Vicente Lusitano

1. Project

This site is part of the FWO-funded doctoral project Renaissance Improvised Counterpoint: Rethinking Concept, Cognition, and Aural Foundations (working title, FWO Project no. 11A9922N), conducted by Vicente Parrilla at KU Leuven / LUCA School of Arts / docARTES.

The project explores how Renaissance improvised counterpoint—once a core performance skill—can be revived today through aural, practical, and scholarly work. This website functions as a companion platform to improvisedcounterpoint.com, which centralises access to the project’s recordings, open research datasets, and documentation.

2. Two project sites

To transform historical sources into practical tools for modern study and performance, part of this doctoral project has been devoted to creating two companion websites that host two of the three Renaissance treatises included in the Corpus of Recorded Counterpoint Examples.

In its present form, this corpus comprises six volumes and 276 recorded tracks, turning sixteenth-century treatises into living sound resources. Each site presents the corresponding treatise in full, together with modern transcriptions, interval annotations, and embedded recordings that restore their intended aural dimension:

1. aranda.improvisedcounterpoint.com — Mateo de Aranda, Tractado de canto llano y contrapunto (1535)
2. lusitano.improvisedcounterpoint.com — Vicente Lusitano, [Trattado grande de musica pratica] (F‑Pn Esp. 219, ca. 1550)

In the case of Lusitano, the site also includes complete French and English (WIP) translations of the treatise.

3. Site structure and purpose

This project website aims to partially restore the aural dimension of the sixteenth-century counterpoint examples it presents, allowing them to be heard, analysed, and practised as living demonstrations of contrapuntal thought. By embedding newly recorded performances directly alongside Lusitano’s examples, the site bridges theory and sound and provides a practical platform for ear-led study and for a historically grounded understanding of Renaissance improvised counterpoint.

Every example can be heard in newly recorded instrumental performances forming part of the six-volume Corpus of Recorded Counterpoint Examples, created within this doctoral project. These recordings were made in a home-studio environment; listening with headphones is therefore recommended. The website’s structure follows the original chapter sequence and foliation of Lusitano’s treatise and is accessible through the site’s top and footer navigation menus.

4. A note on the first-draft English translation

This site includes a first-draft, work-in-progress English translation of Vicente Lusitano’s Libro segundo: De contrapunto, completed in 2021. It has not yet undergone full editorial revision and should not be cited in scholarly work in its current form. A substantially revised version is planned for 2026. Read more about the translation.

5. Editorial marks used in the work-in-progress English translation

The following editorial conventions are used in the provisional English translation:

• [Square brackets] indicate Lusitano’s own corrections (additions, modifications, or deletions) introduced by the author in the manuscript during a later phase of revision.
• The sign Marg. marks passages added by Lusitano as marginal entries.
• [Bold brackets] indicate additions by the translator.
• Highlighted in yellow⁕ marks typos identified in, or revisions of, the French 2013 translation
• Paragraphing follows the French 2013 translation
• Words written between dots in the manuscript (·fefaut,· ·mi· contra ·fa·) are rendered in italics: fefaut, mi contra fa.
• The following sigla are used in the English translation:
  • ‽ indicates doubt.
  • §: indicates a section division.

6. Example numbering system

Since the original manuscript does not provide numbering for the musical examples, all items presented on this site have been assigned editorial numbers. This system builds on Philippe Canguilhem’s 2013 edition, which uses a lettered series (e.g., Ex. 6a, Ex. 6b) to group related examples by type or family. The present project introduces an additional primary sequential numbering (1–247), reflecting the order of appearance of the examples in the manuscript. For clarity and visual economy, each example is identified using a compact dual reference that combines both systems, written in the form 9 Ex. 6a, 10 Ex. 6b, etc.

In this notation, the leading number indicates the sequential position of the example in the manuscript, while the appended letter corresponds to Canguilhem’s grouping by contrapuntal function or stylistic focus, with each letter generally associated with one of the four vocal ranges (cantus, altus, tenor, bassus). When the family reference is not required, examples may be cited using the sequential number alone (e.g., Example 10 instead of 10 Ex. 6b). This dual system facilitates both precise reference to individual examples and the recognition of structural patterns across voices.

7. Open access

The modern transcriptions and recordings presented here form part of an open research dataset archived on Zenodo, with accompanying source files and documentation maintained in a public GitHub repository, ensuring citability, transparency, and long-term accessibility. All materials—texts, transcriptions, and recordings—are freely available for study, teaching, and performance.

8. Acknowledgements

This research was generously funded by the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO) (Project no. 11A9922N). Thanks to Kirby for supporting this project with a free license and to Daniel Guillan for his invaluable guidance on all things web-related, generously shared over many years.