Francesco Canova da Milano

Little is known about his subsequent career in Rome, but he was still living in the city in early 1526: on 16 January 1526 he and one other lutenist performed for Pope Clement VII and Isabella d'Este.

In a document dated 1 January 1538 Francesco is listed as a member of the household of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, a famous patron of the arts.

One of the defining characteristic features of Francesco's style is the manipulation and development of short melodic motifs within a "narrative" formal outline.

[5] Francesco was drawing on techniques found in contemporary vocal music, e.g. works by Josquin des Prez and composers of his generation.

Francesco's reputation today rests on his ricercars and fantasias, but contemporaries apparently held his intabulations of vocal works by other composers to be the best part of his œuvre.

The collected extant lute music of Francesco, edited by Arthur Ness, was published by Harvard University Press in 1970 (ISBN 0-674-53955-9).

It is actually a musical hoax by lutenist and famous mystificator Vladimir Vavilov, who composed this tune and credited it to Francesco da Milano.

After being released by rock band Aquarium in 1987, the song became a big hit in the Soviet Union and beyond and raised questions about the actual credit.