BONONCINI or BUONONCINI, GIOVANNI BAT TISTA (1672-175o?), Italian musical composer, was the son of the composer Giovanni Maria Bononcini (164o-1678), best known as the author of a treatise entitled Il Musico Prattico (Bologna, 1673), and brother of the composer Marc' Antonio Bononcini (1675-1726), with whom he has often been confused. He was born at Modena in 1672, but the date of his death is un certain. He was a pupil of his father and of Colonna, and pro duced his first operas, Tullo Ostilio and Serse, at Rome in In 1696 he was at the court of Berlin, and between 170o and 17 20 divided his time between Vienna and Italy. In 17 20 he was sum moned to London by the Royal academy of music, of which Handel was director. In London he was not in favour at court, where German musicians were preferred, but he enjoyed the patronage of many great houses, and the Marlboroughs gave him a home and a stipend. During the years of his residence in Lon don he produced many operas. His chief success was Astarte, originally produced in Rome in 1714 and now revived. About 1731 it was asserted that he had a few years before produced a madrigal by Lotti as his own work, and after a long and bitter controversy he was obliged to leave the country. He remained for several years in France, and in 1748 was summoned to Vienna to compose music in honour of the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. He then went to Venice as composer to the opera there but the end of his career is unknown.
Bononcini has been mainly remembered on account of his rivalry with Handel in London, but he was in himself a musician of considerable merit, and seems to have influenced the style, not only of Handel but even of Alessandro Scarlatti. Either he or his brother was the inventor of that sharply rhythmical style con spicuous in Il Trionfo di Camilla (1697), the success of which at Naples probably induced Scarlatti to adopt a similar type of melody. It is noticeable in the once popular air of Bononcini, L'esperto nocchiero, and in the air Vado ben spesso, long ascribed to Salvator Rosa, but really by Bononcini. Works attributed to Bononcini include 22 operas, five oratorios and many masses, cantatas, etc.