A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Pisari, Pasquale

PISARI, Pasquale (called Pizari in Santini's catalogue), eminent church composer, and, according to Padre Martini, 'the Palestrina of the 18th century,' son of a mason, born in Rome in 1725. A musician named Gasparino, struck by his beautiful voice as a child, urged him to devote himself to music. His voice developed afterwards into a fine bass, but he took less to singing than to composition, which he studied under Giovanni Biordi. In 1752 he was admitted into the Pope's chapel as supernumerary, and remained a member till his death in 1778. His poverty was extreme, and many, perhaps apocryphal, stories are told of his writing his compositions with ink made from charcoal and water, etc. His finest work is a 'Dixit' in 16 real parts, sung at the SS. Apostoli in 1770 by 150 performers. A Kyrie and Gloria in 48 parts by Ballabene were performed on the same occasion. Burney was in Rome the same year, and speaks with astonishment of the learning displayed in the 'Dixit' (Present State, etc., iii. 383). It was composed for the court of Lisbon, together with a service for every day in the year, but the payment was so long delayed that by the time it arrived Pisari had died, and his nephew, a journeyman mason, inherited it. The singers of the Pope's chapel, disappointed with Tartini's 'Miserere,' requested Pisari to write one, which he did in 9 parts, but it was a comparative failure. Baini conjectures that the arduous nature of his task for the King of Portugal had exhausted his powers. For the Pope's chapel he composed several masses, psalms, motets in 8 parts, two Te Deums in 8 parts, and one in 4, which Baini pronounces a lastingly beautiful work. Santini had twelve large church compositions by Pisari; for full list see Fétis.

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