Pietrobono de Burzellis

1417–1497

Musician
Poet

The Great Improvisor.

Pietrobono de Burzellis (1417–1497) was one of the earliest musicians to be recognized as a performer. His fame rested on his technical virtuosity as a lutenist, his beautiful singing voice, and his skill as an improvisor. He was frequently referred to as Pietrobono del Chitarino, a reference to his improvised singing with the lute (a pear-shaped instrument related to the guitar), which was thought to be a modern version of the classical Greek musical practice of singing to the ancient kithera. He was praised by a number of humanist writers including Aurelio Brandolino Lippi, Battista Guarino, Filippo Beroaldo, Paolo Cortese, and Raffaello Maffei, and his image was immortalized on medals, an honor usually reserved for the nobility. He was a native of Ferrara and served at that court throughout the century, entertaining the most important heads of state. By mid-century his fame brought him numerous invitations to other courts; he is known to have visited the courts of Milan, Naples, and Mantua, and in the 1480s he spent time in the service of Beatrice d'Aragona, the queen of Hungary. In an elaborate tribute written in 1459, the poet, humanist, statesman, and dancing master Antonio Cornazano described his performances by comparing him to Apollo and Orpheus, and claiming that "his music rivals the heavenly harmonies, can revive the dead, turn rivers and stones, and even change people into statues." Because his artistic creations were improvised, nothing is preserved.

sources

Lewis Lockwood, "Pietrobono and the Instrumental Tradition at Ferrara in the Fifteenth Century," Rivista Italiana di Musicologia 10 (1975): 115–133.