Anon (Ambrose Lupo?): Ambrose's Pavane & Galliard (Margaret Board Lute Book)

 A matching pair

It was convention during the Renaissance to follow the stately pavane (pavin) dance with a livelier galliard on the same theme. Here we have such a pair from The Margaret Board Lute Book.

The first line of the "Pauin"

The last line of the "Gallyard"

There are 3 strains, of 8 bars each in the pavane, and of 8, 6 and 8 bars in the galliard, each followed by an ornamented variation. 

I wonder if the pieces could be by, or for, Ambrosio Lupo. His dates and location seem appropriate.

“Ambrose, Ambrosius or Ambrosio Lupo (died 10 February 1591) was a court musician and composer to the English court from the time of Henry VIII to that of Elizabeth I, and the first of a dynasty of such court musicians. He is thought to have been born in Milan, though he and his family lived in Venice for a while just before being called to England. He and five other viol players, including Alexandro and Romano Lupo, were summoned to England by Henry in November 1540, to bring English music up to speed with music on the continent. Ambrose, also known as 'Lupus Italus' and de Almaliach, was the longest-serving of the group.” From Wikipedia.

The pieces fit quite well on the ukulele, with the inevitable simplification, or even loss, of the lower voice. 

I have included the indications of RH fingering and ornaments (graces) in the tablature much as they appear in the MS, rather than showing modern symbols: the fingerings because of their economy and unobtrusiveness, and the ornaments as their meaning is open to interpretation. To be honest, I find the massive number of ornaments rather daunting: perhaps they were suggestions of the best places to play them if you felt like it.

You can freely download pdfs of

the pavane here,

and the galliard here.

Have fun!

Anon: The Eglantine Branche (Margaret Board Lute Book)

 Short and sweet

As I mentioned in my last post, in my attempts to find and post more accessible pieces, I have been trawling the Margaret Board Lute Book (c. 1620). This is the third piece that I have posted which is named after an ornamental wild plant.

'The Eglantine Branche' fits nicely under the fingers, and has a clear melody, but I cannot find out if it is a known (then) song or dance, or a one-off lute solo.

The eglantine is a simple wild rose, Rosa rubiginosa, also known as sweet briar (or brier). The name may also have been used for similar wild species such as the dog rose, and even (in Yorkshire) for honeysuckle. Picture from RHS.

You can download a pdf of the piece arranged for low-G ukulele for free here.

Anon: The Woodbind and The Gilliflower (Margaret Board Lute Book)

Two scented flowers 

As part of my attempts to find and post post more accessible pieces, I have been trawling the Margaret Board Lute Book (c. 1620).

Judging from the difficulty of the music, the original owner must have been a skilful player - indeed, she was taught by John Dowland. Fortunately, some pieces are relatively easy and I include arrangements of two short ones here. 

Facsimile of f. 25v in The Margaret Board Lute Book, published online here

It is difficult to find much information about the pieces, but you can find performances by excellent lutenists of the second ("The Gillyflower") on YouTube.

Botanical information: "Woodbind" = a climbing plant such as Honeysuckle, and "Gilliflower"  = a clove-scented flower such as Pink, Stock or Wallflower.

You can freely download two versions of the pieces:

1. A full version, as close as possible to the original, here:

2. An easier version transposed to G here.

I will be posting an arrangement of the third piece on the page, an Almain by Daniel Bacheler, soon.

Anon (compiled by Matthew Lodge): The Fairy's Dance

 At last! Something easy!

My finding of this charming piece was complete serendipity. A few days ago I heard on the radio Nigel North playing 'The Fairies' Dance' by Robert Johnson. I was searching for it online and found this piece of similar name in The Matthew Lodge Manuscript Nn.6.36 on the Cambridge University Library website.

Matthew Lodge MS Nn.6.36 f. 24v. Cambridge University Library

The only problem with the transcription was that much of the action is on the lower strings of the lute, so I moved everything up by one string. Many of the original harmonies are open, and I have tried to reproduce this in the arrangement.

You can download the pdf of the uke arrangement here.

Have fun!

John Dowland: Giles Hobie's Galliard, P29

 Not terribly complicated, but still a challenge

I always like to have the melody of a piece in my mind when playing it – otherwise I just get lost. On a lute played by an expert you have a lovely wall of sound, but on the ukulele any deficiencies in interpretation can be just a mass of plonks. 

There are three strains. I have not even attempted to transcribe Dowland's variations as they are heavily ornamented.

The upper voice of this galliard is not one you would find the under-butler whistling after hearing a performance in your salon. I have played a MIDI version of it over and over in a not wholly successful attempt to fix it in my head.

