Any suggestions, corrections or other comments will be most welcome: just email martin@luteshop.co.uk.  Downloadable files are provided in Fronimo, Tab and PDF.  To hear my own recording of one or more of the pieces just click on the MP3 files.

Fantasia by Francesco da Milano (Ness 83)
Such was the enduring fame of  Francesco da Milano that his pieces were still being copied into English manuscripts half a century after his death.  Unusually this piece is only found in English sources - Dd.2.11, the earliest of the Matthew Holmes mansucripts, and the "Hirsch" lute book, BL Hirsch M 1353.  The fact that the two versions are in different keys suggests that the piece is an arrangement, possibly of an ensemble ricercar, possibly (as are many works in this genre) by Giulio Segni of Modena.  The version in Dd.2.11 seems closer to an original work, an impression supported by the use of an unusual "key" for solo lute music.  To facilitate comparison I have included a "score" where the two tablatures are presented together, with the Dd.2.11 version transposed down a tone and blank bars added so that the bar numbers coincide (I have also left the Hirsch version unedited in this score): 08033.pdf

In presenting the solo pieces separately I have corrected obvious errors (listed in the notes) and in the recordings I have used lutes in G and A so that as I play from the original tablature the two versions come out at the same absolute pitch.

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