A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Banchieri, Adriano

BANCHIERI, Adriano, born at Bologna, 1567, pupil of Gerami the organist of the cathedral of Lucca and afterwards of S. Marco in Venice. He was first organist at Imola, of S. Maria in Regola; then in 1603 we find him at S. Michele in Bosco near Bologna. Gerber's statement that he was chosen abbot of Bosco is unsupported, and appears to be contradicted by the fact that on his works he is uniformly described as 'Monaco olivetano.' His first work, 'Conclusioni per organo,' appeared at Lucca in 1591; and Zuchelli gives the date of his death as 1634. He was great in all departments, theory, the church, and the theatre. His most important theoretical work is probably his 'L'Organo suonarino' (Amadius, Venice, 1605), which was often reprinted. It contains the first precise rules for accompanying from a figured bass—afterwards published separately by Lomazzo at Milan. In a later work, 'Moderna practica musicale' (Venice, 1613), he treats of the influence of the basso continuo on the ornaments in singing, and the alterations necessary in consequence thereof. At the same time he mentions the changes in harmony and tonality which were at that time beginning to prevail, as incomprehensible. In addition to his many compositions for the church, Banchieri wrote what were then called 'intermedi' for comedies. In his 'La Pazzia senile, raggionamenti vaghi e dilettevole, composti e dati in luce colla musica a tre voci,' published at Venice in 1598 and reprinted at Cologne—itself a kind of imitation of the 'Antiparnasso' of Orazio Vecchi—the transition from the madrigal to the new form of the intermedio is very obvious; the work may be almost called the first comic opera. He afterwards composed a pendant to it under the name of 'La prudenza giovenile,' to which he boldly affixed the title of 'Comedia in musica,' and which was published at Milan by Tini in 1607. Another analogous work is 'La barca di Venezia a Padua' (Venice, 1623), and still more so 'La fida fanciulia, comedia esemplare, con musicall intermedi apparente ed inapparenti,' Bologna, 1628 and 1629. Banchicri was a poet as well as a musician, and wrote comedies under the name of Camillo Scaligeri della fratta. Lastly, in his 'Cartella musicals' (1614) we find a project for the foundation of an academy of science and art in his monastery at Bologna.

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