Gaspar Sanz: Marionas

    For a change: a piece that benefits from re-entrant tuning  

At the end of last year, Aragon P asked me if I had ever transcribed Sanz' "Marionas". 

I found that I had tried to arrange it for low-G uke, but was dissatisfied with it. I then tried with the re-entrant tuning, and it was much more successful.

So ... here it is in a FREE PDF file. Let me know if you want the TablEdit or MIDI versions.

Have fun!

SOURCE

L I B R O  S E G U N D O, DE CIFRAS SOBRE LA GVITARRA ESPAÑOLA, CON ARTE NUEVO PARA APRENDER A TAÑERLA Sin Maestro, con gran facilidad.  ENSEÑA TODOS LOS SONES DE PUNTEADO MAS PRINCIPALES que se tañen en España, con la disposicion siguiente (1675). Tomo 2, Lamina 7.

TRANSCRIPTION: http://www.free-scores.com/partitions_telecharger.php?partition=64567 (pp 14 – 15)

FACSIMILE: http://purl.pt/17285/4/m-871-p_PDF/m-871-p_PDF_24-C-R0150/m-871-p_0000_capa-capa_t24-C-R0150.pdf

Facsimile of the original plate, engraved by the composer.
The strings are represented upside down compared with modern tabs.
The large upper case B & D refer to the abecedario system of chord shapes.

TRANSCRIPTION NOTES

The tuning of the Baroque lute as used by Sanz had the two lower courses of (paired) strings tuned an octave higher than they would be in linear tuning. (Other composers had these courses fitted with octave strings, and one or both could be struck perferentially.) This means that the lowest course is the third, as in most ukuleles. According to James Tyler, it may be that Sanz also used octave tuning on the third course, and could have struck only the high string in some of the passages. (I have tried this and have found it very difficult.) This would have avoided the octave jumps we hear when playing the tabs as written on an instrument without octaves. Here I have set notes on the 3rd course an octave higher where it think it gives a better sound. I leave it to your creativity to adjust your voicings accordingly.

The re-entrant tuning enables runs of notes to be played on alternate (in the British meaning of the word) courses, giving a bell-like sound of overlapping notes (campanelas). This is less of a challange on a re-entrant ukulele than in one tuned with a low 4th (G) string, as only the 5th course has to be accommodated on another string. In this re-entrant version I have included campanelas even where Sanz did not score them.

The close tuning often makes the discrimination of voices irrelevant, so most of this piece has been set as a aingle voice. In some passages, however, the style is more that of the lute or vihuela, or of a duet, and I have indicated two voices.

Down stroke symbols (⊓) indicate strums towards the floor with the backs of the first 3 fingers, and up stroke symbols (⋁) strums away from the floor with the index finger (Tyler).