Francesco Canova da Milano  (1497 - 1543)

This page is dedicated to the work of one of the greatest lute player-composers of the Renaissance, called "il divino" by his contemporaries.  Born into a family of musicians in 1497 at Monza, near Milan, he spent most of his working life in the service of successive Popes in Rome: Leo X, Clement VII, and Paul III. When he died in 1543 only a few of his pieces had been published, but over 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.

In 1997, on the 500th anniversary of his birth, a symposium in his honour was held at the University of Milan.  You can read three brief reports here .  A review by Mariagrazia Carlone is also to be found in the Journal of the Lute Society of America XXVI-XXVII (1973-4), pp.107-114.   For a list of books and articles about Francesco see Bibliography.

Francesco's music still speaks to us after 500 years.  Though it can be lively and witty, more than anything it is the serenity and air of contemplation which draws the listener in and creates a unique atmosphere.  Apart from intabulations of vocal music and the one "tochata", all his surviving pieces are designated "Ricercar" or "Fantasia", two terms which were largely interchangeable in the first half of the 16th century, and which are hard to translate into modern musical terminology. 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 populated.  Pairs of voices often sing duets, a technique popular with admired composers of the previous generation such as Josquin Desprez.  Francesco excels in making vocal counterpoint clear on the lute: he achieves this largely by avoiding dense textures while often implying more parts than are actually present.

The pieces are identified by "Ness numbers", corresponding to the modern edition by Arthur Ness (1970).  It is a testament to the quality and thoroughness of Prof. Ness's work that in the last 38 years only a handful of pieces have been added to the canon.   The scores published here are intended to be complementary to those of Ness: they are usually based on alternative sources and have in any case been edited from scratch, so there will always be some differences between the two editions.  Ness' edition remains the cornerstone of Francesco studies to which the interested reader is referred for all bibliographical references and points of detail.  Here printed sources are identified by "Brown numbers" from Howard Mayer Brown's "Instrumental Music Printed before 1600".  

My first exposure to this music was an LP by Julian Bream called "The woods so wild" (1973) in which he alternated pieces by Francesco and sets of variations by English composers of the late 16th century.  He had an uncanny knack of choosing the best pieces, most of them being favourites of present-day lutenists.   It was only a short time after I started to play the lute (1979) that I got the Ness edition out of the university library and I've been hooked ever since.  Thirty years later, I'm still finding new inspiration in these pieces.

The recordings presented here are just my own homemade recordings, usually single takes, made at hazard over a period of time.  For a list of commercial recordings see Discography (link to be added).

Scores are provided for some pieces, for general musical interest and to facilitate performance on other instruments.  We should remember that many of these pieces have their origins in music which was originally written for three or four instruments or organ, for example that of Giulio Segni of Modena (1498-1561), who published a book of recercari in Venice in 1540 of which only the Bassus partbook survives (Musica nova, 1540₃).  Fortunately most of the pieces were reprinted (in Musicque de Joye, 154?₆) and are available in a modern edition (Slim, 1964).  A further dozen or so pieces survive only in the form of intabulations for lute by Giovanni Maria da Crema (see 1548₄), Francesco da Milano and others.  Adapting this type of music for the lute sometimes involved leaving out one of the four parts except at cadences or other points where a fuller texture was desirable.  I have left it to the ingenuity of the reader to fill out the missing part in cases where there are long gaps (usually in the alto).  I have provided the scores in Fronimo FT3 format as well as PDF so that the pieces can be heard in computer playback without having to assemble the extra players, though of course the second is highly recommended.  A demo version of Fronimo 3 can be downloaded from ???.

Francesco's lute
In Francesco's time lutes were strung entirely in gut, with no metal-wound strings.  The lute had six courses, with (usually) a single first course, and octaves on courses 4-6.  The octaves serve only to brighten the sound of the basses and are almost always ignored as far as the counterpoint is concerned.  Lutes varied considerably in size, so with the top string being usually tuned close to the breaking point, they also varied considerably in pitch (as illustrated in my recording of no.4).

Pieces of uncertain attribution
Apart from the works which are definitely attributed to Francesco, there are a number of pieces which might be by him which are either unattributed or attributed to a different composer.  Many of these appear in the Appendix of the Ness edition.  I have included a few more here for interest, though I am not making any strong claims about their authorship.

