Terzi: Lute Fantasias

Giovanni Antonio Terzi, of whom little is known biographically, composed music collected in two important lute books published in Venice in 1593 and 1599. A large proportion of those books is given to intabulations of vocal music which are of considerable interest to both performer and scholar. However, the fantasias presented in this edition are some of the most accomplished of the generation after Francesco da Milano. They represent a last flowering of the lute fantasia in the imitative style often found with motets and, as a consequence demonstrate a debt to vocal forms and structures. The fantasias, canzona-fantasia, toccatas and prelude of this volume, presented in conventional notation and Italian tablature provide both performers and scholars access to exemplary examples of the late sixteenth-century solo fantasia genre.