CAVALIERI, EMILIO DEL (155o?-1599?), Italian com poser, was born in Rome about 155o of a noble family and became one of the famous Florentine group of musical reformers —Peri, Rinuccini, Caccini and the rest—who had such an im portant influence on the subsequent developments of the art.
Cavalieri's style is more facile than that of Peri and Caccini, but he is inferior to them in depth of musical expression. He is, however, important as having been the first to apply the new monodic style to sacred music, and as the founder of the Roman school of the 17th century which included Mazzocchi, Carissimi and Alessandro Scarlatti.