INTRO ....

HE IS KNOWN AS THE QUINTESSENTIAL RENAISSANCE MAN .... LEONARDO DAVINCI WAS ONE OF THE WORLD'S GREATEST ARTISTS, INVENTOR CENTURIES AHEAD OF HIS TIME, AN UNFULFILLED -SCULPTOR, ANATOMIST AND BOTANIST .... ALL THIS IS WELL KNOWN, BUT IT STILL ISN'T AS WIDELY KNOWN THAT LEONARDO WAS ALSO A SINGER, AN INSTRUMENTALIST, AN INSTRUMENT DESIGNER AND COMPOSER.

THIS MORNING WE'LL DEBUT THE ONLY KNOWN WORK BY DA VINCI AND EXPLORE THE MUSICAL BACKGROUND OF HIS WORLD AND TIMES. LEONARDO AS MUSICIAN ... I'M PAT FLANNAGAN..

STAY TUNED THIS MORNING FOR MUSIC NOTES...

LEONARDO DA VINCI WAS BORN IN 1452 IN THE LITTLE TOWN OF VINCI BUT LIVED IN FLORENCE DURING ITS HEYDAY. WE HAVE NO IDEA WHERE OR HOW LEONARDO LEARNED ABOUT MUSIC OR GOT ANY MUSICAL TRAINING BUT WITH WHAT WE KNOW OF THAT LEFT HANDED GENIUS OF HIS IT ISN'T HARD TO IMAGINE HIM JUST PICKING A LOT OF THINGS UP AND FIGURING OUT HOW TO PLAY THEM, OR BEING SO CUTE AND CHARMING THAT A LOT OF MUSICIANS WERE KEEN TO SHOW HIM WHAT THEY WERE DOING. LET'S HEAR WHAT LEONARDO WAS LIKELY LISTENING TO IN HIS EARLY YEARS. WE'LL BE FEATURNING A CD THIS MORNING CALLED MUSIC IN THE AGE OF LEONARDO DA VINCI BY CANADA'S ENSEMBLE CLAUDE-GERVAISE...HERE'S A SAMPLE OF THE FLORENCE MUSIC SCENE WITH MOSTLY ANONYMOUS COMPOSITIONS AND A WIDE VARIETY OF POPULAR INSTRUMENTS....

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YOU'VE BEEN LISTENING TO THE TYPE OF MUSIC THE YOUNG LEONARDO DA VINCI WAS LIKELY HEARING AS HE GREW UP AND MATURED IN FLORENCE, ITALY. THIS MORNING ON MUSIC NOTES WE'RE EXAMINING LEONARDO AS A MUSICIAN. A FAMOUS QUOTE FROM VASARI,ONE OF HIS BIOGRAPHERS READS., HE DEVOTED A GREAT DEAL OF EFFORT TO HIS MUSIC, ABOVE ALL HE SET A GREAT STORE IN TEACHING THE LYRE, FOR HE WAS ENDOWED WITH A SUBLIME AND GRACIOUS SPIRIT, HE SANG QUITE DIVINELY, ACCOMPANING HIS OWN POETIC IMPROVISATIONS ON THE LYRE. WELL, IT'S EASY TO IMAGINE A YOUNG LONG HAIRED LEONARDO AS A TENOR, BUT THE INSTRUMENT HE ACTUALLY PLAYED WAS CALLED THE LIRA DA BRACCIO. IT WAS MORE LIKE AN OVERSIZED VIOLIN WITH FIVE MAIN STRINGS OVER A FRETBOARD AND TWO OPEN STRINGS THAT COULD BE PLUCKED OR BOWED. DA VINCI DREW LOTS OF LIRAS DA BRACCIO IN HIS PAINTINGS .... CHARACTERS WHO SEEMED TO BE RESTING THE INSTRUMENT ON THEIR SHOULDER OR UPPER ARM, LEAVING THEM FREE TO SING AND ACCOMPANY THEMSELVES. WHEN LEONARDO MOVED TO MILAN AT AGE 30 HE CAME UNDER MORE FOREIGN MUSIC INFLUENCES AS THE NEW FLEMISH AND FRENCH POLYPHONIC SOUNDS TOOK HOLD.

