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!

Fantasie by Ortensio and Robert Johnson
When Elias Mertel published his collection of 235 preludes and 120 fantasies at Strasbourg in 1615 he deliberately omitted the names of the composers, stating that he wished people to make up their own minds about the quality of the music rather than be influenced by famous names. So far only about 50 pieces have been identified from concordances, leaving a vast body of high quality music anonymous. I will be exploring some of these anonymous pieces later, but for now here's a real gem of a piece which does have a composer's name (courtesy of a copy of the piece in the Schele lute book, p.36) albeit one about whom we know nothing.

This is a piece which repays careful study - the opening theme occurs 12 times in the first 22 bars alone, and is incorporated into a lovely syncopation in bars 55-66. People with sharp ears and good memories may recognize this theme as the one used by Robert Johnson in his only surviving fantasia (Herbert of Cherbury's lute book, f.16), included here as a bonus.

ortensio.ft2

ortensio.tab 

johnson.ft2

johnson.tab

To download the latest version of Fronimo go to the Fronimo Users Group site.  For previous pieces of the month, go to the Piece of the Month Archive.

Back to home page