Life

From 1628-42 he was canon priest of the Haarlem

Haarlem

Haarlem is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland, the northern half of Holland, which at one time was the most powerful of the seven provinces of the Dutch Republic...

 chapter (Kapittel). In 1630 he became priest of the Begijnhof in Haarlem, across the street from the Janskerk (Haarlem)

Janskerk (Haarlem)

The Janskerk or St. John's Church is a former church in the Dutch city of Haarlem. Today it houses the North Holland Archives .-History:...

.
Musically self-taught, he corresponded with Marin Mersenne

Marin Mersenne

Marin Mersenne, Marin Mersennus or le Père Mersenne was a French theologian, philosopher, mathematician and music theorist, often referred to as the "father of acoustics"...

. This correspondence was begun thanks to Constantijn Huygens

Constantijn Huygens

Constantijn Huygens , was a Dutch Golden Age poet and composer. He was secretary to two Princes of Orange: Frederick Henry and William II, and the father of the scientist Christiaan Huygens.-Biography:...

, who later joined the correspondence, as did Descartes, of whom Ban was a great admirer. Ban also wrote a Dissertio epistolica de musicae natura in 1637 on musical evolution and 'musica flexanima' (melodic intervals

Interval (music)

In music theory, an interval is a combination of two notes, or the ratio between their frequencies. Two-note combinations are also called dyads...

 and their emotional effects), sending copies to his correspondents. Ban sent Mersenne some of his compositions and, though the latter criticised them heavily and though Mersenne later weighted a musical competition between Ban and Antoine Boësset

Antoine Boësset

Antoine Boësset,Antoine Boesset or Anthoine de Boesset , sieur de Villedieu, was the superintendent of music at the Ancien Regime French court and a composer of secular music, particularly airs de cour. He and his father-in-law Pierre Guédron dominated the court's musical life for the first half...

 in favour of the latter, he and Ban continued to correspond. He also corresponded with P.C. Hooft and later Joost van den Vondel

Joost van den Vondel

Joost van den Vondel was a Dutch writer and playwright. He is considered the most prominent Dutch poet and playwright of the 17th century. His plays are the ones from that period that are still most frequently performed, and his epic Joannes de Boetgezant , on the life of John the Baptist, has...

wrote a poem in honor of his compositions that were published in 1642 under the title Zangh-Bloemzel Van Ioan Albert Ban Haerlemmer, Dat is, Staeltjes van den zinroerenden zangh, Met dry stemmen, En den Gemeene-Grondstem. Boovezangh. t'Amsterdam, by Paulus Matthijsz. Voor Louys Elzevier op 't Water, inden Olm-Boom 1642. Neffens een kort Zangh-bericht, Ten dienste van alle Vaderlandtsche Zangh-lievers.

External links

• Companion to Baroque Music