
* Orazio Vecchi publishes a book of motets for 10 voices, in Venice.
* Thomas Watson - "The first sett, Of Italian Madrigalls Englished", published in London.

Births

*"probable" - Loreto Vittori, Italian composer (d. 1670)

Deaths

* Maddalena Casulana, Italian composer (born c1544)
* February 4 - Gioseffo Zarlino, Italian music theorist and composer, "maestro di cappella" at St. Mark's in Venice (born 1517)
* September 20 - Lodovico Agostini, Italian composer (born 1534)