Many free instrumental compositions from the Renaissance, including fantasias, ricercares, and tientos, were modeled on the contemporary vocal repertory. Two fantasias by Francesco da Milano show a significant relationship between intabulations and free compositions. Francesco's intabulation of Richafort's chanson De mon triste desplaisir leaves harmonic and thematic materials largely unchanged, while his Fantasia de mon triste parodies the vocal model up to a certain point, after which it departs from the original by introducing new subjects and motives. The fantasia, though intentionally based on a vocal model, can still be loosely related to the original; when a fantasia is well composed, it evokes the model without directly quoting from it. Francesco's Fantasia 22 contains melodic musical material that appears to be derived from Jacob Arcadelt's madrigal Quanta beltà. Francesco had previously intabulated the Arcadelt madrigal, and the model for Fantasia 22 may be Francesco's own arrangement of the madrigal, rather than the madrigal itself. Melodic materials developed in the fantasia are drawn from modified versions of the melody in the intabulation. There are, however, still correspondences between the fantasia and the madrigal. Motives borrowed from the madrigal are reworked in the fantasia in the same order in which they occur in the vocal model. The two fantasias show how free instrumental works, with the mediation of intabulations, were still closely modeled on contemporary vocal repertory.

Works: Francesco da Milano: Intabulation of De mon triste desplaisir (10), Fantasia de mon triste (10-11), Intabulation of Quanta beltà (13-15), Fantasia 22 (13-16).

Sources: Richafort: De mon triste desplaisir (10); Arcadelt: Quanta beltà (13-15).

Index Classifications: 1500s

Contributed by: Jir Shin Boey, Scott Grieb