Le Roy: Deux Préludes

The first bars from Adrian Le Roy's Prélude from Tiers livre de guiterre, Paris, 1552.
The index finger dot indicators can be clearly seen.
Facsimile at https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/music/research/earlymusiconline/home.aspx

Here are two pieces which are rather shorter than the fantasies I published recently, but still quite discursive. 

It is clever how Le Roy manages to fit in up to three voices with such a limited range. I have set the middle voices mostly stem-down, but a few look better stem-up; this should not affect their interpretation. 

There are some quite fast runs in the second half of the first prelude, so it might be a good idea not to start playing too rapidly. As these aren't for dancing or singing to, the player is free to change tempo at will.

FINGERING

Until recently I have ignored Le Roy’s indications of right hand fingering. Since, however, they were intended to emphasise the dynamics of the rhythm, I thought that I would have a go at including them.

The very simple system was to indicate (with a dot) only that the weaker notes were to be played by the (weaker) index finger (i). The other (unmarked) notes were stressed and played with the (stronger) thumb (P) and/or middle finger (m). 

Runs of single notes would often have been played P-i, even on the top string.

When two notes are played together, the dot under the lower note means, I think, use i-m rather than P-i or P-m. Three-note chords were generally played P-i-m, and four-note chords either P-P-i-m or P-i-m-a (or even P-i-i-m). There was therefore normally no need to show the dots.

When I tried to use the more modern “P-i-m-a” system for the RH digits it made the score very cluttered and hard to read, so I have kept to the old dot system. It is unfortunate that this is not 100% compatible with on-the-line tabs.

I have gleaned much of this information from lute tutors written by Diana Poulton and Rob MacKillop, but it should apply also to Le Roy’s guitar works as he was originally a lutenist, and would probably played guitar in a similar way.

Available for free download in the following formats: 

• pdf (between the lines)
• pdf (on the lines)
• TablEdit

("Between the lines" means that, in the tabs, the spaces between the lines on the stave represent the strings, as in the Renaissance French system, which was used also in the UK. "On the lines" means that the lines represent the strings, which is the modern system. I find that the numbers are clearer in the former system, but fully understand that they are harder to play from if you're used to the latter. Hence, I've now started posting pdfs of both formats. If you have access to TablEdit, you can format as you wish.)

Allison: Almain

Another nice easy piece!

Rather than wade through facsimilies of MSS, I went straight to Eric Crouch’s Guitar Loot website (http://guitarloot.org.uk/Scores/EnglishMusic/Other/AlmainAllisonAS.pdf) for something not too challenging (he grades all his postings).

This one is from the Matthew Lodge Lute Book (Dd.2.11. f.75r/2) in the Cambridge University Library. You can read all about the composer using the link above.

Facsimile of the original. It's a really clear one, should you want to compare it with this arrangement, and see the compromises I made to fit it on the ukulele. Incidentally, the letters should be written between the lines, but Mr Holmes didn't always manage this.

All that I had to do was imagine my ukulele was a guitar and write down the tabs, though the bass line is rather modified. (I must admit that I find still it easier to read notation on guitar than on uke.) The key wanders between A major and A minor (whichever I choose gives a similar number of accidentals).

Available to download free in the following formats:

• pdf (fingerings between the lines)
• pdf (fingerings on the lines)
• TablEdit

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Pickeringe: Thirteen Toyes (short easy pieces)

Jane Pickering[e]'s Lute Book (1616) is a bound MS containing many quite challenging pieces, but between them the occasional "toye" or toy: short pieces that are normally pretty easy and fall under the fingers.

Many of the pieces that I arrange are quite difficult, and I thought that I would post some that I feel comfortable with. So, here are thirteen toyes, put together in a pdf book. All you have to do is to download it and start playing.


Following some discussion, and as an experiment, I have concatenated all the pieces into one file, and then formatted them into on-the-line tabs, which you can download in the following formats:

I haven't been too rigorous in proof-reading the files, so apologies for any boobs. Revised 5 Feb 19.

Note added 3 Dec 2020

These transcriptions are now under revision, as I posted them a bit too rapidly and there are some errors and misinterpretations. I have therefore removed the links.

Furthermore I notice that Scribd have copied the original pdf version onto their site, without my permission and without telling me, and seem to be claiming some sort of copyright. Dirty trick! Don't get hoodwinked. It's a consolation that John Dowland had the same problem.