Dear Ron,
Thank you for your kind words. Again, I think we should be wary of
speculations where the known facts points in another direction. While
there is indeed a possibility of Italian influence in Milán,
especially considering that the viceroy of Valencia was Ferdinand of
Aragón, Duke of Calabria, I still believe that putting together Milán
and Verdelot is pushing the evidence too far merely on the basis of a
vague possibility (which I cannot share -the dates of their
publications suggest otherwise); on the other hand, we have no way of
knowing how much influence Castiglione's book might have had on
Milán: at least there is none to be found in his own Cortesano. In my
view all the arguments in favour of an Italian direct musical
influence on Milán remain purely speculative. I cannot give credence
to them.
On the other hand, resorting to the contents of Valderrábano and
Fuenllana is, again, misleading. Both vihuelists belong to a later
phase and school (I call it Castilian as opposed to the earlier
Valencian) and should not be used as a basis for comparison. The mere
fact that both included a large amount of intabulations as opposed to
the contents of El Maestro -where there are none-, not to mention the
altogether different style of their fantasias, as well as the fact
that both Valderrábano and Fuenllana were professional musicians at
the service of nobility, whereas Milán was an amateur (probably a
member of the lesser nobility as suggested by the "Don"), their
"nationality": Castilian versus Valencian, and even the type of
tablature they used should put us on our guard against a direct
comparison and therefore considering them on the same category.
I´m afraid that I shall need more solid evidence to convince me that
Milan used the music of Verdelot (or any of the other great composers
intabulated by later vihuelists) as a model or otherwise for his own
music. As it stands now, I must stress it again, such a suggestion is
firmly rooted on speculation and nothing more.
Best wishes,
Antonio
On Saturday, 4 January 2020, 09:19:07 GMT-6, Ron Andrico
<praelu...@hotmail.com> wrote:
Thanks, Antonio. I must say it is heartwarming to know you are
such a
champion for the music of Milan. I appreciate his role as a
pioneer in
Spanish instrumental music and as an advocate of the viheula and its
significance in courtly life. But I don't think it is much of a
speculation to say that he was influenced by Italian examples,
including Verdelot's madrigals and Castiglione's much earlier example
of a guide to courtly custom. I think if you'll examine the large
amount of intabulated polyphony found in the books of Fuenllana
(1552)
and Valderrabano (1547), both of which contain several
intabulations of
music by Verdelot, as well as Arcadelt, Compere, Gombert, Josquin,
Mouton, Sermisy and Willaert, you must admit there is a chance Milan
had access to examples for his instrumental settings.
RA
__________________________________________________________________
From: lute-...@new-old-mail.cs.dartmouth.edu
<lute-...@new-old-mail.cs.dartmouth.edu> on behalf of Antonio Corona
<abcor...@mail.cs.dartmouth.edu>
Sent: Saturday, January 4, 2020 9:21 AM
To: lute@cs.dartmouth.edu <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Subject: [LUTE] Re: Portuguese Lute Music anyone?
Oops ... a mistake.
In the paragraph wich reads:
Milán`s El Cortesano is an account of his life at the viceregal court
of the Duke of Calabria and Germaine de Foix at Valencia: it has
little
in common with Casteglione's work which, incidentally, was
published in
a Spanish translation by Juan Boscán in 1534 - the same year in which
the work for publishing El Maestro began. We do not know at what time
Milan might have learned of it, but his Cortesano was published in
1561, a long time after.
The part which states "in 1534 - the same year in which the work for
publishing El Maestro began." should be ignored (the correct date is
1535).
Best wishes,
Antonio
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