Biography
An Augustinian monk by profession, Miniscalchi also worked as a composer whose reputation rested chiefly on three published collections of airs. Twenty songs made up each volume, pieces deliberately kept free of complexity or severity so the publisher could market them with ease. Domestic performance clearly shaped their conception. Although the structural design offered little to engage the mind and at times seemed flat, the melodic contours and overall tunefulness remained agreeable to listeners, while the very profiles of those lines possessed an additional visual grace. The third collection, moreover, adopted triple time throughout, a choice that found favor with contemporary audiences.