Lute Tutor

Day 30

Congratulations! You’ve made it to the end of this year’s lute challenge! I hope you’ve had a great time. Considering how popular it has been, I’ll definitely be looking to organise another one next year. If you have any feedback, I’d love to hear it. This piece is from the Craus Lute Book housed and…

Day 29

Joan Ambrosio Dalza (fl. 1508) was an Italian lutenist and composer. His surviving works comprise the fourth volume of Ottaviano Petrucci’s influential series of lute music publications, Intabolatura de lauto libro quarto (Venice, 1508). Dalza is referred to as “milanese” in the preface, so it must be assumed he was either born in Milan, or…

Day 28

This piece is from the Craus Lute Book housed and looked after by the Austrian National Music Collection (ms 18688). Although we don’t know who composed it, we expect the book to have been collated from about 1540. I find this piece to be very beautiful — there’s something about the Eb vs. G-major 3rd…

Day 27

Ludwig Iselin (2 July 1559 – 20 December 1612) was a Basel scholar. He was the son of Johann Ulrich Iselin and Faustina Amerbach. His father died during the plague in 1564 so young Ludwig grew up with his uncle, Basilius Amerbach (the younger). He studied in Geneva with the famous Calvinist theologian Theodore Beza…

Day 26

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…

Day 25

Pierre Attaingnant (or Attaignant) (c. 1494 – late 1551 or 1552) was a French music publisher, active in Paris. Attaingnant is considered to be first large-scale publisher of single-impression movable type for music-printing, thus making it possible to print faster and cheaper than predecessors such as Ottaviano Petrucci. Attaingnant is often credited with being the…

Day 24

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…

Day 23

Cesare Negri (c. 1535 – c. 1605) was an Italian dancer and choreographer. He was nicknamed il Trombone, an ugly or jocular name for someone “who likes to blow his own horn”. Born in Milan, he founded a dance academy there in 1554. He was an active court choreographer for the nobility in Milan. He…

Day 22

Filippo Azzaiolo (Sometimes spelled: Assaiuolo) was a 16th-century Italian composer. His surviving compositions were published in three collections issued between 1557 and 1569. The dedicatees each have links to Bologna, so it seems likely that Azzaiolo himself had connections to that city. Ludwig Iselin (2 July 1559 – 20 December 1612) was a Basel scholar….

Day 21

Paul Hofhaimer (25 January 1459 – 1537) was an Austrian organist and composer. He was particularly gifted at improvisation, and was regarded as the finest organist of his age by many writers, including Vadian and Paracelsus; in addition he was one of only two German-speaking composers of the time (Heinrich Isaac was the other) who…