(b Bologna, 30 Dec 1566; d probably at Bologna, c1638). Italian lutenist, composer and writer on music. His father, Leonardo Maria Piccinini, his brothers Girolamo and Filippo (see below) and his son Leonardo Maria were all lutenists too. Duke Guglielmo Gonzaga summoned him to his court at Mantua in 1582, but, because of commitments that his Father had entered into, he went instead with his family to the Este court at Ferrara, where he and his brothers remained until the death of Duke Alfonso II on 27 October 1597. He then entered the service of Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini, papal legate at Bologna and Ferrara, who died in 1621. He was a member of the Accademia dei Filomusi, Bologna. Three autograph letters from him survive (in I-MOs), one of 31 January 1595 to the Duke of Ferrara and two, of 2 June 1622 and 1 January 1623, to the Duke of Modena.
Piccinini published two volumes, 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: facs and edn. in AntMI, Monumenta bononiensis, ii, 1962) and 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), which was seen through the press after his death by his son. The first of these volumes has a particularly important preface in which he described a type of archlute that he claimed to have developed and had made in Padua in 1594. While these claims have aroused scholarly controversy (see in particular Kinsky, and MGG1), Piccinini’s claim to have invented the archlute – the first extended-neck lute – in the 1590s is plausible, although the extended-neck chitarrone (as a restrung and retuned bass lute) predated his invention. Piccinini also made significant modifications to the chitarrone and according to Giustiniani invented an instrument ‘similar to the kithara of Apollo’, which he called a pandora and which was perhaps akin to the English poliphant (see Bandora). His preface also includes a short but detailed manual on performance, which advances several interesting ideas: in imitative writing the theme must be played louder so that it stands out; a technique of playing forte and piano (‘ondeggiato’) should be adopted in pieces rich in dissonances, which should be highlighted (as, according to him, they were at Naples); embellishments should be left to the taste of the player, but the cadential gruppo should always be pronounced, its notes being given equal value, and it should be completed as quickly as possible. Piccinini was a talented composer. His toccatas, which are very varied in form and style, are specially rewarding. The dances have attractive melodies and varied, piquant rhythms; some of them are arranged in suites. Piccinini wrote the music (apparently lost) to La selva sin amore (libretto by Lope de Vega Carpio), the first opera performed om Spain.
After working with him at the Ferrara court, Piccinini’s brothers both went abroad: Girolamo (b Bologna; d Flanders, 1615) entered the service of Cardinal Guido Bentivoglio and accompanied him when he was appointed papal nuncio in Flanders, and Filippo (b Bologna; d Bologna, 1648) worked at the Spanish court until about 1645, when he returned to Bologna; a two-part madrigal by Filippo survives (RISM 161017).
See also Archlute; Chitarrone; Lute, §§5, 6
MGG1 (O. Mischiati, L.F. Tagliarini)
A. Banchieri: Discorso di Camillo Scaliggeri della Fratta (Bologna, 1626), 107f
V. Giustiniani: Discorso sopra la musica de’ suoi tempi (MS, 1628, I-La); pr. in A. Solerti: Le origini del melodramma (Turin, 1903/R), 111, 124; Eng. trans., MSD, ix (1962), 63–80
A. Masini: Bologna perlustrata (Bologna, 1650/R), 687
P. Canal: Della musica in Mantova (Venice, 1881/R), 37, 71
L.F. Valdrighi: Nomocheliurgografía antica e moderna (Modena, 1884/R), 174, 272
L. Frati: ‘Liutisti e liutai a Bologna’, RMI, xxvi (1919), 94–111
G. Kinsky: ‘Alessandro Piccinini und sein Arciliuto’, AcM, x (1938), 103–18
F. Vatielli: ‘L’ultimo liutista’, RMI, xlii (1938), 469–91
N. Fortune: ‘Giustiniani on Instruments’, GSJ, v (1952), 48
L. de Grandis: ‘Famiglie di musicisti del ’500. I Piccinini: vita col Liuto’, NRMI, xvi (1982), 226–32
O. Cristoforetti: ‘Les Piccinini et l'évolution organologique du luth à la fin du XVIe siècle’, Musique Ancienne, no.19 (1985), 4–20
J. Dugot and M. Horvat, eds.: ‘Piccinini: Avertimenti, 1623: Les “Avertimenti”, ou instructions précédent l'Intavolatura de liuto et di chitarrone, libro primo’, Musique Ancienne, no.19 (1985), 21–39
PIER PAOLO SCATTOLIN