Francesco in the Siena Lute Book
The Siena Lute Book (almost certainly of Sienese origin, now in the Hague Gemeentemuseum MS 28.B.39) is the most important manuscript source of Francesco's music.  It was copied in the late 16th century, long after Francesco's death, but the scribe must have had access to reliable sources as the versions of pieces are usually quite accurate where they can be compared with earlier sources.   Very few of the pieces in the Siena lute book have titles or attributions, but many can be identified from concordances.  Twenty-three pieces are known to be by Francesco from other sources, of which four are attributed to "FM" and the rest have no attribution.  Five are attributed to "Francesco da Parigi", of which two attributed to Francesco da Milano in other sources, one elsewhere attributed to Albert de Rippe, and the other two are unica (see S28 and S66 below).  One piece is attributed to "Monzino": Francesco was born in Monza, so "Monzino" could easily refer to him.  One curious feature is that all but one of the pieces attributed to Francesco da Parigi or Monzino are without barlines, suggesting perhaps that they were all copied from the same source.  My feeling is that this other source was not too accurate with its attributions: S28 and S66 (Francesco da Parigi) and S64 (Monzino) seem to be in a different style from the known pieces by Albert de Rippe and Francesco da Milano.  A further puzzle is that the piece by Monzino seems to be another version of the piece by "B.M." on f.19v. (S51, included below for comparison) - could "B.M." stand for "B.Monzino"?  Other known works by B.M. include another four pieces in the Siena lute book, and one Recercare and two lute duets in Vincenzo Galilei's Fronimo (1584): Galilei also only gives the initials B.M. and describes him as "a Florentine gentleman".  Listed below are some pieces which are not included in the main sequence of Ness numbers but some of which may be by Francesco (piece numbers beginning with S refer to Arthur Ness' inventory of the manuscript published by Minkoff).

S28 (f.11) (Ness App.25): PDFtab
The previous piece S27 is attributed to Francesco da Parigi but is elsewhere attributed to Albert de Rippe.  The designation "del medesimo" at the head of no.28 therefore could refer to either composer.  As noted above the style is different from both - but it is a fine piece.  The presence of an opening flourish, before the piece gets down to business, is not typical of Francesco but is found in some earlier pieces, especially in the Capirola lute book, and some later sources (e.g., Matelart 1559, nos. 2, 7 and 10) as well.  Perhaps such openings were more common than the sources indicate, improvised introductions being rarely written down.  The figure of three repeated notes followed by a descending third (26-32) recalls Ness 28 (36 - 40).  The beginning of bar 40 seems confused and I strongly suspect that there should be a further two entries of the point of imitation (the descending scale figure which starts at 34).  I have added these editorially but not added any barline, making it easier to compare with any regularly barred version of the original (which has no barlines at all).

S45 (f.17-17v.) PDFtab; MP3
This piece is anonymous in both sources, but is probably by Francesco.  It appeared in Attaignant's Très brève et familière introduction in 1529₃ and therefore predates the earliest printed sources of Francesco's music (e.g., Marcolini, 1536₃; Casteliono, 1536₉).  Daniel Heartz (1964) gives an analysis of the piece and notes its similarity to Ness 24.  The Siena version seems to be more complete, and I have used this as the basis for my version, with just a few corrections based on the Attaignant text (see commentary).

The section of pieces on the fifth tone starts on f.19v. with a piece by "B.M.".  Of  the following 15 pieces, 12 are unattributed (of which six are known from other sources to be by Francesco), two are attributed to "Francesco da Parigi" and one to "Monzino".   Could it be that the entire sequence S52-66 is by Francesco?  

