While a student at Ss Annunziata in Florence Pisano became associated with Cardinal Giovanni who later became Pope Leo X. In 1511 Pisano was the master of the choristers at the school and by 1512 was the master of the cathedral chapel. This is where he became familiar to Giovanni. By 1514 he was appointed as a member of the papal choir eventually settling permanently in Rome in 1520. During his life in Rome, Pisano served under the papacy of Leo X, Clement VII and Paul III, who, in 1546, made him the master of his private chapel. This group of six choristers included Arcadelt. A prominent figure in the artistic life of Rome, Pisano was familiar with Michelangleo, Bugiardini, Rustici, Caro and Varchi. Pisano's "Musica di messer Bernardo Pisano sopra le canzone del Petrarcha," his musical legacy, was the first printed collection of madrigals by a single composer. As one of initial madrigalists, in the company of Festa, Verdelot and Arcadelt, Pisano's music shows the dominant characteristics of the madrigal and ballata: proper textual emphasis; textual moods conveyed through the music; contrasts denoted by juxtapositions of chords and imitation, repeated words or phrases over the same or different music, duos or trios set next to four part writing, and repetition of the last line of a text. ~ Keith Johnson