Victor Coelho, "Francesco da Milano," in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1999-), English translation

Francesco Canova da Milano (Francesco training other than Gaurico’s unverified claim Milanese; Francesco da Parigi; Monzino) that he studied with Giovanni Angelo Born Monza, 18 August 1497, died 2 January Testagrossa, the lute teacher to Isabella 1543. “Il Divino,” as he was known during his d’Este. lifetime—a title otherwise bestowed only The bulk of Francesco’s professional upon Michelangelo—Francesco da Milano life was spent in , where he served, with was the most important and influential various interruptions, from 1514 to 1539 in lutenist of the Italian Renaissance. He the successive papal households of Leo X flourished during a period when most Italian Medici, Adrian VI Dedal , Clement VII courts were dominated by oltremontani, and can Medici, and Paul III Farnese. Francesco began thus be considered as the first Italian-born his papal service early on in Leo’s pontificate, musician of the Renaissance to achieve and remained as one of the ’s private international fame. His compositions musicians (sometimes listed along with his circulated widely and with regularity in father) until the end of the papacy in 1521. Europe, through single-author prints, large Continuing his employment into the ill-fated retrospective anthologies, and manuscripts; pontificate of Clement VII, Francesco they continue to appear in English and performed before such figures as Castiglione Continental sources until the middle of the and Giovio in 1524, and Isabella d’Este in seventeenth century, his works achieving a 1526. He returned to Milan shortly before the “classic” status at a time when dramatic Sack of Rome, becoming a canon in S. changes in musical style and modifications to Nazaro Maggiore in 1528. A period of the instrument itself rendered most of the residence in Piacenza is intimated in a verse sixteenth-century lute repertory obsolete. by the Florentine poet Francesco Berni from 1528, in which the poet calls on Francesco to Life and Patronage: The earliest information leave Piacenza and join his forlorn admirers in about Francesco’s life comes from the Venice. Neither this trip nor Fétis’s claim that horoscopes prepared by Girolamo Cardano Francesco served as organist at the Duomo of (1543) and Luca Gaurico (1552), which laid Milan around 1530 has been confirmed (see the groundwork for the pioneering studies by Slim, 1964). A sojourn in Paris is also a Slim (1964, 1965) and the more recent possibility given the attribution of some of his archival work by Pavan (1991, 1995, 1997). works in the Siena Lute Book (NL - DHgm 28 Francesco was born into a musical family in B 39) to a “Francesco da Parigi,” and the fact Monza, one of three sons fathered by that Francesco’s first published work (a Benedetto Canova (the name of Francesco’s corrupt reading of his Fantasia 24) appeared mother is not known), a clever entrepreneur in a Parisian source licensed by the royal who invested in property, founded a company court, Attaingnant’s Tres breve et familiere that produced gold and silver thread, and introduction of 1529. capitalized on his son’s distinguished musical Upon his return to Rome around career to further his family’s economic and 1531, Francesco entered the service first of social status (Pavan, 1994). No details have Cardinal Ippolito de’Medici, and after 1534, yet emerged about Francesco’s musical that of Pope Paul III, where his duties

