Fantasia - Francesco da Milano, Guitar arrangement.

The arrangement is by Jose de Azpiazu in his “Gitarrenschule“ Francesco Canova da MilanoFrancesco Canova da Milano (18 August 1497 2 January 1543) was a virtuoso Italian lutenist and composer of the Renaissance. Born in Monza, near Milan (hence the “da Milano“), he was heralded throughout Italy and Europe and was the foremost lute composer of his time. He left several books of music for the lute. It has been noted [1] that: “The basic facility with which he articulated the High Renaissance style for a single instrument continues to make his music uniquely valuable.“ In 1982 I made a guitar, spruce from Swizerland and rosewood from India. I followed the instructions in an English book, “Make your own Spanish Guitar“ () The measures was in inches (25,4 mm) and I found myself an old ruler divided in inches. After a year or two I found reasons to check the measures and they were wrong. I had another look at the ruler and discovered it was divided in Norwegian inches (26,2mm) I didn’t know than there was a difference. I dismounted the instrument and changed the measures a bit and this guitar got the serial no.1,5. It’s the only one in the world. The sound is quite different from my “Raya Pardo“ Somewhere between a lute and a guitar. I have used it all these years only for my praticing. (This is the first time it sounds on YT) This Milano Fantasia I have played by sight, for my own pleasure, all these years and had marked it as one of the scores I decided to “learn“ some day. I have heard it in my head how I felt it to sound. Well, the Fantasia has got my spesial attention for the last month and this is as close I can get to my ability. I felt in a way, this instrument sounded more suited to this old music (at least different) There is “something“ about the lute music from this Francesco. I can’t define what it is, but I keep on playing his works. There’s a lot to learn by listen to the lute music from Milano on “luthval“ on youtube. Recommended!!