Cortese, Paolo.

General orientation discussed in Fenlon, Man and Music, intro and chapter by C. Reynolds. • Another passage relates to the lute and the vihuela: “[5] Also in the same group are placed those genres [lutes] which can be considered as resembling certain fast ships, and are judged to have the most delightful impact on the ear; for those sure-fingered proceedings (certi digitorum cursus), now repetition, now stopping, now lessening and almost interlacing of sounds (vocum extenuatio & quasi interductio) are in the habit of creeping easily into the minds of men with their exquisite sweetness… Before them, in fact, Petrus Bonus Ferrariensis [Pietrobono], and those who derived from him, often availed themselves of the repetition in the high region, nor was this [present] mode of harmonizing all the individual [sounds] yet known, by which the sense of the ear can best be filled with perfect sweetness. Almost the same could be said of the Spanish lyre [probably the vihuela], were it not that its equal and soft (lenta) sweetness is usually rejected by the satiety of the ear, and its uniformity is longer than could be desired by the limits imposed by the ear (aurium terminatio). Translated in Pirotta “Music and Cultural tendencies in Fifteenth-Century Italy”, in Music and Culture in Italy (1984), p. 103.
• Minamino EM 2004, note 16 and 17 give good reference material about Cortese, his life and works

Composer

Instrument VIHUELA

Century 16CENT

Region ITALY

Medium SOURCES

Music genre

Research field PATRONAGE