Francesco Canova da Milano
Encyclopedia
Francesco Canova da Milano (Francesco da Milano, also known as Il divino, Francesco da Parigi, etc.) (18 August 1497 – 2 January 1543) was an Italian
lute
nist and composer
. He was born in Monza
, near Milan
, and worked for the papal court for almost all of his career. Francesco was heralded throughout Europe as the foremost lute composer of his time. More of his music is preserved than of any other lutenist of the period, and his work continued to influence composers for more than a century after his death.
, a small city some 15 km north-northeast of Milan
. His father Benedetto was a musician, as was his elder brother Bernardino. According to Luca Gaurico
's Tractatus astrologicus (1552), Francesco studied under Giovanni Angelo Testagrossa
, but today this is considered somewhat unlikely. By 1514 Francesco was a member of the papal household in Rome
. From that time for most of his career he was closely associated with the papal court. He and his father became private musicians to Pope Leo X
in October 1516; Francesco's father kept this position until December 1518, but Francesco stayed until Leo's death in 1521. Little is known about his subsequent career in Rome, but he was still living in the city in early 1526: on 16 January 1526 he and one other lutenist performed for Pope Clement VII
and Isabella d'Este
.
Details of Francesco's later life are sketchy. He may have served at the Paris
ian court for a short time, since some sources refer to him as Francesco da Parigi. In 1528 he obtained a canonry
in S Nazaro Maggiore in Milan, which he would cede to his brother in 1536. He may have travelled to Murano
in 1530. Between 1531 and 1535 he served Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici
, who died in 1535. In the same year Francesco worked as lute teacher to Ottavio Farnese
, grandson of Pope Paul III
. In a document dated 1 January 1538 Francesco is listed as a member of the household of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, a famous patron of the arts. In July Francesco married one Clara Tizzoni, a Milanese noblewoman, and moved to Milan, where the couple lived at least until September. By early 1539 Francesco and his father were once again employed by the papal court.
Nothing is known about Francesco's last years and his death, except that he probably did not die in Milan. The exact date of death, 2 January 1543, was recorded only by Luca Gaurico. Francesco's brother outlived him by at least 19 years, and died sometime after 1562. Francesco's father probably outlived his son as well; he died at some point before 1555.
by Pierre Attaingnant
in 1529, five volumes of lute music comprising mostly Francesco's works were published in Milan in 1536. There are many 16th and 17th century manuscript sources for his works, as well. Today, more than a hundred ricercar
s and fantasia
s (two terms used interchangeably in Francesco's oeuvre), some 30 intabulation
s and a few other pieces by Francesco are known. His music represents the transition from the loose improvisational style of his predecessors to the more refined polyphonic textures of later lute music. One of the defining characteristic features of Francesco's style is the manipulation and development of short melodic motifs within a "narrative" formal outline. Francesco was drawing on techniques found in contemporary vocal music, e.g. works by Josquin des Prez
and composers of his generation. Aside from his influence on the development of lute music, he is also important for being among the first composers to create monothematic ricercar
s. Francesco's reputation today rests on his ricercars and fantasias, but contemporaries apparently held his intabulations of vocal works by other composers to be the best part of his oeuvre.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
lute
Lute
Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....
nist and composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
. He was born in Monza
Monza
Monza is a city and comune on the river Lambro, a tributary of the Po, in the Lombardy region of Italy some 15 km north-northeast of Milan. It is the capital of the Province of Monza and Brianza. It is best known for its Grand Prix motor racing circuit, the Autodromo Nazionale Monza.On June...
, near Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
, and worked for the papal court for almost all of his career. Francesco was heralded throughout Europe as the foremost lute composer of his time. More of his music is preserved than of any other lutenist of the period, and his work continued to influence composers for more than a century after his death.
Life
Francesco da Milano was most almost certainly born in MonzaMonza
Monza is a city and comune on the river Lambro, a tributary of the Po, in the Lombardy region of Italy some 15 km north-northeast of Milan. It is the capital of the Province of Monza and Brianza. It is best known for its Grand Prix motor racing circuit, the Autodromo Nazionale Monza.On June...
, a small city some 15 km north-northeast of Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
. His father Benedetto was a musician, as was his elder brother Bernardino. According to Luca Gaurico
Luca Gaurico
Luca Gaurico was an Italian astrologer, astronomer, and mathematician. He was born to a poor family in the Kingdom of Naples, and studied judicial astrology, a subject he defended in his Oratio de Inventoribus et Astrologiae Laudibus...
's Tractatus astrologicus (1552), Francesco studied under Giovanni Angelo Testagrossa
Giovanni Angelo Testagrossa
Giovanni Angelo Testagrossa was an Italian lutenist and singer. He was born in Pavia and worked in Milan, Mantua, Ferrara and many other cities. Testagrossa was a renowned teacher; his pupils included Isabella d'Este...
, but today this is considered somewhat unlikely. By 1514 Francesco was a member of the papal household in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
. From that time for most of his career he was closely associated with the papal court. He and his father became private musicians to Pope Leo X
Pope Leo X
Pope Leo X , born Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, was the Pope from 1513 to his death in 1521. He was the last non-priest to be elected Pope. He is known for granting indulgences for those who donated to reconstruct St. Peter's Basilica and his challenging of Martin Luther's 95 Theses...
in October 1516; Francesco's father kept this position until December 1518, but Francesco stayed until Leo's death in 1521. Little is known about his subsequent career in Rome, but he was still living in the city in early 1526: on 16 January 1526 he and one other lutenist performed for Pope Clement VII
Pope Clement VII
Clement VII , born Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici, was a cardinal from 1513 to 1523 and was Pope from 1523 to 1534.-Early life:...
and Isabella d'Este
Isabella d'Este
Isabella d'Este was Marchesa of Mantua and one of the leading women of the Italian Renaissance as a major cultural and political figure. She was a patron of the arts as well as a leader of fashion, whose innovative style of dressing was copied by women throughout Italy and at the French court...
