Popular dance music and fantasies from the world of Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo Galilei and other geniuses.
Da Vinci Music
Lovers of lute and gamba music are a distinguished set!
Leonardo da Vinci’s intellectual development is closely linked with lute music. Early in life, as a court musician in Milan, he is said to have played for the Duke Ludovico il Moro and been greatly admired for his skill as a lutenist. Among other things, he produced a wonderful image of a lute-playing angel, and among his manuscripts there is a lute constructed from the skull of a horse. The Spanish style of lute, the Vihuela da mano, was a favourite of his.
In music, as in portrait paintings, compositional elements reflecting universal principles and the regular patterns of the divine laws of nature, can give works a deep symbolic power. Listening, for instance, to the highly luminous and spiritual music of the Renaissance, one can be transported back to the world of Leonardo da Vinci and of his fantastic artistic creations.
Galileo Galilei was born into a family of lutenists. His father Vincenzo Galilei wrote a lute tutor that appeared in repeated editions, while his younger brother Michelangelo Galilei, who became Galileo’s charge after the death of Vincenzo, was renowned as a virtuoso lutenist and composer. After a series of engagements in Poland, he settled in Munich where he was employed in the court chapel of the Elector Maximilian I and lived for the rest of his life. Three of his children also became lutenists! He maintained intensive correspondence with his brother and shared with him a world of intellectual freedom and creative inspiration.
Audio examples and Interview
LIVE MUSIC TRANSMISSION broadcast by the HESSISCHER RUNDFUNK on 07.04.2018 from 17:00 to 18:00 o'clock
Christiane Hillebrand (presenter) talks to Martina & Lutz Kirchhof about the CD DA VINCI MUSIK
By courtesy of the HESSISCHER RUNDFUNK
Martin Luther was also a passionate lute player. In one of his many references to the King of instruments, he says:
“The continual beating of the mystical lute with the hand recalls the Passion of Jesus Christ at the heart of Corpus Christi – like a call from Heaven, summoning us to honour him in spiritual teaching.”
The lute was a faithful companion for Martin Luther throughout his turbulent life. His playing gave him and those around him great pleasure. He lifted his listeners out of melancholy and grief with his lute music and found deep religious meaning in its musical tones.
“He also sings and plays solo; Luther is a master string player. In his musical circle, fun, laughter and string playing are often enjoyed together.” (Melanchthon)
His aim is to generate gaiety and an air of lightness with his playing. “While the musician plays on the strings, he is touched by the hand of the Lord.” (Martin Luther)
Many other great thinkers could be named who have been influenced by the music of the lute and indeed the gamba, too: the mathematician Peter Merseen who was permitted by lutenists, among others, to square the circle on their instruments, Johannes Kepler who converted his calculations into music, Robert Fludd in whose Temple of Music the lute features as a basic element, Johann Sebastian Bach who composed numerous pieces for the lute and viola da gamba and who found in Sylvius Leopold Weiss - lutenist at
the Court of Dresden - the one colleague he could make music with on an equal footing, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe whose father may have been one of the last lutenists of former times … the list could go on for ever.
The common denominator among all these personalities is an air of intellectual refinement and exceptional individual ingenuity.
While listening to Quiet Music for the Lute and Viola da Gamba you can let your mind dwell on these individuals and their boundless powers of imagination - and perhaps allow yourself to float a while in their elevated spheres …
Lutz Kirchhof, Renaissance and Baroque lute
Martina Kirchhof, Renaissance and Baroque Viola da Gamba
Von Leonardo da Vinci - Web Gallery of Art: Image Info about artwork, Gemeinfrei, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15497207
CD Da Vinci Music
TRACK LIST
LutzLute GbR
Martina & Lutz Kirchhof
®
© Lutz Kirchhof