Tristan, I would hesitate to say that Spinacino was a bad composer for
the lute. Quite the contrary, considered in context his work
represented a very high standard of writing for the instrument. The
value judgement of Spinacino's work must be weighed against the
position it occupies as the very first instrumental music published
with moveable type. Were there mistakes? Multitudes. To truly judge
the worth of the music in Spinacino's book(s) it is absolutely
essential that one compare the intabulations against the vocal models.
I have done this for a large proportion of the intabulations and, after
adjustments and replacing missing measures, find Spinacino's settings
of vocal music to be quite brilliant. Likewise, his instrumental
recercars must be analyzed as sectional pieces. There are cases where
what amounts to separate sections are strung together without fermati
or double bars. If we adjust for this and deliver a more sensitive and
flexible interpretation, the writing can be quite nice. The other
mistake we make is in considering Spinacino's work as marking an abrupt
change from plectrum to fingerstyle play. This is a patently absurd
idea that defies practical musical sense. There was an obvious
unwritten tradition of arranging polyphony for the lute that predates
the first publication.
RA
__________________________________________________________________
From: lute-...@new-old-mail.cs.dartmouth.edu
<lute-...@new-old-mail.cs.dartmouth.edu> on behalf of Tristan von
Neumann <tristanvonneum...@gmx.de>
Sent: Tuesday, January 14, 2020 3:52 PM
To: lute@cs.dartmouth.edu <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Subject: [LUTE] another controversial question (again)
After the Milan discussion which I enjoyed a lot, I'd like to bring up
again my question, which I would love to be discussed in the same
manner
as the Milan controversy (which really wasn't one, granted).
As you all know, the first prints were of pieces by one "Francesco
Spinacino", about whom we know practically nothing.
Some say, these pieces are of, erm, mediocre quality. (Lukas Henning
dedicated a whole video to the "bad compositions")
Personally, I think many of them are not so bad, and the gimmicky ones
like the one in all modes, and the ricercar with cadences on all 12
notes are particularly original.
When looking for the oldest lute pieces, I played through Pesaro Ms.
(the heart shaped one), Bossinensis, and also the Capirola Lute Book.
What I noticed was that the Capirola pieces are stylistically most
similar to Spinacino's works. (also the "Benedictus" quotes in
Ricercars
of both composers)
Playing both just "feels" like the technique of the same person or at
least the same approach. (Of course, maybe Capirola just learned his
lute playing on the basis of the Spinacino albums)
I talked with Lukas Henning about that, and he said that Capirola is so
much better, therefore the two can't be the same person.
I disagree with that view, because the Books are 10 years apart, and
there is no argument against the development of better compositional
skillz, especially by an amateur like Capriola.
Maybe he just learned some things during that decade...
My thought was: what if "Francesco Spinacino" is the pen name of
Capirola, who as a nobleman in early 16th century did not want to
publish music under his real name, because musicians were still
considered kind of "low life" (which changed a few years later, when it
was considered fashionable to make music, see: Il Cortegiano)
Why did Petrucci publish this music and not that of more praised
composers? I am sure they would have been delighted to see their music
printed.
If Capirola was involved, maybe he financed the print? Since this would
have to be the first lute music printed, there was a certain risk if it
was successful or not. No one knew if lutenists would buy those books.
If it was sponsored it would have been a good market test with no risk.
Are there any records of the early Petrucci company?
When I told a friend who speaks Italian fluently about "Spinacino", she
immediately laughed. "You know this means something like "Spinach guy",
was he a spinach farmer?"
Surely he wasn't a sailor...
If anyone knows anything that would corroborate or contradict this
idea,
please go ahead. Last time this came up, there wasn't much sensible
response.
Thanks!
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