2 Victor Coelho, "Francesco da Milano," in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1999-), English translation included teaching lute to the pope’s grandson Maria della Scala in Milan, a church long since Ottavio Farnese. Francesco’s most famous replaced by the famous opera house of the student, however, was Perino Fiorentino degli same name. Many attempts have been made Organi (1523-52), a Florentine lute virtuoso in to identify Francesco in sixteenth-century his own right who became a member of Paul paintings of lutenists. But it is a seventeenth- III’s household at the age of thirteen and century portrait copy in the Biblioteca whose works were later published alongside Ambrosiana in Milan, portraying a bearded his teacher’s. In 1536, three books devoted “Francesco del liuto” with a music book in exclusively to Francesco’s compositions were front of him open to a page from Arcadelt’s published in and Venice, by Sultzbach madrigal Quand’io penso al martire (a work that and Marcolini, respectively, as well as an was, in fact, intabulated by Francesco), that is important Milanese lute anthology by recognized as the only true likeness of the Casteliono that contained five of Francesco’s lutenist. pieces along with selections by Albert de Rippe, Marco dall’Aquila, and Pietro Paolo Sources, Style, and Reputation: Of the Borrono. A fifth book from that year (Brown, approximately 125 compositions that are 154?/4) that is devoid of both a publisher’s assumed to be by Francesco, less than half of name and date, is identical to the Marcolini them were published during his lifetime, and volume and predates it; Pavan’s elaborate many new and unique works attributed to him hypothesis about its political background is continued to appear almost fifty years after his inconclusive; see Pavan, 2000.) Some of death. Not surprisingly, the Francesco Francesco’s travels as a member of the papal catalogue as it stands now reveals a stylistic musica during this second Roman sojourn have and technical inconsistency that cries out for been documented: in 1533 he accompanied serious analytical scrutiny, a topic that Clement VII to for his meeting with Francesco scholars have shown a puzzling Charles V; and in 1538 Francesco was the reluctance to broach. It is fairly clear that only musician brought to Nice by Paul III for many attributions to Francesco cannot be his meeting with Charles V and Francis I. accepted uncritically, and in seeking to Thus, Francesco’s music was requested at ascertain what exactly Francesco did and did functions in which diplomatic honor was at not write, recent studies have confronted this stake, suggesting a connection among papal issue from a range of musicological taste, ceremony, and compositional style (see perspectives, including 1) how the economics Coelho, 2002). In 1538 Francesco appears as and occasional unscrupulousness of print one of the “gentilhomini e camerieri” of culture might influence attribution; 2) how the Cardinal Alessandro Farnese (Dorez, 1932), veracity of manuscript attributions can be and he is also documented back in Milan judged on stylistic grounds; and 3) through an following his marriage to the noble Milanese examination of the broad patterns of Chiara Tizzoni in the same year. We know reception and revival that shaped Francesco’s little either of Francesco’s activities after this posthumous reputation (see Coelho, 1996). time, or of the cause and place of his death. A Francesco’s publications of 1536 show tombstone was erected by his father at Santa a dramatic evolution from the more rhapsodic

3 Victor Coelho, "Francesco da Milano," in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1999-), English translation and formulaic styles contained in the Petrucci generation prior to Francesco, but it reflects a lute books of 1507-1508, revealing instead a composer who was probably in Rome around new contrapuntal artistry that is derived from 1495—just before Francesco’s birth—and his adaptation of polyphonic vocal techniques whose music remained in the chapel to the lute. It is logical to assume that the repertory, reflecting the antiquarian taste of music in these prints (and possibly later ones, the papal chapel that persists through the first too) had their compositional origins during half of the sixteenth century. As for the more the composer’s service to the Medici in numerous secular settings, Francesco’s prefer- the 1510s, ‘20s and ‘30s, and, by extension, ence for the French chanson as a model for fundamentally conceived within, and intabulation provides the clearest example of informed by, the literary and humanistic the noble Florentine taste that was adopted in culture around Leo X and Clement VII (see Rome during Medici papacies (see Coelho, Coelho, 2005). His fantasias and ricercars 2002). Many of these chansons were copied draw on traditional lute idioms, to be sure, but into Florentine manuscripts during this his main influences are the formal, motivic, period, or they represent composers whose and contrapuntal features of the frottola (as works were known by the Medici, such as seen in Ricercar 2—numberings refer to Ness, Févin and, of course, Richafort, whose music 1970), motet (Fantasia 21), French chanson was sung in the papal court and who received (Ricercar 3, 16), and the new Italian madrigal a benefice from in 1516. (Ricercar 6), which Francesco amalgamated Due to the exclusive ten-year privilege into a broad-based instrumental style. Some granted to Marcolini to print lute tablatures in works even contain programmatic elements 1536, which he did not exercise again prior to similar to the Parisian chanson—the climax of its expiration, the publication of Francesco’s trumpet calls at the end of Fantasia 1, for lute music did not resume until 1546, three example. Many if not most of his fantasias are years after the composer’s death. The based on subjects borrowed from vocal music Venetian prints of that year introduce mostly (see Mengozzi, 1990), similar to the way a new intabulations, all of them chansons, based Bembo text was indebted to Petrarch. One on models by Garnier, Sermisy, Certon, can say that Francesco helped develop the Layolle, Gombert and Janequin, including a fantasia from a purely preludial genre of brilliant arrangement of the latter’s famous music to an artistic creation that is informed by Chant des oyseaux. By contrast, the publications rhetorical and humanistic text/musical of 1547 contain a dozen new fantasias, considerations. Turning to his intabulations, showing a more fluid and pervasive point-of- the four sacred settings that appear in the imitation technique (Fantasia 39), an increased 1536 prints are based on either the exact vocal concern for formal symmetry and section- models (Pater Noster / Ave Maria, Stabat Mater) alisation (Fantasia 38), mono-thematicism or at the very least are by the same composers (Fantasia 30, Fantasia 33), and paraphrase or (Josquin, Compere) that are represented in parody technique—Fantasia 36 is based on manuscripts copied for the Capella Sistina and Francesco’s intabulation of Richafort’s De mon Capella Giulia. Indeed, Compere’s O Bone Jesu triste plaisir, while Fantasia 30 appears to is from a slightly older repertory of the paraphrase the first subject of the madrigal

4 Victor Coelho, "Francesco da Milano," in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1999-), English translation

Quanto sia lieto il giorno by Verdelot, whose – Br II 275) contain along with concordances earliest supporters included Francesco’s to previously published works, entirely new patron Pope Clement VII. Taken together, pieces attributed to Francesco that are the printed works of 1536, 1546, and 1547 difficult to authenticate on stylistic grounds represent the core of Francesco’s total output (see Coelho, 1996). Francesco’s works are and are distinct from the works attributed to especially prominent in Florentine him in later sources by their stylistic manuscripts, a tradition that may have its homogeneity. They were easily the most origins in the excellent relations he had with familiar pieces to the public and many were the two Medici popes Leo X and Clement reprinted well into the 1570s. VII, and his tutelage of Perino Fiorentino. A The same cannot be said for the recently discovered manuscript in thirteen fantasias that appear in the Castelfranco Veneto (I – CFVd, s.s.; see Intabolatura de lautto libro settimo (whose claim Rossi, 1996) contains previously unknown on the title page that the works are based on works by Francesco that are among the most the composer’s own copies is probably a good convincing to date and thoroughly evocative example of the hyperbole used by publishers). of the elegant discourse, refinement, and Ness (1970) has described these works as rhetorical expression of the Francesco exhibiting a “rambling formal structure, an fantasia. absence of linear clarity, and a preponderance Francesco da Milano’s works reveal an of jagged, nervous embellishment.” The large extraordinary amalgamation of styles drawn majority of these works may well be opera from many current trends of vocal music, and dubia, similar to the thirteen equally his work as a whole contains some of the uncharacteristic fantasias attributed to Fran- most inventive music of the sixteenth century. cesco in Borrono’s Intavolatura di lauto of the In addition, his works established a new same year, and the six fantasias attributed to technical standard, and they provided a him in Vincenzo Galilei’s Intavolature de lauto, contemporary stylistic model for players to which are, at best, pastiches, and at worst imitate that was as distinguished as a Josquin largely the work of Galilei himself (see motet or Arcadelt madrigal, his own music Coelho, 1996; Meadors 1984). Not becoming a rich source for parody and surprisingly, none of these pieces was ever imitation by other lutenists. reprinted. (Curiously, Fantasia 51, from the libro settimo, has become one of the most 1. Editions often-played fantasias by lutenists today.) Arthur J. Ness, ed. The Lute Music of Francesco One encounters the same problems of Canova da Milano (1497-1543) attributions in the manuscript sources. Some (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University sources, like the Siena Lute Book, transmit Press, 1970) reliable, even excellent readings of Ruggiero Chiesa, ed. Francesco da Milano: Opere Francesco’s music and seem to have been complete per liuto (Milan: Suvini Zerboni, copied carefully by a professional lutenist 1971) working from reputable sources. Other manuscripts, like the Cavalcanti Lute Book (B

