Alessandro Piccinini (1566 – 1638), was an Italian

lutenist A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lute" can refe ...

and composer. Piccinini was born in

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

into a musical family: his father Leonardo Maria Piccinini taught lute playing to Alessandro as well as his brothers Girolamo (d. 1615) and Filippo (d. 1648). He held appointments at the Este court in

Ferrara Ferrara (, ; egl, Fràra ) is a city and ''comune'' in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital of the Province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream ...

(from 1582 to 1597) and with

Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini Pietro Aldobrandini (31 March 1571 – 10 February 1621) was an Italian cardinal and patron of the arts. Biography He was made a cardinal in 1593 by his uncle, Pope Clement VIII. He took over the duchy of Ferrara in 1598 when it fell to the Pa ...

, papal legate at

and

. Piccinini died around 1638, probably in Bologna. Piccinini titlepage

He is best known for his two volumes of lute music: ''Intavolatura di Liuto et di Chitarrone, libro primo'' (Bologna, 1623) and ''Intavolaturo di Liuto'' (Bologna, 1639), the latter published posthumously by his son Leonardo Maria Piccinini. The 1623 collection is of particular importance because of Piccinini's lengthy preface, which includes a detailed manual on performance, as well as claims to have invented the

archlute The archlute ( es, archilaúd, it, arciliuto, german: Erzlaute) is a European plucked string instrument developed around 1600 as a compromise between the very large theorbo, the size and re-entrant tuning of which made for difficulties in the p ...

(Piccinini also made important modifications to the

chitarrone The theorbo is a plucked string instrument of the lute family, with an extended neck and a second pegbox. Like a lute, a theorbo has a curved-back sound box (a hollow box) with a wooden top, typically with a sound hole, and a neck extending out ...

). Piccinini concentrated on

toccata Toccata (from Italian ''toccare'', literally, "to touch", with "toccata" being the action of touching) is a virtuoso piece of music typically for a keyboard or plucked string instrument featuring fast-moving, lightly fingered or otherwise virtuo ...

courante The ''courante'', ''corrente'', ''coranto'' and ''corant'' are some of the names given to a family of triple metre dances from the late Renaissance and the Baroque era. In a Baroque dance suite an Italian or French courante is typically paired ...

s and

galliard The ''galliard'' (; french: gaillarde; it, gagliarda) was a form of Renaissance dance and music popular all over Europe in the 16th century. It is mentioned in dance manuals from England, Portugal, France, Spain, Germany, and Italy. Dance fo ...

s, as well as different kinds of

variations Variation or Variations may refer to: Science and mathematics * Variation (astronomy), any perturbation of the mean motion or orbit of a planet or satellite, particularly of the moon * Genetic variation, the difference in DNA among individuals ...

. No other works by Piccinini are known; his music for ''La selva sin amor'', the first opera performed in

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

, composed by his brother Filippo Piccinini is lost.

Works

*''Intavolatura di liuto, et di chitarrone, libro primo, nel quale si contengano dell’uno, & dell’altro stromento arie, baletti, correnti, gagliarde, canzoni, & ricercate musicali, & altre à dui, e trè liuti concertati insieme; et una inscrittione d’avertimenti, che insegna la maniera, & il modo di ben sonare con facilità i sudetti stromenti'' (Bologna, 1623) *''Intavolatura di liuto, nel quale si contengono toccate, ricercate musicali, corrente, gagliarde, chiaccone, e passacagli alla vera spagnola, un bergamasco, con varie partite, una battaglia, & altri capricci'' (Bologna, 1639, published posthumously)

References

External links

Biography by Dinko FabrisPiccinini's music in tablature
in Fronimo 2 and PDF formats. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Piccinini, Alessandro 1566 births 1630s deaths Composers for lute Italian male classical composers Italian Baroque composers Italian lutenists Renaissance composers 17th-century Italian composers 17th-century male musicians