Adriano Banchieri (1568-1634)
Adriano Banchieri was born in 1568 as Tomasso Banchieri. At the age of 19 he entered the monastery and changed his name to Adriano after St. Adrian. (St. Adrian is the patron saint of Soldiers and Butchers.)  While in the monastery, Banchieri studied music with Geoseffo Guami. Banchieri was named a professor at the abbey of S. Michele in Bosco in 1613 and became Abbot in 1618. He died in Bologna in 1634.
Fantasia Prima from Fantasie overo canzoni alla Francese a 4
Fantasia Prima was originally published in 1603 in Venice. The original work indicates that was intended to by played by either keyboard or 4 instruments. The version played here is transcribed from the original and is left in the original key. The note values and time signature have been changed from the original to facilitate ease of reading. The original time signature was 4/2.

Performance Notes
Tempo: half note= 84/ quarter note=168
Pitch: A=440
Instruments: Mollenhauer Kynseker
Banchieri’s primary motif in this fantasy uses the rhythm: half-quarter-quarter or a “pavane” rhythm. This rhythm sounds exciting when we use our strong and weak articulations in the pattern: Ta- ta-ra. For those playing on Renaissance-style instruments, as this transcription was left in the original key, I found that half-holing the b-flats on a g-alto was just not worth the trouble. I opted to stick with an f-alto.
Difficulty level: Challenging
Additional scores and parts can be found at imslp.org:
https://imslp.org/wiki/Fantasia_prima_(Banchieri%2C_Adriano)
Customization options: to change the pitch or speed of any of these mp3 files try,
www.audiospeedchanger.com