(b Bologna, 3 Sept 1568; d there, 1634). Italian composer and theorist. A Benedictine monk, he was organist at the monastery of S Michele in Bosco for most of his life. Although a versatile composer of sacred and instrumental music, Banchieri is chiefly remembered for his treatises on performing practice and for his six books of spirited three-voice canzonettas; in these the pieces are textually linked to form works in the madrigal-comedy genre (the most famous is La pazzia senile). His treatise L′organo suonarino (1605) describes the realization of bass figures, giving instructions for accompanying liturgical chant, while Cartella musicale (1614) contains his writings on harmony, rhythm and vocal ornamentation.
Born Tomaso Banchieri in Bologna, Banchieri was named "Adriano" when he started his novitiate in the Olivetian (Benedictine) monastic order in 1589. Banchieri studied with Gioseffo Guami and was best known as an organist. From 1592 to 1609, he held posts at monasteries and in churches in Lucca, Imola, Venice, and Verona. He settled in 1609 at the monastery of San Michele, in Bosco, on the outskirts of Bologna. In 1610, Banchieri participated in the canonization celebrations in Milan held in honor of San Carlo Borromeo. In 1615, Banchieri founded an early society for instrumental music, the Academia del Floridi; Claudio Monteverdi joined in 1620. As his health failed, Banchieri left Bosco and resettled in Bologna, where he died in 1634.
Banchieri's output consists of almost equal amounts of sacred and secular music; nearly all of it was published during his own lifetime. The sacred music, consisting of 12 mass settings, psalms, motets, and other works, has elicited mixed reviews by scholars. Some note the conservatism of the masses, said to be in concord with the recommendations of the Council of Trent. However, others write that Banchieri's greatest innovations are to be found in his sacred music. From a middle-ground perspective, it's worth noting that Banchieri's Concerti ecclesiastici of 1599 are set for two four-part choirs with a figured bass, placing them among the earliest known examples of sacred music with a fully functional instrumental part.
Banchieri' s first publication is a collection of canzonas that appeared in 1596; he subsequently published works (a small part of his output) intended for instruments alone. Banchieri was also a prolific author of treatises that have proved invaluable in studies of seventeenth century performance style. In his theoretical writings, he describes methods of realizing figured-bass accompaniment, executing vocal ornaments, and introduces elements of notation such as the use of the "modern tie," barlines and accenting within a bar. He was also one of the first composers to make use of expression marks.
Banchieri's most influential works are his "Madrigal Comedies," which, like the masses, are 12 in number; spanning from the popular La pazzia senile of 1599 to Trantiniamenti da villa in 1630. Banchieri's madrigal books are arranged within the context of a related theme, and are meant to be performed as a whole evening's entertainment, somewhat akin to musical comedy revue. Banchieri was thoroughly in touch with the often coarse and bawdy secular humor of his day; as his pseudonymous popular novella, The Nobility of the Ass (1595) demonstrates. This jocose quality is encountered everywhere in Banchieri's Madrigal Comedies. Il Festino del Giovedi Grasso contains a number entitled "Contrappunto bestiale alla mente" in which his singers cuckoo, hoot, meow and woof. Banchieri was an expert on the dialects of northern Italy, and a veritable Tower of Babel of these dialects may be found in his Barca di Venetia per Padova of 1605. Appreciated by seventeenth century audiences, the earthiness of Banchieri's madrigals has remained appealing throughout the centuries.
Banchieri fits the true designation of a "renaissance man," given his interests in the sacred and secular, music theory, literature, linguistics, and architecture. In music, Banchieri foresaw trends that were leading toward Baroque style, but never composed opera, preferring instead to cultivate the Madrigal Comedy to its highest degree of artistic achievement, irreverence, and popular appeal. ~ Uncle Dave Lewis, All Music Guide
He was born and died in Bologna. In 1587 he became a monk of the Benedictine order, 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.[1] 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.[1]
In several editions beginning in 1605 (reprinted at least six times before 1638), Banchieri published a series of organ works entitled l'Organo suonarino.[2]
Banchieri's last publication was the Trattenimenti da villa of 1630.[3] According to Farahat[3] 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.
LE SOURIRE DU MOINE - ADRIANO BANCHIERI DA BOLOGNA; Musicien, homme de lettres, pédagogue, équilibriste sur le fil des querelles du Seicento, Cinzia Zotti, Serre Éditeur, Nice, 2008.
