Domenico Zipoli was born in 1688 in Prato, Tuscany, Italy, where local musicians gave him his first musical training. Financial support from Archduke Cosimo III de' Medici of Tuscany enabled him to enroll in formal music education. He subsequently studied for a while in Naples with Alessandro Scarlatti, in Bologna, and in Rome with Bernardo Pasquini. In 1710 he was appointed organist of the church Santa Maria in Trastevere, Rome. Two of his oratorios date of this early period : San Antonio di Padova (1712) and Santa Caterina, Virgine e martire (1714). In 1715 he was granted the prestigious post of organist of the Church of the Gesù in Rome. In 1716 Zipoli published his Sonate d'Intavolatura pro Organo e Cembalo, which continues to be his best-known work.

That same year, he joined the order of the Jesuits in Sevilla, Spain. In 1717, as a Jesuit novice, together with a group of 53 missionaries, he embarked on a mission to South America, which eventually brought him to Córdoba in Argentina, the same place where the composer Manuel de Falla would take residence over 200 years later. In Córdoba, Zipoli completed his theological studies, though for lack of a local bishop, he could not be ordained priest. During these years he served as a Kapellmeister, combining the tasks of organist, choir master, and composer.

Ziploli's compositions attracted great fame among missionaries, and are still popular in churches of today. He is best known for his keyboard music that was composed in Italy. Most of his work composed in South America, such as three oratorios, is thought to have been lost. But recently, some of his South American church music was discovered in Chiquitos, Bolivia.

Zipoli died of tuberculosis in january 1726, aged only 37, in the Jesuit house near Córdoba.




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