A charming fantasia, originally written for cittern
I have made this arrangement from a piece for 14-course (!) cittern by Thomas Robinson, transcribed into keyboard notation by John M Ward: Sprightly and cheerful musick, The Lute Society, 1983, p.55. Ward distinguishes up to four voices, which is easier done on two staves than on a single stave.
This gamut of the original (C2 to E4) means that the lowest voice has been raised an octave where possible in this arrangement. There have necessarily been some compromises, but I have tried to make the lines coherent.
 |
| The arch cittern, for which this piece was written, was tuned (according to Wikipedia)
e’, d,’ g, bb, f, d, G, F, E, D, C, BBb, AA, GG;
alias (I think)
E4, D4, G3, B♭3, F3, D3, G2, F2, E2, D2, C2, B♭1, A1, G1.
The lower 8 courses must have been diapaisons – open strings that were not fretted. When you think that the lowest note on the modern guitar is E2, they must have been very heavy, very long, or very slack strings. Or, perhaps, I have mis-read.
In comparison, the low-G ukulele has a range G3 to about F5.
|
My reason for transcribing a piece for cittern was to find a composition that did not necessarily have those voicings, frequently found in renaissance guitar music, that fall so easily under the fingers. This means that some passages are not very convenient to play, but not impossible. You may not find it feasible to hold a few of the notes for their full lengths. Nevertheless, I have kept as close as possible to the original, and leave it to the player to make any appropriate adjustments.
I have inserted the names of the chords, but this could well be inappropriate. The fantasy is somewhat reminiscent of the polyphonic vocal style, where the chords arise not as blocks of notes, or as part of underlying grounds, but as the consequence of overlapping vocal lines. In other words, composed horizontally rather than vertically.
I have played the piece back on MIDI using the simulated flute, and it sounds almost ecclesiastical. Ward, the transcriber, wrote:
“The style of writing is not so consistently imitative as Holborne’s [a contemporary composer], the integrity of the voices is less rigorously observed, the sequence of musical events is not so predictable. Characteristic of the composer are the scraps of cantus-firmus* like melody combined with more lively voice parts, and the change of time and texture midway through the piece.”[*Cantus firmus refers to a melody with long, slowly moving notes used as the basis for a composition, and was built on and decorated by successive voices. Perhaps Ward is referring to upper line of the first 8 bars.]
The most obvious pattern that I can see is that bars 1 to 5 are repeated with minor variation (and some omission of the upper voice) in bars 9 to 13.
A common motif in the lower voices are rising scale fragments:
- D-E-F-G-A (starting in bars 1, 10, 23)
- A-B-C-D-E (bars 3, 12, 20)
- E-D-C-B-A-G-F (bar 14)
- A-G-F-D-B (bar 8, 25)
- A-G-F-E-C#-B (bar 24)
There is a slight crunching of the gearbox during brief changes from minor to major (e.g. bars 7 & 8): at first I kept thinking I had fingered the wrong note. You get used to it, though.
I hope you enjoy playing it, and can keep the lines flowing.
Available to download in the following formats:
