Credits

1. Project context and translations
2. Audio credits
3. Linking and citation of examples
4. Previous research and editorial context
   4.1 On the FABRICA project
   4.2 “Singing upon the book”: a 2011 article
   4.3 Chanter sur le livre: a 2013 book
   4.4 Bibliographic information on the manuscript source
5. Thanks

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1. Project context and translations

This website forms part of a broader research platform (improvisedcounterpoint.com) devoted to Renaissance improvised counterpoint. It includes:

• A first-draft English translation of Lusitano’s counterpoint chapters from F-Pn Esp. 219, with a major editorial revision scheduled for 2026
• Modern transcriptions and analytical editions of all musical examples
• Audio files (MIDI and performative recordings)
• Navigational tables and editorial documentation

The English translation was commissioned by the Centre d’Études Supérieures de la Renaissance (CESR, Tours) and completed in June 2021. It is presented here as a work in progress, pending a substantial revision planned for 2026. In this first draft, the English translation broadly follows the translation strategy adopted in Philippe Canguilhem’s 2013 edition, prioritising fidelity to the source over stylistic fluency, and therefore remains close to Spanish syntax and idiom. It has not yet undergone full editorial revision and should not be cited in scholarly work in its current form. The transcription of the Spanish text and the French translation derive from Canguilhem’s edition, to whom I thank for providing them. The parallel presentation of the text in three languages, together with the visualisation and audio rendering of the musical examples, is intended to mitigate these limitations.

Website and project scope

This website is part of Vicente Parrilla’s FWO-funded doctoral project (Project no. 11A9922N) at KU Leuven / LUCA School of Arts / docARTES.
The integration of analytical transcriptions, interval labelling, navigational tables, and audio playback facilitates close engagement with Lusitano’s contrapuntal practice and supports both scholarly analysis and aural training through a comprehensive digital research tool.

2. Audio credits

Overview of available audio formats*

*: Tap or click inside the table and scroll horizontally to view the rightmost columns.

This website brings together three complementary types of audio material, each serving a distinct scholarly and pedagogical function:

1. Complete MIDI realisations of all 247 examples, rendered at modern concert pitch (A = 440 Hz). These mechanically generated versions provide maximum rhythmic clarity and interpretative neutrality, offering a precise reference for analytical and comparative purposes.
2. Historically informed instrumental recordings by Les Sacqueboutiers, covering 54 selected examples. Produced with professional recording facilities, these performances form part of the companion site to the 2013 edition and offer a performative perspective grounded in ensemble practice.
3. A complete new instrumental recording of the entire corpus, realised as part of the present doctoral research. Recorded in a home-studio environment on a Renaissance recorder consort at A = 466 Hz, this set includes all the improvised counterpoint examples from chapters 1–4, together with additional material such as play-along versions, and is designed to support both aural training and practical engagement with improvised counterpoint. Given the home-studio recording conditions, headphone listening is recommended.

Recordings by Les Sacqueboutiers

Of the 247 musical examples transmitted in Lusitano’s manuscript, fifty-four were released by Les Sacqueboutiers for the companion site to Philippe Canguilhem’s 2013 edition. These recordings, made at modern concert pitch (A = 440 Hz), are reproduced here alongside the corresponding transcriptions.

Performers

• Jean-Pierre Canihac: cornet
• Philippe Canguilhem: alto bombarde, tenor bassoon, recorder
• Daniel Lassalle: sackbut
• Laurent Le Chenadec: bassoon

With the participation of Ensemble Gilles Binchois (dir. Dominique Vellard), Anne-Charlotte Lacroix (bassoon, ex. 47), and Pierre-Yves Binard (tenor, ex. 66). Recorded in Toulouse (Gesù church), May 2011 and October 2012. Sound recording and editing: Daniel Michel (May 2011) and Jean-François Felter (October 2012).

Complete recordings: Corpus of Recorded Counterpoint Examples

As part of the doctoral research in the arts, the complete corpus of examples of improvised counterpoint from Libro segundo is being recorded and released within the Corpus of Recorded Counterpoint Examples. These performances are realised on a Renaissance recorder consort (A = 466 Hz) built by Bob Marvin.

Together with the MIDI files and the partial release by Les Sacqueboutiers, these recordings form a layered audio corpus, combining mechanically precise reference material with historically informed instrumental realisations, and are intended to support analytical study, listening practice, and active participation through play-along formats.

FWO support
The Neumann TLM 103 microphone used for these recordings was acquired thanks to the support of a Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) doctoral fellowship (Project no. 11A9922N).

3. Linking and citation of examples

Individual counterpoint examples on this website can be referred to or cited directly using stable and easily deducible links. Each example is assigned a unique editorial number (from 1 to 247), reflecting its order of appearance in the manuscript, and is presented within a specific chapter and manuscript folio.

In practice, chapter and folio references correspond to existing page URLs determined by the structure of the website. Each chapter is presented as an index page listing its folios, and each folio appears on its own page. To link to a specific example, it therefore suffices to append the corresponding example reference to the end of the relevant folio page URL. For instance, since Example 125 appears on folio 38r of Chapter One, it may be accessed directly via:

https://lusitano.improvisedcounterpoint.com/chapter-one/f-38r#ex125

All such links point to the complete set of newly recorded instrumental realisations forming the Corpus of Recorded Counterpoint Examples, which includes all the improvised counterpoint examples from chapters 1–4. This ensures stable and unambiguous references, independently of the availability of MIDI realisations or the partial ensemble recordings by Les Sacqueboutiers.

Recommended citation format

Example 125 (or, 125 Ex. 37d),
https://lusitano.improvisedcounterpoint.com/chapter-one/f-38r#ex125

4. Previous research and editorial context

4.1 On the FABRICA project

In 2008, a group of historical musicologists from the Université de Toulouse, ethnomusicologists from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, and professional musicians from Ensemble Gilles Binchois established the FABRICA project, under the direction of Philippe Canguilhem. From its inception, the project has focused on polyphonic practices connected to plainchant in Western Europe.

Its first major outcome was the study, transcription, and translation of a manuscript treatise on improvised counterpoint preserved in Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Esp. 219, written by Vicente Lusitano ca. 1550. This work laid the foundations for subsequent scholarship on Lusitano’s treatise and its place within Renaissance improvisatory practice.

Further reading

• Brannon, Samuel J. (review). “Chanter sur le livre à la Renaissance: Les traités de contrepoint de Vicente Lusitano (Collection “Epitome musical”)”. Notes vol. 71 no. 4 (June 2015): 716–719.
• Canguilhem, Philippe. “Le projet FABRICA : Oralité et écriture dans les pratiques polyphoniques du chant ecclésiastique (XVIe–XXe siècles)”. Journal of the Alamire Foundation 2 (2010): 272–281.

4.2 “Singing upon the book”: a 2011 article

This article presents the first results of a collective research project devoted to Vicente Lusitano’s counterpoint treatise. An edition of the source, including a French translation, was subsequently published by Brepols within the Ricercar programme of the Centre d’Études Supérieures de la Renaissance (Tours). The research was conducted within the framework of the FABRICA project, funded by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche.

• Canguilhem, Philippe. “Singing upon the book according to Vicente Lusitano”. Early Music History 30 (2011): 55–103. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261127911000052

4.3 Chanter sur le livre: a 2013 book

Canguilhem’s 2013 edition includes a study of the manuscript, biographical information on Vicente Lusitano, a diplomatic transcription of the text, a French translation of Lusitano’s counterpoint chapters from both his 1553 printed treatise and his manuscript treatise (ca. 1550), and a transcription of the complete corpus of musical examples.

• Canguilhem, Philippe. Chanter sur le livre à la Renaissance. Les traités de contrepoint de Vicente Lusitano. Turnhout: Brepols, 2013.

Reviews and discussions

• Brannon, Samuel J. (review). “Chanter sur le livre à la Renaissance: Les traités de contrepoint de Vicente Lusitano (Collection “Epitome musical”)”. Notes vol. 71 no. 4 (June 2015): 716–719.
• Montagnier, Jean-Paul C. “Chanter sur le livre à la Renaissance: Les traités de contrepoint de Vicente Lusitano”. Revue de Musicologie 100/2 (2014): 439–441.
• Rossi, Francesco Rocco. “Chanter sur le livre à la Renaissance: Les traités de contrepoint de Vicente Lusitano”. Rivista Italiana di Musicologia 50 (2015): 258–261.
• Weber, Édith. Chronique musicale. Cahiers de sociologie économique et culturelle 56 (2013–2014): 154–156.

See also Bulletin de la Société Française d'Étude du Seizième Siècle, no. 80 (December 2014), 31–32.

4.4 Bibliographic information on the manuscript source

Descriptive notice by the Bibliothèque nationale de France (2009), derived from the retrospective conversion of Alfred Morel-Fatio’s Catalogue des manuscrits espagnols et portugais (1892). Originally written in French. See PDF.

• Shelfmark: Espagnol 219
• Former call number: Regius 7817
• Language: Spanish
• Material: paper, 85 folios
• Dimensions: 278 × 205 mm
• Manuscript in Spanish
• Bibliothèque nationale de France, Department of Manuscripts

The manuscript is divided into three books: the first (f. 1–13) is devoted to “canto d’organo”; the second (f. 13–62) to “contrapunto”; and the third (f. 62 v°–84) to “proporciones”. This last book is incomplete at the end; it stops at the words: “Mas si quando sera dividido en dos semitonos menores continuos o iuntos el uno al otro y la coma despues de ellos…”. Marginal annotations and corrections are abundant throughout. On f. 13, the author invokes the authority of Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples (died 1536), “Y primero veamos que cosa sea consonancia, segun Yacobus Faber Stapulensis”. On f. 1, we read the name “Desporte”.

Substitute documents

• Black and white microfilm. Consultation number in the reading room: MF 13164. Matrix number (to order a reproduction): R 11571
• A digitised surrogate is available via Gallica: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b10033631k

Bibliography

• Catalogue des manuscrits espagnols et des manuscrits portugais, by Alfred Morel-Fatio. Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1892. Notice 110

<Chant (Treatise on)
DESPORTE
LEFEVRE D’ÉTAPLES, Jacques

5. Thanks to

David Burn, Philippe Canguilhem, Yves Corboz, Daniel Guillan, María González, Jean-Yves Haymoz, Bernardo Illari, Ana López Suero, David Mesquita, Anne Smith, Leandro Suárez, Mattin Zeberio.

—VP.