“Italiana” was evidently a very popular melody in the sixteenth century, so I’m happy to bring it back. The title suggests that it is about an Italian woman, of course.

A fun, lively little piece that makes use of an ostinato bass line (and is in drop-D tuning). Ostinato is Italian for “stubborn,” and an ostinato line is one that repeats relentlessly throughout a piece—in this case the three notes in the bass (D A D) moving up the lowest three strings, played with the thumb, while the other fingers play the jaunty melody line. This is kind of like the classical guitar version of Travis picking in fingerstyle guitar, where the thumb plays an alternating pattern on the lowest two strings. Although it is rather mindless and completely repetitive, it’s also surprisingly hard to do. The end result is something rather like a duet in which both parts (melody and accompaniment) are performed on one instrument by one player.