Piece of the Month - July 2004

Any suggestions, corrections or other comments will be most welcome: just email martin@luteshop.co.uk. Downloadable files are provided in Fronimo and Tab formats below. I may add PDF in the future. Any non-lutenists should note that the sound on this page bears little resemblance to a real lute and is played by a robot!

La traditora - Recercar - La Cara Cossa
Marco dall'Aquila (c.1480 - after 1538) is one of those shadowy but important figures in the history of lute music. In 1505 he was granted a ten-year privilege to publish lute tablatures but none are known to have been printed. The twenty or so pieces which can be ascribed to him are found mostly in the "Herwart" manuscript (Munich MS 266), from whence the present pieces are taken. Three more conventional fantasie can be found in the Intabolatura de leuto published by G.A.Casteliono (Milan, 1536) and a modern edition of twelve pieces was published by Stefan Lundgren (Lundgren Musik-Edition, 1982). The recercar (untitled in the source) is a free-structured, improvisatory piece notable for its use of broken chords. The cara cossa uses a few "wrong" chords which I think are probably deliberate - they give the effect of a guitar strumming along with the lute bass line.

Some of Marco's weightier pieces are surprisingly "modern" sounding when you consider that he really belongs to the same generation of lutenists as Dalza or Spinacino rather than Francesco da Milano or Albert de Rippe. You can hear examples on Christopher Wilson's recording on Naxos (8.550778).

Downloads:

La traditora: traditora.ft2; traditora.tab

Recercar: recercar.ft2; recercar.tab

La cara cossa: caracossa.ft2; caracossa.tab

 

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