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Wednesday 28 February 2018

Gaspar Sanz: Fuga 1 por primer tono (1: 16)

Facsimile of Sanz' original engraving.
He thoughtfully preceded the tabs with a statement of the theme in musical notation.
A simple fugue wholly in the idiom of lute and vihuela music, with none of the strumming that is so typical of the Baroque guitar. I have tried to indicate the overlapping lines by stem direction; there are also some bass notes.

Presumably, “primer tono” in the title means “first mode”, which would at that time have been the Dorian mode, and hence Dm in the original, and Gm in this arrangement. I guess that fuerte means loud, and suave means smooth or soft.

It is a pleasure to play on the low-G uke, although one does have to use "unusual" fingerings to maintain the lines.

Comparing the second bar of the theme with the second bar of the fugue, one can see that on the 1st and 3rd beats, the melody is harmonised with higher notes on the 1st string.

The indefatigable “Luthval” can be heard performing the piece on baroque guitar here .

Since Sanz' guitar had re-entrant tuning, I have tried playing the original on a re-entrant ukulele, but have been unhappy to find sudden octave jumps that break up the lines. It is instructive, and great fun, to play Rob MacKillop's version of Fuga for re-entrant uke (see Resources page), which he has ingeniously adapted to the campanella style avoiding any nasty jumps.

You can find the transcriptions here:

Tuesday 20 February 2018

Names of notes in scientific and Helmholz notation

When I'm doing transcriptions for ukulele from tablatures for lute or guitar, I have to know how the instruments are tuned. This can be a problem for Renaissance or Baroque instruments, as the various composers assumed different tunings.

One minor irritation is that modern writers on the subject of tuning use different systems of nomenclature: the scientific and the Helmholtz (in its various versions). Wikipedia provides accounts of both systems, so I have made this concordance that would be relevant to ukulele players. I'm going to print it out and stick it on my wall for reference.

For my own use, I will keep to the scientific, as all you have to know is middle C = C4, and the rest progresses from there.


Scientific pitch notation (Wikipedia)
Helmholtz pitch notation (Wikipedia)

CONCORDANCE

Scientific:   C0   C1   C2   C3   C4   C5   C6   C7   C8   C9    
Helmholtz:    C〟  C、   C    c    c'   c"   c"'  c""  c""' C"""  




For the record, you might like to know that the standard guitar tunings are as follows in the two systems:

1 = E4 = e'
2 = B3 = b 
3 = G3 = g 
4 = D3 = d 
5 = A2 = A 
6 = E2 = E 




Wednesday 14 February 2018

Valdambrini: Corrente Nona

The title page
I'm still mining James Tyler's book on Baroque guitar for pieces to play on the low-G ukulele. This one is a corrente (= courante, corrento), a lively Italian courtship dance.

There are quite a few strummed chords, so you'll be able to spank your plank with this one! There's not too much to worry about. The triplets are very fast, and played as pull-offs. (To get the tempo stuck in my head, I started playing the piece with only the first note of the triplets, and then they seemed not too bad when I came to play them.) Valdambrini didn't specify the nature of the ornaments; see notes at the end of the transcription.

You can find the transcriptions here:

Monday 12 February 2018

Carré: Sarabande

Frontespiece of Carré's book of guitar music.
Facsimile of the original available at the BNF here

This sarabande, published by Antoine Carré in 1671, is the source of the arrangement published by Gaspar Sanz in 1674 which I posted here recently. The versions are very similar, although the appearance of the originals quite different, as Carré's is in French tablature (see below), and Sanz' in Italian/Spanish format. You might want to perform them in chronological order.

Facsimile of the original, in French tablature.
The calligraphy is elegant, but the score is not easy to play from. Note lengths above the stave refer to the fingerings shown beneath, in the normal way. The strummed chords, however, are indicated by note length symbols within the stave (stem down = down-stroke and vice versa) immediately following the chord, but the only fingerings shown are for the notes stopped by the fingers, whilst un-fingered strings are not marked and implicitly assumed to be open when strummed. Quick to write but hard to play.
You can find the transcriptions here:

Saturday 10 February 2018

Cromwell: Suite of English Tunes

At last, some easy pieces. I have taken them from a transcription in my new favourite book: James Tyler's (2011) A guide to playing the Baroque guitar, pub. Indiana University Press, which I shall mine for further pieces to arrange and post here.

Lady Elizabeth Southwell, neé Cromwell. Portrait by Kneller.
From Wikipedia.

The original MS was, according to Tyler, compiled ca 1684 by The Rt Hon Lady Elizabeth Cromwell (1674 – 1709), so she must have been about 10 years old at the time. It is sad to note that she died of consumption aged only 34.

It's all harmless stuff, with some strumming and lots of single-string playing, made livelier by the appogiaturas (fingering the note above the main note and quickly pulling-off.) The sections in each tune are marked with double bars, and Tyler says that as they are dance tunes each section should be repeated: it's all up to you.

As usual with transcribing from pieces for the re-entrant guitar, I have indicated where the tabs for re-entrant and low-G uke diverge.

You can find the transcriptions here: