Zacara da Teramo

Antonio “Zacara” da Teramo (in Latin Antonius Berardi Andree de Teramo, also Zacar, Zaccara, Zacharie, Zachara, and Çacharius; c.1350/1360 – between May 19, 1413 and mid-September 1416) was an Italian composer, singer, and papal secretary of the late Trecento and early 15th century. He was one of the most active Italian composers around 1400, and his style bridged the periods of the Trecento, ars subtilior, and beginnings of the musical Renaissance. Life Antonio was probably from Teramo, in northern Abruzzo (Kingdom of Naples), not far from the Adriatic coast. In musical sources he is sometimes called “Antonio da Teramo” and otherwise “Zacara da Teramo” (or something similar) leading many musicologists to suggest there were two composers of similar names. The possibility that two people were being conflated was removed in 1979 by research into the composer’s life by Agostino Ziino. (Another composer with a similar name, Nicolaus Zacharie, is considered to be a different person from the following generation of composers). Antonio’s nickname “Zaccara” (or “Zachara”; often regularized in modern editions as “Zacara”) probably is a reference to his short stature (he is described as havi