LE'TS HEAR SOME TUNES LEONARDO MIGHT HAVE HEARD IN MILAN...AGAIN ENSEMBLE CLAUDE-GERVAISE PEFORMING WORKS BY JOSQUIN DEPRES AND FRANCHINO GAFURIUS AND OUR OLD FRIEND ANONYMOUS....

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WE'LL HEAR LEONARDO'S GREATEST HIT... AGAIN, HERE'S ENSEMBLE CLAUDE

GERVAISE.

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CANADA'S CLAUDE GERVAISE PERFORMING WORKS BY ITALIAN COMPOSERS AT THE COURT OF MANTUA THAT YOU MIGHT HAVE HEARD IN LEONARDO DA VINCI'S TIME.

THIS MORNING ON MUSIC NOTES I'M PROUD TO GET A CHANCE TO

DEBUT THE ONLY KNOWN MUSICAL COMPOSITION BY LEONARDO.

I DISCOVERED IT AT A WEBSITE I HIGHLY RECOMMEND CALLED LEARNING ABOUT LEONARDO. THE SITE, PUT TOGETHER LARGELY BY STUDENTS, CONTAINS THE WRITTEN MUSIC AS DISCOVERED BY THEM ON A VIDEOTAPE MADE BY THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART. THE TECHNOLOGICALLY SAVVY YOUNG PEOPLE, TRANSCRIBED IT AND POSTED AT THE WEBSITE. MY TECHNO SAVVY COLLEAGUE HERE AT WUGA, JOHN TOUGAS, DOWNLOADED IT THEN USING MIDI EQUIPMENT CREATED A VERSION OF IT FOR A RENAISSANCE (WE HOPE) SOUNDING ENSEMBLE. SO HERE, FOR THE FIRST TIME ON RADIO IN ATHENS, GEORGIA OR MAYBE ANYWHERE IS .... UNTITLED BY LEONARDO DA VINCI.

PIECE

THAT'S ALL WE HAVE OF A MUSICIAN WHO'S CHARACTERIZED BY HIS CONTEMPORARIES AS A GREAT IMPROVISER. IN OTHER WORDS, DA VINCI COULD JAM AND A SUPERB CREATOR OF SPONTANEOUS RHYMES.

IN OTHER WORDS, LEONARDO COULD RAP AS WELL. LET'S HEAR THAT ENTIRELY TOO SHORT PIECE BY LEONARDO ONE MORE TIME.

PIECE

ENSEMBLE CLAUDE GERVAISE PERFORMING MUSIC OF FRENCH AND ITALIAN COMPOSERS THAT MIGHT HAVE INFLUENCED LEONARDO IN HIS STAY IN MILAN. YOU PROBABLY HEARD THE NEWS THAT AN AMERICAN PHILANTHROPIST AND LEONARDO ADMIRER HELPED MAKE ONE OF THE MAN'S UNFULFILLED DREAMS COME TRUE. THE GIANT SCULPTURE OF A HORSE, PLANNED BY LEONARDO BUT NEVER FINISHED DUE TO WARS AND OTHER CIRCUMSTANCES WAS FINALLY COMPLETED AND UNVEILED IN MILAN, IN SEPTEMBER OF 1999, ABOUT 500 YEARS SCHEDULE DELAY THERE.

BUT ON MUSIC NOTES THIS MORNING WE'RE EXAMINING LEONARDO AS MUSICIAN. BEFORE WE UNVEIL HIS ONLY KNOWN COMPOSITION LET'S TELL YOU ABOUT SOME OF HIS EXPERIMENTS AND PROJECTS THAT HAD TO DO WITH MUSIC. HIS FANTASTIC NOTEBOOKS REVEAL DESIGNS FOR TUNABLE DRUMS AND BELLS. HE CONDUCTED EXPERIMENTS IN ACOUSTICS TO TRY AND DISCOVER HOW SOUND SPREADS THROUGH AIR, COMPARING IT TO WAVES IN WATER. IN ONE ATTEMPT HE SPREAD SANDY DUST ACROSS A SURFACE OF A TABLE THEN BANGED IT IN DIFFERENT WAYS TO SEE HOW THE SOUND GENERATED PATTERNS. HE STUDIED THE THROAT AND LARYNX TO TRY AND DISCOVER HOW THE VOICE IS GENERATED AND BE TEDIOUSLY EXAMINED THE DIGITS AND KNUCKLES OF HANDS, TRYING TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO MAKE BETTER INSTRUMENTS, ALWAYS MAKING DETAILED DRAWINGS AND KEEPING PRECISE NOTES. ONE INSTRUMENT COLLECTOR OF NOTE IN HIS TIME WAS ISABELLA D'ESTE OF MANTUA WHO PERSUADED LEONARDO TO DO A SKETCH OF HER, BUT HE NEVER GOT AROUND TO DOING A FULL PORTRAIT. HERE'S WHAT THEY WERE LISTENING TO IN MANTUA ... THEN

