Francesco Bianciardi

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Aliases: Franciscus Bianciardus (Biaciartus, Bianchardus, Bianchiardus); Francesco Biancardi

Life

Born: c. 1572, Casole d'Elsa, Italia

Died: September 1607, Siena, Italia

Biography: Italian organist and composer of motets, psalms and madrigals. In the preface to his Sacrarum modulationum (1596) he said that he was of humble origins. Until not later than 1596 he was organist, and from no later than 20 June 1597 maestro di cappella of Siena Cathedral. In his manuscript Notitia de contrapuntisti e de compositori di musica, Pitoni called him a ‘grandissimo suonatore di organo’ (very great organ player), and he was praised as maestro di cappella by Banchieri in his Conclusioni nel suono dell’organo (1609). By 1601 and probably until his death he was responsible for musical affairs in the Accademia degli Intronati. According to Isidoro Ugurgieni Azzolini (Pompe sanesi, Pistoia, 1649), Bianciardi was 35 when he died. He was mainly a composer of church music in the style of Palestrina, whose pupil he may have been. The Canzonette spirituali is in a lighter style, however, and another late collection, the fourth set of Sacrarum modulationum (1608), is in the concertato tradition inaugurated by Viadana. Bianciardi’s posthumous fly-sheet Breve regola is a useful source for the early practice of thoroughbass.

View Wikipedia article for Francesco Bianciardi.

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