Mainerio: Balli, selections

Giorgio Mainerio’s Balli of 1578 is a strange collection, with a mixture of arrangements of genuinely popular tunes such as La lavandara Gagliarda and newly-composed dance tunes. You may have come across some of these pieces attributed to Pierre Phalese; this is because Phalese was a publisher given to lifting pieces from other publications, and he included most of Mainerio’s pieces in his dance collection of 1583.