Day 6
Fabritio Caroso da Sermoneta (1526/1535 – 1605/1620) was an Italian Renaissance dancing master and a composer or transcriber of dance music.
His dance manual Il Ballarino was published in 1581, with a subsequent edition, significantly different, Nobiltà di Dame, printed in 1600 and again after his death in 1630.
Both manuals have been printed in facsimile edition. Many of the dances of Fabritio Caroso's manuals are meant for two dancers with a few for four or more dancers. These manuals offer a great deal of information to dance historians and musicologists alike in that each description of a dance is accompanied by music examples with lute tablature and directions about how each music example is to be played. Many of the dances also contain dedications to noble women of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.
Biography sourced from Wikipedia
If you've enjoyed the January Lute Challenge, why not share this piece?
I find, after a bit of practice, I can manage the ‘F’ to ‘E-flat’ shift (mm. 2-3) without much difficulty. The shift from ‘F’ to ‘B-flat’ (mm. 10-11) on the other hand I find quite challenging. The trick of playing the bass note first doesn’t work for me here, because my pinky has trouble stretching up to the first string. (In other words, I need to place the highest note first.) It’s a common chord change, though, so I certainly need to master it. In the meantime, this piece will remain a useful left-hand study!
Update: what a difference a day makes! All of a sudden, Alex’s ‘bass up’ trick works like a charm for that nasty B-flat chord. It’s like some kind of magic: what was yesterday a struggle now comes easily – so much so that I have to ask myself if I was really having trouble in the first place! But I’m sure of it. (I guess this is why daily practice is so highly recommended!)
Couldn’t get “Colours of day” out of my head while I was playing this!