I've been spending a little time in the Intabulatura di Lauto del [FdM] et PPBorrono, Libro secondo, 1546, Venice and I'm curious about the first "suite". La Duchessa is the 2nd of 3 saltarellos that follow La Borroncina (a self reference to PPB? eg, Il Gorzanis) and also appears in the Pacaloni trios. The passemezo and other saltarellos are loose variations on it giving me the idea that it may be a signature dance piece for PPB.
Any further information on the piece (or book) would be appreciated. Any idea who "la Duchessa" may be?
An unexpected link from Pacaloni to the LeRoy guitar books surfaced in the Saltarello, La Pistrinara. It appears to be a reworking of the guitar song O combien est (Certon) and the melody is carried in the Superius. As usual for Pacaloni, the chords are a little off but it possibly argues for the Pacaloni Superius to be an A lute --or G lute if we tune our guitars to G. This would argue for Stewart's suggestion of a "low" trio for Pacaloni.
Speaking of the "low" tuning, recently we've been playing Pacaloni as duos w/ a bass cittern tuned to C for the Bassus parts and the Superius on a G lute. Very impressive and a big sound for only two of us! I get the feeling from the flavor of the dances that PPB is somewhat connected to it despite Pac's late date. Any ideas on that?
And the $.64 question: What is a "la pistrinara"? many thanks in advance, Sean To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