AN UNTITLED PIECE BY LEONARDO DA VINCI, HIS ONLY KNOWN MUSICAL

COMPOSITION THAT WAS WRITTEN DOWN THAT HAS COME DOWN TO US AND ITS TOO SHORT. WE WANT MORE. HOWEVER I FOUND A SELECTION ON THE ALBUM MUSIC IN THE AGE OF LEONARDO DA VINCI BY ENSEMBLE CLAUDE GERVAISE THAT REALLY SURPRISED ME IN THAT IT COULD FIT IN TODAY ON A CELTIC MUSIC SHOW BECAUSE OF THE USE OF DRUM, COULD FIT IN ON A NEW AGE SHOW BECAUSE OF THE EXOTIC MELODY YET IS NOT OF EITHER OF THOSE GENRES OR OUR ERA.

I'D LIKE TO THINK THAT LEONARDO'S MUSIC WOULD SURELY HAVE BEEN LIKE THIS, FAR OUT AHEAD OF HIS TIME, SPONTANEOUS, MOODY, IN A LEFTHANDED OTHERWORLDLY WAY AND ALTOGETHER SATISFYING. LET'S HEAR A POSSIBLE SUBSTITUTE FOR WHAT WE'LL NEVER HEAR..ROSTIBOLI GIOIOSA BY GIOVANNI AMBROSIO PERFORMED BY ENSEMBLE CLAUDE-GERVAISE.

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PRIMARY INFORMATION FOR THIS SHOW COMES FROM THE BOOK LEONARDO DA VINCI AS A MUSICIAN BY EMANUEL WINTERNITZ IF YOU'D LIKE TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT HIS ACOUSTIC EXPERIMENTS. A COUPLE OF RECENT BOOKS HAVE TRIED TO DESCRIBE HOW LEONARDO THOUGHT... ONE OF THEM CALLED STRATEGIES OF GENIUS BYROBERT B DILTS QUOTES LEONARDOS OWN ADVICE TO ARTISTS WHEN HE INSTRUCTS THEM TO DRAW A FLOWER OR A PLANT OVER AND OVER LIFESIZE UNTIL YOU CAN DO IT PERFECTLY. IT ISN'T HARD TO TRANSFER THAT STRATEGY TO MUSIC AND MAY ACCOUNT FOR WHY DA VINCI'S CONTEMPORARIES DESCRIBE HIM AS SO GOOD. SO LEONARDO SAYS GO

PRACTICE YOUR SCALES WHEREAS WE MIGHT TELL LEONARDO.... WRITE YOUR STUFF DOWN. ANOTHER WAY TO TRY TO CAPTURE GENIUS IS TO ABSORB THE GENIUS' ENVIRONMENT SO LET'S LISTEN TO SOME MORE MUSIC FROM RENAISSANCE ITALY.

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SPECIAL THANKS TO STEVE FELD AND THE FOLKS AT LEARNING ABOUT LEONARDO WEBSITE WHICH YOU CAN FIND BY RUNNING AT NET SEARCH UNDER THAT NAME OR AT LIBRARY.DOT.ADVANCED DOT ORG SLASH 13681. ALSO THANKS TO CBC RECORDS FOR SUPPLYING THE CD OF ENSEM[BLE CLAUDE-GERVAISE, AND A BIG THANK YOU TO MY COLLEAGUE AT WUGA JOHN TOUGAS FOR RETRIEVING LEONARDO FROM CYBERSPACE AND HISTORY AND MIXING HIM FOR BROADCAST INTO THE ETHER.

CLOSING OUT MUSIC NOTES WITH MORE OF LEONARDO'S INFLUENCES HERE'S ENSEMBLE CLAUDE-GERVAISE. FOR WUGA I'M PAT FLANNAGAN