Bálint Bakfark (also known as Valentin Greff Bakfark, c. 1507–1576) is probably the best-known and most famous Eastern European lute virtuoso of the Renaissance. He was likely born as a Transylvanian Saxon in Kronstadt, Transylvania (today Brasov, Romania). He later adopted the name Bakfark; this Magyarization may have been beneficial to his career, a practice that remained common even 400 years later. He served as a lutenist at the court of the Hungarian king from a young age and, through his brother—also a lutenist—made his way to Italy and then to the court in France. He served at the court of the Polish king for 17 years, fled to the service of the Emperor in Vienna under suspicion of espionage, then returned to his native Hungary, and finally moved to Padua, where he died of the Black Death. Legends say that shortly before his death, he burned all his manuscripts so that no one could play them “incorrectly” after him. Throughout his life, his prestige and close ties to the high nobility allowed him to live a life very similar to that of the nobility; he enjoyed privileges that were exceptional for a bourgeois musician of the Renaissance (Wikipedia, kassika.info/Komponisten/Bakfark/lebenslauf_1.html).
Bakfark was famous for his exceptional lute playing and his technically demanding and complex polyphonic works. His two lute books were already widely circulated during his lifetime.
These three simple, melodious pieces are catchy tunes that masterfully blend the dance rhythms of the time with polyphonic counterpoint: these are “Gagliarda,” “Non dite mai,” and “Shoner deutscher dantz,” arranged for organ by Gayk Aboyan and licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 at imslp.org/wiki/Category:Aboyan,_Gayk
0:00 Gagliarda
1:27 Non dite mai
3:03 Shoner deutscher dantz
https://youtu.be/PvRLkyLfVW0
https://www.youtube.com/@rwsonic/videos
Sign up today to download piece.
See what rwsonic used to make this recording