Angelo Berardi

Angelo Berardi (c. 1636 in Sant'Agata Feltria – 9 April 1694 in Rome) was an Italian music theorist and composer. Berardi was born in Sant'Agata Feltria. He received early education at Forlì under Giovanni Vincenzo Sarti (1600–1655). From 1662 he was maestro di cappella in Montefiascone, in the province of Viterbo, Lazio. He studied under Marco Scacchi at Gallese at some time between 1650 and Scacchi's death in 1662; he included two motets by Scacchi in Book 1 of his Documenti armonici of 1687, and also cites him frequently. By 1667, when his Salmi vespertini concertati, Op. 4, were published, Berardi was maestro di cappella at the cathedral in Viterbo. He was organist and maestro di cappella at Tivoli from 21 September 1673 to 1679, and maestro di cappella and "professor of music" at the cathedral in Spoleto in 1681 or from 1679–1683. He was a canon at the collegiata of S. Angelo, Viterbo, when the Documenti armonici (1687) and Miscellanea musicale (1689) were published. By 17 August 1692 he was maestro di cappella at Santa Maria in Trastevere in Rome.He died in Rome in 1694. Berardi composed a significant body of work, mostly of a sacred nature, but he is better known for his writings on music theory and counterpoint. His first treatise, published in 1670 or in any case before 1681, has not survived, but is referred to in his Ragionamenti musicali (1681), which deals with the origins of music and the proliferation of musical styles. Both the Documenti armonici (1687) and the Miscellanea musicale (1689) discuss contemporary contrapuntal practices.