S51 (f.19v.) (B.M.): PDFtab
S52 (f.20) (Ness 8): PDFtab; MP3
S53 (f.20-20v.): PDFtab; MP3
S54 (f.20v.) (Ness 35): PDFtab
S55 (f.20v.-21): PDFtab
S56 (f.21): PDFtab; MP3
An arrangement of an ensemble recercar by Giulio Segni, also included in Giovanni Maria da Crema (1548, LibroVII, Recercar ottavo, sig. E2v.)
S57 (f.21v.): PDFtab
S58 (f.21v.-22) (Ness 61): PDFtab; MP3
S59 (f.22): PDFtab
A short passage (23-26) is identical to a passage in Ness 8 (49-52) and S62 (44-47).
S60 (f.22): PDFtab
S61 (f.22v.) (Ness 58): PDFtab; MP3
S62 (f.22v.-23): PDFtab; MP3
S63 (f.23-23v.) (Ness 5): PDFtab
S64 (f.24) (Ness App.26): PDFtab (Monzino)
S65 (f.24v.) (Ness 56): PDFtab (Francesco da Parigi)
S66 (f.25) (Ness App.27): PDFtab; MP3 (Francesco da Parigi)

Actually I think S64-66 are in a different style, though interestingly the opening of S66 uses a theme which was used by Francesco (Ness 41, bars 11-14).  The shorter anonymous pieces tend to be very much in the same style as established pieces by Francesco and often quote from them, but of course it is impossible to say whether they are by him or by an imitator.  Similar considerations apply to the following sequence of pieces:

S79 (f.31-31v.): PDFtab; MP3
One detail which might not be immediately apparent: the slow moving soprano part in 29-35 is an augmented version of part the theme which is treated as a point of imitation in 47-54.
S79a (f31v.): PDFtab (not included in Ness' inventory, hence the designation 79a)
S80 (f.32): PDFtab
S81 (f.32) (Ness 46): PDFtab; MP3
S82 (f.32v.) (Ness 15): PDFtab; MP3
S83 (f.33): PDFtab; MP3
S84 (f.33v.): PDFtab
S85 (f.33v.): PDFtab
S86 (f.34): PDFtab
S87 (f.34-34v.) (Ness 40): PDFtab; MP3
The Siena version differs slightly from the other sources, for which see below.
S88 (f.34v.): PDFtab


Pieces securely attributed to Francesco da Milano
Note: as stated above, the versions of the pieces presented here are often different from those in the Ness edition - I have identified them using "Ness numbers" for convenience of reference.  The scores cite the primary source used, and the critical commentary at the end of each piece indicates if editorial changes are based on other sources.

Fantasia (Ness 2): PDFtab; MP3
According to Slim (1961, unpublished paper cited by Ness,1970) this piece is related to the motet Elizabeth zacharie by Jean de la Fage (fl.1518-30).  I have not yet managed to get hold of a copy of the motet so I'm not sure how close the relationship is.

Fantasia (Ness 3): PDFtab; MP3
Gombosi (1955) and Ness (1970) offer interesting analyses of this piece.  In some sources, the pattern in bars 14, 34 and 36 uses repeated notes, in others, tied notes are implied.

Ricercar (Ness 4): PDFtab; MP3
The MP3 file shows this piece played on three different lutes in e', a', and g' (in that order).

Fantasia (Ness 5): PDFtab; MP3
The Siena lute book text is very close to that of 1546?, except for a few corrections and extra bars.  However it does end rather surprisingly on the dominant chord, suggesting perhaps that this version was used as a prelude to another piece in the same key.

Ricercar (Ness 8): PDFtab; MP3
Unusually, the first few bars seem to form an introduction.

Ricercar (Ness 10): PDFtab; MP3
This piece also survives in a more decorated form - see Ness Appendix 1.

Ricercar (Ness 15): PDFtab; MP3
This piece and the following one seem to form a pair, see note to nos. 33 and 34.

Ricercar (Ness 16):  MP3

Fantasia (Ness 20): 
The first piece in the Casteliono lute book of 1536.

Fantasia (Ness 21): 
This piece is undoubtedly one of Francesco's greatest hits - it appeared in the one of the first printed books to feature his music (G.A.Casteliono, 1536₉) and one of the last (J.B.Besard's Thesaurus Harmonicus, 1603, where it is attributed to Edinthon).

Ness 28
A favourite piece of mine which always seems too short - a compact masterpiece.

Ness 30: PDFtab; PDFscore; FT3score;  MP3
Another favourite piece which treads a very consistent contrapuntal path.  The opening theme is almost the same as that of Ness 83.

