Platano's LIBRO PRIMO - just published by the german lute society

[Rainer Luckhardt]

Hello all,

I just would like to inform you that the german lute society has published the LIBRO PRIMO DE CHITTARA SPAGNOLA (Milano 1671) with 10  Sonatas for baroque guitar by Michele Platano. Both, the book and Platano himself have been completely unknown until now! It's full of pleasant music. For some more details look here:

https://www.facebook.com/lautengesellschaft

[Monica Hall]

How does one order a copy of it?

[Rainer Luckhardt]

That's easy! Just send your order by email to [e-mail]. I distribute all editions of (and for) the german lute society (DLG), of course this new one too. An invoice by the DLG with bank details will be included. Payment is possible by bank transfer or PayPal. Don't forget to note your adress on your order.

Rainer

[Martyn Hodgson]

Dear Rainer,

Do you have any specimen pages of this I could see?

Martyn

[Rainer Luckhardt]

Dear Martyn,

in Youtube you can listen (and see) how Michael Freimuth, who discovered the unknown printing, plays some movements of Platano's music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzVx_YasAfE

I think that's a good approach to this unknown source. To give you an impression about the edition have a look in the attached file of the first Preludio.

Rainer

[Martyn Hodgson]

Dear Rainer,

Thank you for the speciman page. I didn't at first realise the original had been rewritten in a modern hand and had expected a facsimile edition. Is the source document so very poor as to require the new version?

regards

Martyn

[Rainer Luckhardt]

Dear Martyn,

no, the source isn't that poor, but the library who keeps it asked quite a lot of money for the right to publish facsimile pages. That's why the german lute society decided to publish a rewritten edition with only four facsimile pages in it. But I can asure that this edition is very, very close to the original source, including the layout of the bars, signs for embellishments and strumming directions. You can compare the first bars of the Preludio in the attached file coming herewith.

Rainer

[Martyn Hodgson]

Dear Rainer,

Your modern version does, indeed, appear very close to the original. Thank you for the clarification.

It is regrettable that the custodians of our heritage insist on payment for simply reproducing images in their care - I suppose they might argue that they do not receive sufficient public funding and therefore have to charge to break-even. I don't know if this is, in fact, the case for this collection

regards

Martyn

[Rainer Luckhardt]

Dear Martyn,

I'm not at Home until sunday. I'll send you some sample pages when I'm back Home.

Rainer