ABSTRACT
An unfailing source of steady income for just about every printer in sixteenth–century Europe was the continual demand for collections of music for two and three voices. These pieces were perfect didactic vehicles, easy for amateurs to negotiate, and handy for couples or family groups who might not be able to command a full spectrum of voices for four or more parts. A number of the collections, especially duos, were published without texts, and were intended primarily for instrumental performance, though they could also have been sung to solmization syllables. Undoubtedly those with texts were also performed on instruments at times. During the fifties, Gardano busily reprinted several such collections from the first decade of his career, along with a few new ones. They included some of the most popular anthologies in the history of his press. Chief among them were the duos of Jan Gero.
