Spain – Italy 16th Century

The large number of instructional manuals of ornamentation published in the sixteenth century are an indication of the importance of adding improvised embellishments to the written music. Sources include Silvestro Ganassi, Opera intitulata Fontegara (Venice, 1535); Diego Ortiz, Tratado de glosas sobre clausulas y otros generos de puntos en la musica de violones  (Rome, 1553); Thomas de Sancta Maria, El Libro llamado de tañer fantasia (Valladolid,1565); Giovanni Bassano, Ricercare, Passaggi et Cadentie (Venice, 1585); Aurelio Virgiliano, Il dolcimelo (MS, c. 1600).

Future projects and recordings include: Jacob Arcadelt, ‘Il bianco e dolce cigno’ (1539), Adding ornamentation in Antonio de Cabezón’s works for keyboard. Adding diminution to keyboard intavolations of madrigals according to Diego Ortiz.