Bianco Fiore for Classical Ukulele

Renaissance lute music sounds fantastic on the ukulele, and that is certainly true for Bianco Fiore, arranged here for classical ukulele. What is “classical ukulele”? Go here to learn more about playing classical music on ukulele.

The music comes from Italian dance master, choreographer, and composer Cesare Negri. The piece, which means “White Flower” in Italian, comes from Negri’s Le Gratie d’Amore (1602). “Il Bianco Fiore” is a dance and is just one of many great pieces originally written for lute that really sounds great on the ukulele.

Cesare Negri

The Italian Renaissance contributed to a complete revolution in court dancing. While social countryside dances were very popular and people learned by watching others, court dances were more complicated and created by the great dance masters. One of those great masters was Cesare Negri. His book Le Gratie d’Amore (also called Inventioni di Balli) contains beautiful prints of dancers in starting positions followed by instructions for the dance. Below the instructions was the mensural notation of the music and a lute intabulation below that. The lute intabulation has left us with a great many wonderful Renaissance dances. Il Bianco Fiore is just one among many.

Bianco Fiore

The dance has specific steps for the first two sections of the piece, which are in a triple meter. The meter changes in the third section, and so do the instructions for the dancers. Now they all begin to dance in circles.