5/28/2020 viva voce2 - Evernote

viva voce2
124 works still preserved
by the age of 17 he was working at the papal court
Working in the service of three successive Popes(we dont know exactly), his fame was such that
copies of his music appeared in manuscripts well into the 1600s . His hundred or so ricercars and
fantasias, contrasting dense counterpoint with improvisatory scale passages, give some idea of his
renowned skill as an improviser, plus some intabulations of contemporary vocal chansons; all
exquisite pieces with a unique flavour and a cool, chaste beauty that recalls early Renaissance
painters.
in service to Pope Leo X
performed also in front of pope Clement VII
was made a canon(official) at the basilica of San Nazaro Maggiore in Milan - became rockstar , the
left it to his bro
giving lessons to the Duke of Parma
nickname shared with michelangelo
His three volumes of lute pieces were very popular and contained intabulations of Janequin's La
guerre and other programmatic pieces. Called Il divino, he entertained prelates and princes, often
with improvisations. His ricercars are free studies in lute style, while his fantasias are contrapuntal
and closer to organ music. In arranging vocal music, he applied brilliant trills, turns and runs to the
model to produce a thoroughly idiomatic lute piece. Francesco was buried at the church of Santa
Maria della Scala in Milan, which was destroyed in the second half of the eighteenth-century to
make way for the construction of the La Scala Opera House. 
Josquin des Prez was one of his influences
by the 1530's he was already pretty famous
the following decades much more of his music appeared in print and continued to be copied into
manuscripts into the 17th century, such was his fame and the quality of his work.
including fantasias, ricercari and transcriptions of vocal compositions by leading composers of the
time.
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.
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 intabulations of vocal works by other composers to be the best part of his œuvre.
The Siena Lute Book is the most important manuscript source of Francesco’s music. It was copied
in the late 16th century, long after Francesco’s death
"superior to orpheus or apollo"
 Paul O'Dette has grouped these elegant and refined compositions into proto suites, each
consisting of a ricer car, a fantasia, and one or more in tabulations of vocal "hits" of the day.
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5/28/2020 viva voce2 - Evernote
co s st g o a ce ca , a a tas a, a d o e o o e tabu at o s o oca ts o t e day.
Dolcissimi et Amorosa, Vol.1 The Lute Music of il Divino
Big collection by arthur ness
SUVINI ZERBONI
Hopkinson smith CD

PERFORMANCE
"He transported all those who were listening into o pleasurable a melancholy that they remained
deprived of all senses save the hearing, as if the spirit, having abandoned all the seats of the
senses have retired to the ears in order to enjoy more at its eease so ravishing harmony,.....,
returned the spirit and senses to the place from which he has stolen them" (gaping mouth, half
closed eyes, glued to the strings)
"he had been elevated by an ecstatic transport of some divine frenzy"
the task of the performer is that of "Soul tickling" - get the locked soul out through the ears
by creating art we immitate the gods
Roles of orpheus: Performer, Priest(revealing divine), HEaler(restore balance, Lover(bringinf
harmony)

Ricercare 34 La Campagna
Most pieces start with a melodic fragment which is imitated by various voice parts in succession,
and may be transformed in the course of the piece. It may be treated in strict canon, or free
counterpoint, it may appear in augmentation or diminution.  Some pieces are essentially
monothematic, crowded with entries of the same subject, often in stretto; others are less densely

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