Dear Stephen, I remember being driven to distraction by all those page turns too. That one and the CNRS N. Vallet (the facsimile has only a few page turns--hooray). Yes, the piano reduction is a help for some and often gives some good suggestions from the editor for voicing and those confused bits. After you get the hang of the different voices and why they do what they do you'll not miss it though.
A complete edition of Francesco might be hard to come by but there are alternatives. One might be to join the [UK] Lute Society. They are including a few of his fantasies in each installment and plan to eventually print them all. The trade-off is patience. There is also their book of his music found in British sources. You may also start your collection of facsimiles. Yes, there are page turns in most and one photocopy usually does the trick. Some places to start would be naturally FdM's books or Castigliano's Diversi Autori (this, being from SPES, is relatively inexpensive and has some great fantasies by his contempraries for comparison--and scads of great dance tunes, btw). One of the finest recercare sources would be the Siena book containing many of FdM's and plenty of others. Another possibility is to get real fast at Fronimo: right hand on the arrow keys; left hand, keyboard. Come back after and fill in the rhythm signs (just like the old days ;^). Then check your work by listening to the MIDI and reading along w/ the original. Good luck, Sean At 04:59 PM 7/27/04, you wrote: >Hello, all! > >Speaking of Francesco da Milano, does anyone know of a playable edition = >of his works? I have access to the Ness edition, but, given the numerous = >page turns, I find it impossible to play from it. I have thought about = >retyping every piece into Fronimo, but that would take a very long time, = >and I don't want to do it if something similar has already been done. > >Furthermore--and this may be an unbelievably stupid question--can anyone = >tell me what exactly is the point of having a piano (or guitar) = >transcription above a lute tablature? Many editions use this format, but = >I have never understood the point of it. Although I sometimes find the = >piano (or guitar) transcription useful in correcting the inevitable = >mistakes in the lute tablature, it seems to me that neither a pianist = >(or guitarist) nor a lutenist can play from them very easily. Are these = >editions meant solely for musicologists who want to analyze the = >structure of the composition? Or are they meant for musicians who want = >to play the pieces?=20 > >In any event, I would appreciate any information anyone could give me = >about finding non-transcribed tablatures of Francesco da Milano's pieces = >(apart from the most obvious Internet sites). > >Thanks! > >Stephen Arndt=20 > > >--
