A Tudor or Jacobean guitar piece based on an Italian song
This piece occurs in MS in The Mulliner Book (very approximately 1650), Folios 119v – 120v, in the British Library.
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| Folio 119v of The Mulliner Book (very approximately 1650), in the British Library. Facsimile at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=add_ms_30513_fs001r. (Folios 119v – 120v.) Note the word "gitterne" at the top left: most of the arrangements in the MS are for cittern. |
The original song was ”Chi passa per sa strada” by Filippo Azzaiolo. I found a neat and helpful transcription at http://stcpress.org/miscellaneous/chi_passa/chi_passa.pdf
This transcription has been made from the facsimile, with a few modifications noted in the score. Section A was informed by the transcription by Page (2017); in particular, his bar 8 was added to maintain the structure of the original song (here it is bar 7).
There are a few disagreements between the original song and Mulliner’s gittern arrangement, so some adjustments would be needed to perform the two together.
I have transcribed the piece into 3/4 time, but Page uses 6/4 time, which is probably more correct, and the song is in 6/2.
In the MS the first line of the tabs is barred regularly, as I have transcribed it here, but later becomes erratic. I have done my best to tidy things up. Bars 6, 15, 26 and 37 seem to be written in a hemiola rhythm, and I have barred them in 3/2 time. In the midst of fairly orthodox divisions, bar 13 is particularly inventive and attractive.
Page describes the piece as
“… an essentially two-part idiom, punctuated by four-note chords … the result is a lively and even bravura alternation between running, ornamented passagework on one hand and plucked or strummed chords on the other.”It’s not difficult to play, and you can make different effects on the block chords by plucking or by the more percussive strumming.
There are ornaments (of obscure meaning) marked in the MS, but I have not shown them here.
The harmonic structure of the original song (set, almost inevitably, in Gm) is:
§A: V |V |i |i || (bis)
§B: VII |VII i ii |III iv VII |iv V |i V i iv V |I || (bis)
This seems to be a variation on the later folia ground below (I have split the sequence onto two lines to make the agreement clearer):
V | i |
VII | III | VII | i V | i or I ||
The harmonies of this gittern version follow the same broad pattern, but with more movement, and with i (Gm) often disguised as III (Bb).
It's good fun to play, and you can download the arrangements in the following formats:
