​BANCHIERI, ADRIANO (c. 1557–1634), Bolognese composer for church and stage, organist, writer on music and poet. He founded the Accademia Florida of Bologna. Like Orazio Vecchi he was interested in converting the madrigal to dramatic purposes. He disapproved of the monodists with all their revolutionary harmonic tendencies, about which he expressed himself vigorously in his Moderna Practica Musicale (Venice, 1613), while systematizing the legitimate use of the monodic art of thorough-bass.