Abondante [Abundante, dal Pestrino],

Giulio [Julio]
(fl 154687). Italian lutenist and composer. Pestrin is Venetian
dialect for mill or dairy, and may indicate his familys occupation
and Venetian origins. He published at least seven volumes of solo
lute music, of which only three are extant. A book of lute music by
Pestrin, now lost, is listed in Vincentis catalogue of 1591; that this is
by Abondante is confirmed by Giuntas catalogue of 1604. Because
of the different forms of Abondantes name and the 41 years that
elapsed between the publication of the first and fifth books, Eitner
mistakenly concluded that Julio Abondante, composer of the first
two books, and Giulio Abundante, detto dal Pestrino or Giulio dal
Pestrino, composer of the fifth book, were different musicians. In the
dedications of his I nomi antichi e moderni delle provincie (Venice,
1567) Orazio Toscanella mentioned a Giulio del Pietrino, lutenist
without equal, who was one of several musicians active in Antonio
Zantinis house at Venice; the group included Girolamo Parabosco,
Annibale Padovano, Claudio Merulo and Donato.
The three lutebooks are representative of the various kinds of
instrumental music prevalent at the time. The first is devoted to
dance music and includes 21 galliards, four passamezzos, two
pavans and five miscellaneous pieces. The second contains five
fantasias and 21 intabulations of vocal pieces, including motets,
madrigals, napolitane and chansons by Willaert, Rore, Arcadelt,
Janequin, Nicola Vicentino, Leonardo Barr, Nollet and Payen. The
fifth book comprises 13 fantasias, 12 paduanas, three passamezzos
and a bergamasca. The intabulations of vocal music are fairly literal
transcriptions, sparingly embellished with stereotyped figures. In
some of the dances the chordal structure is enlivened by continuous
passage-work.
WORKS
for lute; published in Venice

Intabolatura sopra el lauto de ogni sorte de balli libro primo (1546; repr. 1563
as Intabolatura di liuto libro primo); 1546 edn ed. D. Benk (Budapest, 1981);
1563 reprint ed. in Lefkoff; 7 pieces ed. in Moe

Intabolatura di lautto, libro secondo madrigali canzoni franzese. mottetti, recercari

di fantasia, napolitane, intabulati & accomodati per sonar di lautto (1548 12); 4 ed. in
Chilesotti, 19012 and 1902
Il quinto libro de tabolatura da liuto nella qual si contiene fantasie diverse, passe
mezi & padoane (1587); paduana ed. E.E. Lowinsky, Tonality and Atonality in
Sixteenth Century Music (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1961)
Intavolatura di liuto, lib. 7 (n.d.), lost

BIBLIOGRAPHY
DBI (L.F. Tagliavini) Mischiati
R. Eitner: Giulio Abondantes Lautenbcher, MMg, viii (1876),
11921
O. Chilesotti: Il Pater noster di Adriano Willaert, SIMG, iii
(19012), 46872
O. Chilesotti: Note circa alcuni liutisti italiani della prima met
del Cinquecento, RMI, ix (1902), 3661, 23363, esp. 246; pubd
separately (Turin, 1902)
L.H. Moe: Dance Music in Printed Italian Lute Tablatures from
1507 to 1611 (diss., Harvard U., 1956) [incl. thematic index of
bk.i and of the dances of bk.v]
G. Lefkoff, ed.: Five Sixteenth Century Venetian Lute
Books (Washington DC, 1960)
C.P. Comberiati: On the Threshold of Homophony: Texture in
Sixteenth-Century Lute Music, JMR, iv (1983), 33151
HENRY SYBRANDY/R