5 Victor Coelho, "Francesco da Milano," in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1999-), English translation

2. WORKS 25 Martin menuyt (Sermisy) 2.1.1 For solo lute: 26 Martin menoit (Janequin) 91 fantasias (or ricercars) and 31 27 Le chant des oiseaux (Janequin) intabulations excluding embellished works, 28 De mon triste desplaisir (Richafort) parodies, and works of doubtful authenticity 29 Vignon vignetta (Sermisy) 1 Tochate; 1Tirate 2.3.4 Italian Madrigals 2.2 For two lutes 30 Quanta beltà (Arcadelt) 3 works (Spagna, Canon, Fantasia) 31 Quando’il penso al martire (Arcadelt)

2.3: Intabulations Four intabulations attributed to Francesco by 2.3.1 Motets Vincenzo Galilei, Il Fronimo (Venice, 1 Pater noster a sei (Josquin) 1568/1584). 2 Ave Maria a sei (Josquin 3 Stabat mater dolorosa (Josquin) 3. Printed Sources (giving first appearance 4 O bone Jesu (Compère) of fantasias and intabulations) *Numbering of dates below follows Howard 2.3.2 French Chansons: Mayer Brown, Instrumental Music Printed 5 Mon per si ma marie Before 1600 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard 6 Le plus gorgais du monde University Press, 1965) 7 Chi voleno dir de moy [Que voulez vous nd dire de moy] (2 part of Josquin’s Si j’ay 154?4: Intabolatura da Leuto del Divino Francisco perdu mon amy) da Milano… (n.p.).

8 Tu discois 15363: Intabolatura di liuto de diversi… di M. 9 Fors seulement (Févin) Francesco da Milano (Venice: Marcolini) 10 Nos bergiers 1536: Intavolatura de viola o vero Lauto… Libro 11 Joliet est marie Primo della Fortuna e Libro Secondo 12 Se la natura) (Naples: Sultzbach) [not listed by 13 Gentil galans Brown]; facsimle rpt/ Geneva: 14 Rousignol (Mouton) Minkoff, 19 1536 : Giovanni Antonio Casteliono, 15 Las je me plains (Sermisy) 9 Intabolatura de Leuto de diversi autori… 16 Pour quoy alles vous seulette (Milan: Casteliono) 17 La Bataglia (Janequin) 1546 : Intabolatura de lauto di Francesco da Milano 18 6 La Bataglia francese (Janequin) (Venice: Gardane) 19 Reveillez moi (Garnier) 154620: Carminum pro testitudine, Liber IIII 20 Pour avoir paix (Layolle (Louvain: Phalèse) 21 Hors envieulx retires vous (Gombert) 15472: Intabolatura de lauto di M. Francesco 22 Sur toute fleurs jayme la margarite Milanese et M. Perino Fiorentino (Venice: 23 Pourtant si je suis brunette (Sermisy) Gardane) 24 Fortune alors (Certon)

6 Victor Coelho, "Francesco da Milano," in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1999-), English translation

15483: Intavolatura di lauto del divino Francesco da Arthur J. Ness, “The Siena Lute Book and its Milano et dell’ eccellente Pietro Paulo Arrangements of Vocal and Instrumental Part Music,” in Proceedings of the Borrono (Milan: Castelliono) International Lute Symposium: Utrecht 1986 (Utrecht: Stimu, 1986), 30-49.