Ness 31: PDFtab

Ness 33 and 34
Like Scarlatti's harpsichord sonatas of nearly two centuries later, some of Francesco's pieces seem to be in pairs.  This pair is designated as such explicitly in the source I have used (Siena, ff.58v.-59v.) where the second piece is called "La compagna".

Ness 38 and 39
Another pair of pieces which occur together in the source (Libro Terzo, 1547₂)

Ness 40: PDFtab; MP3
The duet version by Matelart seems to imply a slower tempo than is usual nowadays for solo performance, providing food for thought about our current notion of the correct speed for this piece.  Matelart also incorporates the rather surprising cross-relation in bar 28 (F where we might expect C in the bass, giving rise to a close clash with the immediately following F# in the treble), suggesting that he regarded the F as deliberate.

Ness 41: MP3

Ness 42

Ness 46: PDFtab; MP3

Ness 49: PDFtab; MP3

Ness 51
It is found in only one source (1548₄), along with 12 other pieces attributed to Francesco but containing many errors.  This particular piece appears to be error-free, but is not entirely typical of Francesco.

Ness 64

Ness 66

Ness 67: PDFtab
Like 31, 32, 40 and 41, this was used by Matelart (1559) as the basis of a lute duet, this time for two lutes at the same pitch.

Ness 73

Ness 83: PDFtab; MP3
The unusual key of A minor suggests this could be an arrangement of a vocal or ensemble piece.  It is only found in one English source (Dd.2.11, f.16) dating from the 1590s.  Another version of the piece is found in another English MS (Hirsch, f.65v.) and in Mertel's (1615) anthology, but I feel this version is even further from Francesco.

Ness 84:  MP3

Ness 88
This appears to be a parody of the Recercar terzo from Joan Maria da Crema's 1548 book (1548₄), itself an arrangement of an ensemble ricercar by Julio (Segni) da Modena.

Ness 92
Found only in Casteliono's book of 1536, this "tochata" is the earliest known piece with that title.  It appears at the end of a suite of dances, suggesting a postludial function.

Intabulations of vocal music
Ness 111: PDFtab
An intabulation of the motet "O bone Jesu" by Loyset Compère.  Francesco has added very little decoration, and has stuck very close to the original voice parts, even when this creates some technical difficulty (bar 60) or even lack of clarity (bars 75-76).  I have therefore corrected his text in a few places where it deviates from the original because I believe these are oversights or printers' errors rather than deliberate changes.  

Music for two lutes
There are only three surviving lute duets by Francesco:
Canon
La Spagna
??? (recently discovered)

However the Intavolatura de leuto by Joanne Matelart published in Rome in 1559 includes seven lute duets of which five are based on solo pieces by Francesco.  The Fleming Matelart was primarily a composer of church music and clearly studied Francesco's pieces in some detail: his added parts are carefully dovetailed into Francesco's contrapuntal texture and while not easy to play, make a delightful whole.  The first five pieces (four of which are attributed to Francesco) are for lutes a tone apart.  In the pieces by Francesco the original lute solo is played on the lower pitched lute, the added part on the higher pitched lute. For the third piece (Anon.) the situation is reversed, and a note in the margin instructs the players to swap instruments.  The last two duets in the set are for equal lutes: Fantasia sexta adds a part to Ness 67, and Fantasia Settima adds a second part to an ensemble piece by Julio da Modena which was intabulated by Giovanni Maria da Crema (1546₉, Recercar quinto, sig.B1;1548₄, Recercar secondo, sig.D).  For a modern edition of all seven duets see Gordon Gregory (Lute Society Publications, 1997, available from www.lutesoc.co.uk).

Prima: (Ness 31)
Seconda: (Ness 41)
Terza: MP3
Quarta: (Ness 32); MP3
Quinta: (Ness 40); MP3
Sexta: (Ness 67)

Inspired by Matelart's example, here are a couple of duets based on Ness 16:

Fantasia prima by Stewart McCoy (2002, tone apart lutes):  MP3
(reproduced with the permission of the composer)

Fantasia seconda by Martin Shepherd (2002, equal lutes):  MP3

Thanks to Richard MacKenzie for playing the duets.  In the tone-apart duets, Richard is playing the lower pitched lute.

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