L'Archivio musicale di Sebastiano Tanari (1771-1809), nobile bolognese compositore di musica sacra (The musical archives of Bolognese nobleman and sacred-music composer Sebastiano Tanari), in Magnificat Dominum Musica Nostra, Atti del Convegno sulla "Musica sacra nella Bologna d'un tempo (Proceedings from the Meeting upon "sacred music in Bologna a long time ago”), dedicated to the memory of Oscar Mischiati (1936-2004), a cura di Piero Mioli, Pàtron, Bologna, 2007, pp. 87-99.

A pupil of Father Martini’s, Marquis Sebastiano Tanari (1771-1809) was a skilled composer. On his death, by his will he gifted the Accademia Filarmonica of Bologna with all his musical archives, composed by about 200 sacred compositions by Tanari himself, some exercises, 33 works by Father Vallotti, 3 works by Father Sabbattini and an indefinite number of compositions by unknown composers, which on the basis of the valuation effected, must have been about 50. However, the Archives Tanari ended in being inserted in the Liceo Musicale since Father Maestro Martini, who “as mandatory of the Accademia itself received it from the Tanara heirs, asked to hold it there, as the Accademia itself did not have any place suitable to hold it”.
Today the Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale of Bologna holds some sacred compositions by Tanari surely coming from this legacy, and the same Civico Museo probably holds also other compositions coming from the Archives Tanari, originally left as a legacy to the Accademia Filarmonica.
Yet, most of Sebastiano Tanari’s compositions have gone lost. If Tanari cannot be considered as an original composer, yet his compositions show a great mastery in handling musical technique and expression and a perfect mastering of the stylistic rules of Father Mattei’s Bolognese school.
This is why Tanari’s music, similarly to the music of many other Bolognese composers contemporary to him, would be worth while studying and being proposed again to the attention of the audience.

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