15484: Intabolatura de lautto libro settimo… del Stefano Mengozzi, “‘Is this Fantasy a Parody’: Divino M. Francesco da Milano (Venice: Vocal Models in the Free Compositions of Francesco da Milano,” Journal of the Scotto) Lute Society of America 23 (1990), 7-17. Franco Pavan, “Francesco Canova and his Family

15637: Intavolature di lauto di Vincenzo Galilei in Milan: New Documents,” Journal of the Fiorentino (Rome: Dorico) Lute Society of America 24 (1991), 1-14. Philippe Canguilhem, “Les deux éditions de 4. Manuscripts containing unique works : ‘Fronimo’ (1568 et 1584) et la place du B – Br II 275 luth dans la pensée musicale de Vincenzo GB – Cu Dd.2.11 Galilei (PhD diss., Université de Tours, I - CFVd s.s. 1994). Franco Pavan, “Ex paupertate evasit: Francesco da Milano et sa famille,” in Le Concert des voix I – Fn Magl. XIX 168 et des instruments à la Renaissance, ed. J.-M. NL - Dhgm 28.B.39 Vaccaro (Paris: CNRS 1995), 361-70. D – Mbs Mus. Ms. 266 Victor Coelho, “The Reputation of Francesco da Milano (1497-1543) and the Ricercars in the Cavalcanti Lute Book,” Revue Belge de 5. Bibliography: Musicologie 50 (1996): 49-72. Leon Dorez, La cour du Pape Paul III (Paris, 1932). F. Rossi, “Pacolini da Borgotaro versus Pacalone da Joel E. Newman, “Francesco Canova da Milano: Padova: Francesco da Milano nell’ A Lutenist of the Sixteenth Century (M.A. antologia di Castelfranco Veneto,” in thesis, New York University, 1942). Trent’anni di ricerca musicologica: studi in onore Elwyn A. Wienandt, Musical Style in the Lute di F. Alberto Gallo, ed. P. Dalla Vacchia & Compositions of Francesco da Milano (PhD diss., D. Restani (Rome, 1996) 167-96. Univ. of Iowa, 1951). Franco Pavan, “Francesco Canova da Milano,” Otto Gombosi, “A la recherche de la forme dans (diss. Univ. of Milan, 1997). la musique de la Renaissance: Francesco da Victor Coelho, “Authority, Autonomy, and Milano,” in La musique instrumentale de la Interpretation in Seventeenth-Century renaissance, ed. J. Jacquot (Paris: CNRS, 1955), Italian Lute Music,” in Performance on Lute, 165-76. Guitar, and Vihuela: Historical Practice and H. Colin Slim, “Francesco da Milano (1497- Modern Interpretation, ed. Victor Coelho, 1543/44): A bio-bibliographical study,” Cambridge Studies in Performance Musica Disciplina 18 (1964), 63-84 and Musica Practice (Cambridge: Cambridge Disciplina 19 (1965), 109-28. University Press, 1997), 108-41. Yves Giraud, “Deux livres de tablature inconnus Jane A. Bernstein, Music Printing in Renaissance de Francesco da Milano,” Revue de Venice: The Scotto Press (1539-1572) (New musicologie 55 (1969), 217-19. York and Oxford: Oxford University James McWhorter Meadors Jr., “Italian Lute Press, 1998). Fantasias and Ricercars Printed in the Hiroyuki Minamino, “Was Francesco da Milano a Second Half of the Sixteenth Century” Viola da Mano Player?” The Lute 38 (Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 1984). (1998), 58-64. Arthur J. Ness, “The Herwarth Lute Manuscripts Franco Pavan, ed. Francesco da Milano: Intabolatura at the Bavarian State Library” (PhD. diss. da leuto [facsimile] (Bologna: Forni, 2000) New York University, 1984).

7 Victor Coelho, "Francesco da Milano," in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1999-), English translation

Franco Pavan, “Francesco (Canova) da Milano,” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edition, ed. Stanley Sadie (London: MacMillan, 2001), 9: 166-68. Victor Coelho, “Papal Tastes and Musical Genres: Francesco da Milano ‘Il Divino’ (1497- 1543), and the Clementine Aesthetic,” in The Pontificate of Clement VII–History, Politics, Culture, ed. K. Gouwens and S. Reiss (Aldershot, 2005), 277-92.