What is Giaches de Wert?
'''Giaches de Wert''' (pronounce: JYA-kes de VERT) (born [[Flanders]], 1535; died [[Mantua]], 6 May 1596) was a [[Flanders|Flemish]] composer who lived and worked in [[Italy]]. He was one of the most important composers of [[madrigal]]s in the [[Renaissance]] period. == Life == We know very little about his childhood. Even some of the things about his adult life we are not sure about. He was born in [[Flanders]], possibly in [[Ghent]]. When he was a boy he was taken to [[Italy]] and he stayed there for the rest of his life. As a boy he was a singer in the household of Maria di Cardona, Marchesa of Padulla, near [[Naples]]. As a young man he lived in Novellara. He married there, and he had at least six children. Later he went to live in [[Milan]] where he had the job of [[maestro di capella]] (music director). He stayed there until 1565. Some [[letter]]s he wrote during that time have survived. They describe life at the court where he worked. In 1565, he went to work for the [[Gonzaga]] in [[Mantua]] and became choir master at the ducal chapel of S. Barbara where he stayed until 1592. A lot of people were jealous of his good job, especially a man called Bonvicino who made life difficult for him. It was then found that Bonvicino was having a love [[affair]] with de Wert’s wife, so she had to go back to live in Novellara. De Wert was becoming a very well known composer. He was offered a job at the [[emperor]]’s palace in [[Prague]], but he did not take it. He travelled to work in various places such as [[Parma]] and Novellara. In Novellara his wife was found to have been plotting against the Gonzaga of Novellara. She was put in [[prison]] where she later died. There were long arguments in the law court about who should have her property. In the end, de Wert was given a third of her possessions, and he was given the right to let his children [[inherit]] the money. He worked in Ferrara where he had a love affair with a lady who was of [[aristocratic]] birth. Since he was only a [[musician]] h