These are eight out of the nine fantasias for two instruments from Thomas Morley's "The First Booke Of Canzonets To Two Voyces", written in 1595 and published in 1619. In the book, these instrumental pieces are interspersed between the more famous songs ("canzonets") for two voices and are each given an Italian name.
I have performed these from the transcriptions by Albert Folop for two viols, available for download from IMSLP (along with a scan of Morley's original 1619 book):
imslp.org/wiki/....
In the original, all nine pieces are published for "cantus" and "tenor", but Folop has transcribed four of them for two treble viols and the other five for one treble and one tenor viol. I have kept to his choice and have recorded the ones for two trebles as mandolin duets and the ones for treble and tenor as duets of mandolin and mandola (actually octave mandolin/tenor mandola, but the parts do not drop below the low C of the alto mandola so work on either).
IMSLP is missing one of Folop's parts, the treble part for "Il Grillo", so I have omitted that piece. The video has the following fantasias, in this order:
1. Il Doloroso (treble/tenor)
2. La Girandola (treble/treble)
3. La Rondinella (treble/tenor)
4. Il Lamento (treble/treble)
5. La Caccia (treble/tenor)
6. La Sampogna (treble/treble)
7. La Sirena, or La Serena (treble/treble)
8. La Torello, or La Tortorella (treble/tenor)
Fantasias 1, 3, 5, 8:
Treble: Mid-Missouri M-0W mandolin (right)
Tenor: Mid-Missouri M-111 mandola (left)
Fantasias 2, 4, 6, 7:
Treble 1: Luigi Embergher mandolin (right)
Treble 2: Mid-Missouri mandolin (left)
There are no tempo markings on either Morley's originals or on Folop's transcriptions, so I've played them at the tempos that seemed right to me without reference to other recordings which may have made quite different choices.
I have now also recorded the "missing" fantasia Il Grillo, along with instrumental mandolin duets of all twelve of the madrigals for two voices from Morley's collection. These have all been uploaded as a separate video at:
• Thomas Morley: 12 Canz...
15 окт 2024
