An Olivetan monk and a musician of great and varied abilities, Banchieri combined skill as a composer and organist with seminal work as a theorist, and wrote on a number of subjects.
Vocal Music
In addition to liturgical music of various kinds, Banchieri made an interesting and significant addition to secular repertoire, in particular in his comic celebration of Carnival Thursday and his pastoral madrigal-comedy Il zabaione musicale, with its figures from classical mythology.