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Francesco Canova da Milano (1497-1543)






ambrosianaThis page is dedicated to the work of one of the greatest lute player-composers of the Renaissance, called “il divino” by his contemporaries.  Born into a family of musicians in 1497 at Monza, near Milan, he spent most of his working life in the service of successive Popes in Rome: Leo X, Clement VII, and Paul III.

When he died in 1543 only a few of his pieces had been published, but over the following decades much more of his music appeared in print and continued to be copied into manuscripts into the 17th century, such was his fame and the quality of his work.

In 1997, on the 500th anniversary of his birth, a symposium in his honour was held at the University of Milan.  A review by Mariagrazia Carlone is to be found in the Journal of the Lute Society of America 26-27 (1973-4), 107-114.  For a list of books and articles about Francesco see the Bibliography.


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Francesco’s music still speaks to us after 500 years.  Though it can be lively and witty, more than anything it is the serenity and air of contemplation which draws the listener in and creates a unique atmosphere.  Apart from intabulations of vocal music and the one “tochata”, all his surviving pieces are designated “Recercar” or “Fantasia”, two terms which were largely interchangeable in the first half of the 16th century, and which are hard to translate into modern musical terminology. Most pieces start with a melodic fragment which is imitated by various voice parts in succession, and may be transformed in the course of the piece. It may be treated in strict canon, or free counterpoint, it may appear in augmentation or diminution.  Some pieces are essentially monothematic, crowded with entries of the same subject, often in stretto; others are less densely populated.  Pairs of voices often sing duets (see 2, 3, 28) a technique popular with admired composers of the previous generation such as Josquin Desprez.  Francesco excels in making vocal counterpoint clear on the lute: he achieves this largely by avoiding dense textures while often implying more parts than are actually present.