Italian classical music is difficult to do if everyone is singing a melody at the same time; thus, polyphony gave way to homophony, and early opera consisted of relatively simple melodies with texts about Greek mythology, sung in Italian and supported by simple harmonies. The important city in Italy in this development of music in the 16th century was Florence. (See also: Florentine Camerata, Vincenzo Galilei, Jacopo Peri, Palestrina, Arcangelo Corelli.) Besides Florence, two other Italian cities are particularly worthy of mention in the period around 1600. There is somewhat of a friendly rivalry between advocates of the two cities as to which
Jacopo da Leona Jacopo da Leona Jacopo da Leona, also spelt Iacopo (died 1277) was a medieval Italian jurist and poet. Beginning his career as a notary, he became a nobleman's secretary and later a judge. Sixty of his sonnets survive. Beginning life as Jacopo del Tancredo in the village of Levane, Arezzo, he took his later surname from the Castle of Leona ("Castello di Leona"), on which his village depended. Here Jacopo began to learn the work of a notary, under the patronage of the family of Ubertini of Arezzo, and one of the Ubertini, Ranieri, employed him as a secretary. Jacopo