Dall'Aquila / Da Crema: Ricercars / Intabulations / Dances

Featuring

Christopher Wilson
Marco Dall'Aquila
Giovanni Maria da Crema

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Compositional Technique

Gian Maria da Crema's passamezzo/saltarello paired dances use a harmonic formula that later became the basis for hundreds of lute pieces called passamezzo antico.

Composer Biography

Although no lute music by Marco dall'Aquila was published as a result of his 1505 petition, a manuscript copied for the Augsburg financier Hans Heinrich Herwath (1520-1583) preserves nearly seventy of his works.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Marco dall'Aquila is credited with defining the parameters of the newer soloist polyphonic manner for lute, which dominated writing for the instrument for nearly a century.

Composer Biography

Marco dall'Aquila, a lutenist and composer, petitioned the Venetian signori in 1505 for the privilege of publishing lute music in tablature.

Performer Biography

Christopher Wilson, the lutenist on this recording, studied at the Royal College of Music in London and is known as a leading lutenist in Great Britain specializing in Renaissance music.

Historical Context

In 1536, the Venetian publisher Francesco Marcolini da Forli observed that the lute's 'suavity of sound' could 'rob the senses' and make itself 'heard in the soul'.

Compositional Technique

During the first third of the 16th century, lute players abandoned the plectrum in favor of using bare fingers, allowing them to play compositions with three or four contrapuntal parts.