.
Details of Francesco's later life are sketchy. He may have served at the Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
ian court for a short time, since some sources refer to him as Francesco da Parigi. In 1528 he obtained a canonry
Canon (priest)
A canon is a priest or minister who is a member of certain bodies of the Christian clergy subject to an ecclesiastical rule ....
in S Nazaro Maggiore in Milan, which he would cede to his brother in 1536. He may have travelled to Murano
Murano
Murano is a series of islands linked by bridges in the Venetian Lagoon, northern Italy. It lies about 1.5 km north of Venice and measures about across with a population of just over 5,000 . It is famous for its glass making, particularly lampworking...
in 1530. Between 1531 and 1535 he served Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici
Ippolito de' Medici
Ippolito de' Medici was the illegitimate only son of Giuliano di Lorenzo de' Medici.Ippolito was born in Urbino. His father died when he was only five , and he was subsequently raised by his uncle Pope Leo X and his cousin Giulio.When Giulio de' Medici was elected pope as Clement VII, Ippolito...
, who died in 1535. In the same year Francesco worked as lute teacher to Ottavio Farnese
Ottavio Farnese, Duke of Parma
Ottavio Farnese reigned as Duke of Parma and Piacenza from 1547 and Duke of Castro from 1545 until his death.-Biography:...
, grandson of Pope Paul III
Pope Paul III
Pope Paul III , born Alessandro Farnese, was Pope of the Roman Catholic Church from 1534 to his death in 1549. He came to the papal throne in an era following the sack of Rome in 1527 and rife with uncertainties in the Catholic Church following the Protestant Reformation...
. In a document dated 1 January 1538 Francesco is listed as a member of the household of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, a famous patron of the arts. In July Francesco married one Clara Tizzoni, a Milanese noblewoman, and moved to Milan, where the couple lived at least until September. By early 1539 Francesco and his father were once again employed by the papal court.
Nothing is known about Francesco's last years and his death, except that he probably did not die in Milan. The exact date of death, 2 January 1543, was recorded only by Luca Gaurico. Francesco's brother outlived him by at least 19 years, and died sometime after 1562. Francesco's father probably outlived his son as well; he died at some point before 1555.
Works
Already by 1530 Francesco's music was widely known and studied. A few of his works were published in FranceFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
by Pierre Attaingnant
Pierre Attaingnant
Pierre Attaingnant was a French music printer, active in Paris.-Life: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...
in 1529, five volumes of lute music comprising mostly Francesco's works were published in Milan in 1536. There are many 16th and 17th century manuscript sources for his works, as well. Today, more than a hundred ricercar
Ricercar
A ricercar is a type of late Renaissance and mostly early Baroque instrumental composition. The term means to search out, and many ricercars serve a preludial function to "search out" the key or mode of a following piece...
s and fantasia
Fantasia (music)
The fantasia is a musical composition with its roots in the art of improvisation. Because of this, it seldom approximates the textbook rules of any strict musical form ....
s (two terms used interchangeably in Francesco's oeuvre), some 30 intabulation
Intabulation
Intabulation, from the Italian word intavolatura, refers to an arrangement of a vocal or ensemble piece for keyboard, lute, or other plucked string instrument, written in tablature. It was a common practice in 14th-16th century keyboard and lute music...
s and a few other pieces by Francesco are known. His music represents the transition from the loose improvisational style of his predecessors to the more refined polyphonic textures of later lute music. One of the defining characteristic features of Francesco's style is the manipulation and development of short melodic motifs within a "narrative" formal outline. Francesco was drawing on techniques found in contemporary vocal music, e.g. works by Josquin des Prez
Josquin Des Prez
Josquin des Prez [Josquin Lebloitte dit Desprez] , often referred to simply as Josquin, was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance...
and composers of his generation. Aside from his influence on the development of lute music, he is also important for being among the first composers to create monothematic ricercar
Ricercar
A ricercar is a type of late Renaissance and mostly early Baroque instrumental composition. The term means to search out, and many ricercars serve a preludial function to "search out" the key or mode of a following piece...
s. Francesco's reputation today rests on his ricercars and fantasias, but contemporaries apparently held his intabulations of vocal works by other composers to be the best part of his oeuvre.
"Canzona"
A composition called "Canzona by Francesco da Milano" (better known as the song "The City of Gold") is commonly misattributed to da Milano. It is actually a musical hoax by lutenist and famous mystificator Vladimir Vavilov, who composed this song and credited it after Francesco da Milano. After being released by rock band Aquarium in 1987, the song became a big hit in the Soviet Union and beyound and raised questions about the actual credit. It was not until 2000's that mystification was revealed and the credit for the hit went posthumously to Vavilov.Records
-.Smith, Hopkinson (lute), Francesco da Milano: "Fantasias, Intabulations, Ricercari, Dances, Reconstructions",naïve ed.- Tsiporah Meiran, Francesco da Milano : Research for lute, Band of Hippies (2010), recorded on historical instrument
External links
- An Introduction to the Life and Music of Francesco Canova da Milano
- Francesco Canova da Milano (1497-1543): biography and scores of some of Francesco's works
- Francesco Canova da Milano at HOASM
- The Francesco da Milano International Symposium 1997
- Francesco Canova da Milano at Find A Grave
- Two Fantasias by Francesco Canova da Milano performed by lutenist Brian Wright