Francesco da Milano (EN)

Francesco da Milano, Milanese, born Francesco Canova, *18 August 1497, Monza (near Milan), †15 April 1543, buried in Milan, Italian lutenist, violist and composer.

He studied the lute under G. Testagrossa. Between 1513 and 1521, he probably spent some time in Rome, as it is known that he was highly regarded by Pope Leo X. Around 1528, he was in Piacenza, and later returned to Rome, where he served at the court of Cardinal Ippolito Medici. After the cardinal’s death (1535), he entered the service of Pope Paul III, who, among other things, entrusted him with teaching his grandson, Ottavio Farnese, to play the lute. In June 1538, he accompanied the Pope to Nice for a meeting with Emperor Charles V and King Francis I of France; he gained the latter’s particular favour, and it is possible that he stayed in France for a time, but by 1539 had returned to the papal court. Francesco’s three brothers, who died young, and his father, Benedetto, were also involved in music. Francesco da Milano’s most famous pupil was Perino Fiorentino.

Francesco da Milano ranks among the most outstanding lutenists of a generation that brought about a breakthrough in instrumental music by realising polyphonic textures of more than three voices on the lute. For his intabulations, he chose polyphonic works with a high degree of imitation, mostly four-voice, but also five- and six-voice motets; and contrary to earlier practice, he did not reduce the number of voices when transposing them to the lute. As a result, the intabulations retain both the overall structure and almost all the polyphonic sounds of the original composition, and are most often further enriched with various diminutive figures, frequently employed by Francesco da Milano. The transposition of 6-voice works to the lute was facilitated by the selection of motets by Josquin des Prés, in which the full ensemble rarely appears, and when it does, different voices come together in unison; nevertheless, genuinely 6-note passages are also found. Among the most elaborate arrangements of chansons are the transpositions of Janequin’s La guerre and Le chant des oiseaux.

In Francesco da Milano’s surviving works, one is struck by the almost complete absence of dances (the only example being the spagna) and the clear predominance of ricercars and fantasias (these terms are used interchangeably in the sources to refer to many of Francesco da Milano’s compositions). These works also mark a new phase in the history of instrumental music, as they are dominated by polyphonic passages (two- and three-voice), and the structure of the entire piece is often based on the technique of imitation. The imitated phrases do not yet generally have an individual shape; they are usually phrases based on scale progressions, which results in a considerable uniformity of material, both within individual compositions and between different ricercars or fantasias. It is interesting to note the transformation of imitated phrases during the course of a piece, which later led to the emergence of the variation ricercar. It is worth noting that although Francesco da Milano’s first printed works appear some dozen years later than Marcantonio Cavazzoni’s organ pieces, the two composers were almost contemporaries. Despite this, many of Francesco da Milano’s works are closer to the elaborate imitative ricercars of the younger Cavazzoni – Girolamo. Some of Francesco da Milano’s works also represent early examples of the development of an autonomous musical architecture, independent of the form of the verbal text or dance movements, and based solely on specific numerical proportions between the sizes of the individual parts and the whole.

Literature: L. Dorez La cour du Pape Paul III, Paris 1932; J.E. Newman Francesco Canova da Milano: A Lutenist of the Sixteenth Century, master’s thesis, New York University, 1942; E.A. Wienandt Musical Style in the Lute Compositions of Francesco da Milano, thesis, University of Iowa, 1951; O. Gombosi À la recherche de la forme dans la musique de la Renaissance: Francesco da Milano, in: La musique instrumentale de la Renaissance, ed. J. Jacquot, Paris 1955; H.C. Slim Francesco da Milano. A Bio-Bibliographical Study, part 1 Biography, “Musica Disciplina” XVIII, 1964, part 2 Bibliography, “Musica Disciplina” XIX, 1965; Y. Giraud Deux livres de tablature inconnus de Francesco da Milano, “Revue de musicologie” LV, 1969; J. McWhorter Meadors Italian Lute Fantasias and Ricercars Printed in the Second Half of the Sixteenth Century, thesis, Harvard University, 1984; A.J. Ness The Herwarth Lute Manuscripts at the Bavarian State Library, Munich, thesis, New York University, 1984; A.J. Ness The Siena Lute Book and its Arrangements of Vocal and Instrumental Part Music, in: Proceedings of the International Lute Symposium: Utrecht 1986, Utrecht 1986; S. Mengozzi Is this Fantasy a Parody? Vocal Models in the Free Compositions of Francesco da Milano, “Journal of the Lute Society of America” XXIII, 1990; F. Pavan Francesco Canova and his Family in Milan, “Journal of the Lute Society of America” XXIV, 1991; F. Pavan Ex paupertate evasit: Francesco da Milano et sa famille, in: Le Concert des voix et des instruments à la Renaissance, ed. J.M. Vaccaro, Paris 1995; M.G. Carlone Immagini di liutisti del primo Cinquecento, thesis, Università di Bologna, 1996; V.A. Coelho The Reputation of Francesco da Milano (1497–1543) and the Ricercars in the Cavalcanti Lute Book, “Revue belge de Musicologie” L, 1996; R. Harmon Listeners in Depictions of Orpheus and (?) I Francesco da Milano, “The Lute” XXXVI, 1996; F. Rossi Pacolini da Borgotaro versus Pacalone da Padova: Francesco da Milano nell’antologia di Castelfranco Veneto, in: Trent’anni di ricerca musicologica. Studi in onore di F. Alberto Gallo, ed. P. Dalla Vecchia and D. Restani, Rome 1996; F. Pavan Francesco Canova da Milano, thesis, Università degli Studi di Milano, 1996; V.A. Coelho Authority, Autonomy, and Interpretation in Seventeenth-Century Italian Lute Music, w: Performance on lute, guitar, and vihuela, red. V.A. Coelho, Cambridge 1997; H. Minamino Was Francesco da Milano a viola da mano Player?, “The Lute” XXXVIII, 1998; F. Pavan Francesco da Milano: Intabolatura de Leuto, Bologna 2000; V.A. 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, Ashgate 2002.