Adriano Banchieri tra 'antico' e 'moderno': una ricognizione sui trattati.

Abstract

Adriano Banchieri (Bologna 1558–1634) left a huge corpus of reflections on music theory—some twenty treatises, issued and reprinted between 1597 and 1633. Besides exploring the hiatus between traditional Renaissance contrapuntal conception and the new expressive innovations brought forth by “modern practice”, he offered a thick body of analysis on specific issues, tackled with acumen and delivered with clarity, drawing from an extensive technical vocabulary.
In particular, Banchieri's treatises offer notions and rules of musical syntax, information on vocal and instrumental performing technique, and related suggestions. All in all, Banchieri's theoretical opus stands tall as one of the richest contributions to Italian music theory scholarship between 16th and 17th century, thus proving the merits of the Bologna school, which was to become so highly productive, in terms of both quality and quantity, in the following centuries.