Ercole Pasquini

Pasquini was born at Ferrara, and studied with Alessandro Milleville (1521?-1589). He was described by Agostino Superbi (1620) as a most clever and excellent musician and organist. "He had a very nimble hand; and sometimes played so splendidly that he enraptured the people and truly amazed them." In the 1580s, Pasquini took over the musical instruction of the daughters of Giovan Battista Aleotti, court architect of Ferrara, from Milleville. On 1 May 1592, Pasquini became the organist of the ridotti of Mario Bevilacqua and of the Olivetian church, Santa Maria in Organo, in Verona. While he held these positions, he wrote and published a favola boscareccia entitled I fidi amanti (Verona, 1593) in anticipation of the wedding of Don Carlo Gesualdo and Eleonora d'Este which took place in Ferrara the following year (1594). Upon the death of Bevilacqua, Pasquini apparently returned to Ferrara, where he succeeded Luzzasco Luzzaschi as organist of the Accademia della Morte. He was succeeded in this position by Girolamo Frescobaldi. On 6 October 1597, Pasquini was elected organist to the Capella Giulia at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. During the summer and fall of 1604, he assumed the same position at the Santo Spirito in Sassia, continuing his duties at St. Peter's. Beginning in 1603, there appears some irregularity in his signing for his payment, from the Capella Giulia. Nicolo Pasquini, possibly a son, signed from time to time from September 1603 over the next two years. During the summer of 1605, his payments were signed by the maestro di capella, Francesco Soriano, and in November and December, the attendant of the hospital, where Pasquini was being treated, signed. On 19 May 1608, Pasquini was dismissed from his post for "just causes." In an account by Agostino Faustini in 1646, Pasquini died insane in Rome.