Adriano Banchieri (
Bologna, 3 September 1568 – Bologna, 1634) was an Italian
composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music.
Etymology and def ...
,
music theorist,
organist and
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...
of the late
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
and early
Baroque
The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...
eras. He founded the
Accademia dei Floridi in
Bologna.
Biography
He was born and died in Bologna (then in the
Papal States). In 1587 he became a monk of the
Benedictine order
The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly Christian mysticism, contemplative Christian monasticism, monastic Religious order (Catholic), order of the Catholic Church for men and f ...
, taking his vows in 1590, and changing his name to Adriano (from Tommaso). One of his teachers at the monastery was
Gioseffo Guami, who had a strong influence on his style.
Like
Orazio Vecchi he was interested in converting the
madrigal to dramatic purposes.
Specifically, he was one of the developers of a form called "
madrigal comedy" — unstaged but dramatic collections of madrigals which, when sung consecutively, told a story. Formerly, madrigal comedy was considered to be one of the important precursors to opera, but most music scholars now see it as a separate development, part of a general interest in Italy at the time in creating musico-dramatic forms. In addition, he was an important composer of
canzonettas, a lighter and hugely popular alternative to the madrigal in the late 16th century.
Banchieri disapproved of the
monodists with all their revolutionary
harmonic tendencies, about which he expressed himself vigorously in his ''Moderna Practica Musicale'' (1613), while systematizing the legitimate use of the monodic art of
figured bass.
In several editions beginning in 1605 (reprinted at least six times before 1638), Banchieri published a series of
organ works entitled ''l'Organo suonarino''.
Banchieri's last publication was the ''Trattenimenti da villa'' of 1630.
[ Farahat's article concerns itself with the consensus among scholars that Banchieri's madrigal comedies were not intended to be staged but only for concert use, and some evidence that they were so intended; and a few related questions.] According to Martha Farahat
he wrote five madrigal comedies between 1598 and 1628 with "plot and character development", starting with ''La pazzia senile'' of 1598, the last of them ''La saviezza giovenile''.
Works
Secular vocal works
* Primo libro di Madrigali a 4 voci (Milano, 1597)
* 6 Libri di canzonette a 3 voci
** I Libro: (Venezia, 1597)
** II Libro: (Venezia, 1598)
** III Libro: (Milano, 1600)
** IV Libro: (Venezia, 1601)
** V Libro: Op.15 (Milano, 1607); republished as (Venezia, 1628)
** VI Libro: (Venezia, 1614)
* (Milano, 1604), first book of madrigals for five voices
* ', Op.12 (Libro II madrigali a 5 voci, Venezia, 1605)
* , Op. 18 (Libro III madrigali a 5 voci, Venezia, 1608)
* , Op. 44 (Libro V madrigali a 5 voci, Venezia, 1622)
* (Bologna, 1625)
* , Op. 49 (Venezia, 1626)
* (Bologna, 1628)
* (Libro VI madrigali a 5 voci, Venezia, 1630)
Sacred vocal works
* Vezzo di perle musicali a 2 voci Op 23 (Bologna 1610)
* Nuovi pensieri ecclesiastici...
** Libro III Op 35 (1613)
References in modern culture
In 2008, a group of four composers including
Lorenzo Ferrero and
Bryan Johanson
Bryan Johanson (born 1951) is an American classical guitarist and composer.
Johanson was born in Portland, Oregon.
Johanson has performed, recorded and published works internationally. Johanson's works have won major awards from the St. Paul Cha ...
wrote a collaborative composition for organ and orchestra entitled ''Variazioni su un tema di Banchieri'', which was first performed in
Bologna on August 2 of that same year.
Media
References
Sources
* Cinzia Zotti, ''Le Sourire du moine: Adriano Banchieri da Bologna; Musicien, homme de lettres, pédagogue, équilibriste sur le fil des querelles du Seicento'', Serre Éditeur, Nice, 2008.
External links
*
Adriano Banchieri, biographie de Cinzia Zotti.www.noblessedelasne.org*
*
*
''Contraponto bestiale alla mente''(PDF - original version at classicaland.com)
* Original texts o
an
{{DEFAULTSORT:Banchieri, Adriano
Italian male classical composers
Italian Baroque composers
Italian music theorists
Composers from Bologna
Italian Renaissance composers
Italian classical organists
Italian male classical organists
Composers for pipe organ
1568 births
1634 deaths
17th-century Italian composers
17th-century Italian male musicians