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• Landini, Francesco: 4 Ballate

Landini, Francesco: 4 Ballate

for 3 voices or instruments.

These four ballate by Landini (1325-1397) are among the finest examples of his art: Nessun ponga speranza in particular makes effective use of the three closely-spaced parts, and changes of metre. They are good examples of what might be termed “pseudo-polyphony”: the texture seems elaborate, because of the figuration and syncopations, but the basic progressions are quite simple. As in most music of this time, the tenor has an anchoring role: the performers of the two others parts should try to always relate their respective lines to it.
All four pieces here are printed after Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, MS Panciatichi 26. The original note values have been quartered throughout. Original accidentals are taken as applying to the whole bar, for the sake of simplicity: purely editorial accidentals are printed small above the stave, applying to the one note only. Ligatures in the original (indicating notes to be sung to a single syllable) are shown by the usual brackets ( ). I am grateful to Peggy Forsyth for providing translations of the texts.
These pieces can be sung unaccompanied, or played on instruments. That songs were performed instrumentally in Landini´s time is demonstrated - as if it had to be - by the survival of keyboard intabulations, including Che pena here, from the so-called Faenza Codex; we have included a transcription of this version to give instrumentalists an idea of how to embellish the music.