Biography
Agazzino Agazzari served as both composer and organist, attaining the post of maestro di cappella no later than 1603. Such was his reputation as a performer that he received permission to append the designation Armonico to his name. Working chiefly within ecclesiastical circles, he produced eight-part motets supported by continuo together with numerous masses, psalms, and litanies. The stage work Eumelio remains his most notable composition, written expressly to aid seminary students; its plot follows the title character as he is lured from a virtuous existence by the Vices, descends into Hades, and is ultimately restored to a righteous life through the intervention of Apollo and Mercury.
Agazzari achieved wider renown with the treatise Del sonare sopra 'l basso con tutti li stromenti e dell'uso loro nel conserto, a text later cited by theorists including Michael Praetorius. In its pages he differentiates instruments meant to supply structural foundation—organ, harpsichord, lute, harp, and theorbo—from those intended for ornamental elaboration, among them lute, theorbo, harp, bass lira, cittern, spinet, guitar, violin, and pandora. The discussion further addresses the performer’s obligation to improvise and realize both figured and unfigured bass lines, the stylistic conventions appropriate to each instrument, and the practical requirements of ensemble playing. From these directives it follows that any musician guided by Agazzari’s principles required fluency in counterpoint.
Agazzari achieved wider renown with the treatise Del sonare sopra 'l basso con tutti li stromenti e dell'uso loro nel conserto, a text later cited by theorists including Michael Praetorius. In its pages he differentiates instruments meant to supply structural foundation—organ, harpsichord, lute, harp, and theorbo—from those intended for ornamental elaboration, among them lute, theorbo, harp, bass lira, cittern, spinet, guitar, violin, and pandora. The discussion further addresses the performer’s obligation to improvise and realize both figured and unfigured bass lines, the stylistic conventions appropriate to each instrument, and the practical requirements of ensemble playing. From these directives it follows that any musician guided by Agazzari’s principles required fluency in counterpoint.