Thomas Robinson (c 1560 – c 1610) was a lutenist who published a tutor for lute (The Schoole of Musicke) in 1603. This piece is the seventh of his works that I have transcribed for low-G ukulele, and will be posting over the next few weeks.
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| The first line of the original. The RH fingerings are shown by dots (pricks) in the tab, the LH fingers by numerals beneath. |
A nice if undistinguished little piece in three strains.
Although it's in 3/4 time, it doesn't seem much like a galliard to my untutored ears, as I was expecting a rhythm along the lines:
1 2 3 | 1 & 3 |
i.e. with a skip in even-numbered bars.
The form of the cadences in bars 4, 8 & 15 will be familiar to anyone who has played the music of Le Roy and Dowland.
Unusually for Robinson, the right-hand fingerings for the lutenist are indicated to a show unaccented notes, where • = the first finger (i) and ∴ = the ring finger (a). I have added them to the uke arrangement. Apparently, in the Renaissance, the thumb and middle finger were thought of as stronger and reserved for the accented notes; they are not indicated in the original. Something to ponder on.
You can view and download a pdf version of the arrangement for uke here.
