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Francesco da Milano (also know as Francesco Canova da Milano, Il divino, Francesco da Parigi and more) (1497 – 1543) was an Italian lutenist and composer.
He was born in Monza, near Milan, and worked for the papal court for almost all of his career. His father Benedetto was a musician, as was his elder brother Bernardino. Francesco was heralded throughout Europe as the foremost lute composer of his time. More of his music is preserved than of any other lutenist of the period, and his work continued to influence composers for more than a century after his death.
Already by 1530 Francesco’s music was widely known and studied. A few of his works were published in France by Pierre Attaingnant in 1529, five volumes of lute music comprising mostly Francesco’s works were published in Milan in 1536. There are many 16th- and 17th-century manuscript sources for his works, as well. Today, more than a hundred ricercars and fantasias (two terms used interchangeably in Francesco’s oeuvre), some 30 tabulations and a few other pieces by Francesco are known.
He is the author of at least 140 tabulations, of which about 40 are transcriptions of chansons (songs) of other composers.
His music represents the transition from the loose improvisational style of his predecessors to the more refined polyphonic textures of later lute music. One of the defining characteristic features of Francesco’s style is the manipulation and development of short melodic motifs within a “narrative” formal outline. Francesco was drawing on techniques found in contemporary vocal music by Josquin des Prez and other composers of his generation. Aside from his influence on the development of lute music, he is also important for being among the first composers to create monothematic ricercars. Francesco’s reputation today rests on his ricercars and fantasias, but contemporaries apparently held his tabulations of vocal works by other composers to be the best part of his œuvre.
Ness Numbers
The collected extant lute music of Francesco da Milano, edited by Arthur Ness, was published by Harvard University Press in 1970. Whenever possible, each arrangement has a Ness number for reference.
Arrangements of Fantasias in Books 1 and 2
The key publication used in this book of arrangements are the original folios for Intabolatura de lauto (Venice 1546) in multiple volumes. The works arranged are from Libro Primo (1546), Libro Secondo (1546) and Libro Terzo (1547, Reprint 1561).
Arrangements of Fantasias in Book 3 and 6
The key publication used in this book of arrangements are the original folios for Intabolatura di liuto (Milan 1536) in five volumes. The works arranged in this book are from Libro Primo.
Arrangements of Fantasias in Books 4 and 5
The key publication used in this book of arrangements are the original folios for Intabolatura de lauto (Venice 1546) in multiple volumes. The works arranged are from Libro Primo (1546), Libro Secondo (1546) and Libro Terzo (1547, Reprint 1561).
Notes on the Pieces
Fantasia (or fantasie) is a musical composition with its roots in the art of improvisation. The term was first applied to music during the 16th century, at first to refer to the imaginative musical “idea” rather than to a particular compositional genre. Its form and style consequently ranges from the freely improvisatory to the strictly contrapuntal, and also encompasses more or less standard sectional forms (i.e. it sometimes but doesn’t always follow the “rules”). Ricercar serve a preludial function to “search out” the key or mode of a following piece. A ricercar may explore the permutations of a given motif.
Notes on the Tabulature
Italian tabulature was used by many composers in the 16th century in music for the lute, vihuela and Renaissance guitar. It almost looks like modern tabulation in that it uses numbers to represent the frets (zero for an open string, “1” for the first fret, “2” for the second fret, etc.) The duration of the notes are above the staff and look like our modern notes (whole notes, half notes, quarter notes), including dotted notes. Italian tabulature has the highest sounding string on the bottom line and the lowest sounding string on the top line (i.e. upside down from modern tabulation).
All the arrangements are derived from music for the lute; however, it has been altered so that the 3rd string on the modern or Renaissance guitar or ukulele need not be lowered by a half tone (i.e. normal tuning is keep for your guitar or ukulele). Also, since the lute has 6 courses of strings and the ukulele only has 4 strings, some bass notes have been changed while retaining the original harmonies whenever possible.