Don't let me put you off, though. You can download

1. The fullest transcription that I can make here,

2. A much simplified arrangement with an emphasis on the upper voice here.

SOURCE: Poulton D, Lam B, Eds. 1995. The collected lute music of John Dowland, Edn 3. Faber Music, London.  

Giles Hoby was a member of the landed gentry in Herefordshire and Gloucestershire. I have no idea why the galliard received his name.

John Dowland: Galliard (Awake, sweet love) P24

 A blessedly simple galliard from JD... 

... but, even so, in my campaign to make my transcriptions more accessible, I have provided an even simpler version using JD’s first voice and harmonies, but reducing the complexity of the lower voices. It may seem a bit empty, but for a bit of fun one can add fill-ins using the chord shape one is already holding. I’ve also suggested some fingerings.

The following “proper” transcription after Dowland's MS tries to maintain his voicings as far as possible. The lute version is set in D, which equates to E on the ukulele, an unscooperative key, so I have raised it to F, which fits more easily under the fingers. It is tempting to make a version where the 4th string is tuned to F (temple viejo), giving a nice deep root, but that is perhaps a step too far.

The timing poses no great challenges, so I have not made a separate unvoiced version.

Adaped from Poulton D, Lam B, Eds. 1995. The collected lute music of John Dowland, Edn 3. Faber Music, London.

Title page of Dowland's The first booke of songes or ayres,
which includes  'Awake, sweet love'

The Dowland song that was derived from this piece is “Awake, sweet love, thou art returned”, published in The first booke of songes and ayres. The song melody is less syncopated, and doesn’t sound much like a galliard to me, but the accompaniment does. 

I have set it from Lute songs of John Dowland, I & II, transcribed by David Nadal, Dover, 1997.

You can download a pdf of the ukulele arrangement of the lute solo for free HERE...

... and a pdf of the song + accompaniment HERE.

John Dowland: Captain Digorie Piper's Galliard (P19)

 Extra value: a lute solo and a song.

Adaped from Poulton D, Lam B, Eds. 1995. The collected lute music of John Dowland, Edn 3. Faber Music, London.

Queen Elizabeth I's flagship, and definitely not a pirate ship.

A lively little galliard (Nigel North plays it at about 79 bpm) but quite melancholy too. Diana Poulton refers to it as “elegaic” and “beautiful” (when played on the lute).

In the original each of the three sections is repeated with decoration. I have included only the ornamented repeat to section C, which is not too difficult and is the part that mostly sticks in my mind. I have set it as a coda.

For those of us whose "loue of Musicke exceedes their skill" even a piece like this can sound like a formless mass of notes when first played. I find it helps to have the melody in my head, so I have included the melody of the associated song “If my complaints could passions move”, which may pre- or post-date the lute solo.

The words and melody of the song are taken from Lute songs of John Dowland, I & II, edited by David Nadal, Dover, NY, (1997). When played together (on MIDI –  I have voiced the melody as a flute) the uke and flute parts fit very well, although deviating a little in places. The lute accompaniment to the song is, of course, much simpler.

As a further step in getting to grips with this piece, I have made my own simple arrangement. I have taken the melody from the song, and then added Dowland’s harmonies, as closely as I can, to give a simple chordal melody arrangement. I have tried to make the harmonising notes follow a sympathetic line. 

The melody notes are shown by up-stems. I have unified the lower voices, with all notes on the same (down) stem having the same value – but it would generally improve ones performance to hold them for as long as feasible.

The arrangement is hardly as sophisticated a piece as Dowland’s original, but it’s a lot easier to play. By holding the chords and playing the notes ad lib one can make ones own simple decorations, particularly in bars 4, 8, 12, 16, 20 and 24. 

This approach is reminiscent of popular tabs for the Renaissance guitar from the late 1500s - the strum-and-twiddle style of playing. See, e.g. the earlier post on the Osborn Commonplace Book.

You can download the following arrangements for free:

1. A voiced version for low-G uke of Dowland's lute solo, including the song HERE;

2. A MIDI file of the above HERE;

3. A simple chord-and-melody version HERE.

HISTORICAL NOTE

Captain Piper was a piratical Cornishman commissioned in 1585 to harry the enemy (Spanish) fleet, but instead chose the easier course of attacking the ships of friendly nations. He was made to pay compensation, and died 5 years later. 

My new transcription workflow

 I have recently been trying out a modification of the workflow described in an EARLIER POST, especially for the more complex pieces. This has the advantage of reducing confusion in my head, and also gives me a basic lute arrangement.

When a piece is simple, however, I find it just as easy to transcribe directly from the original tabs, as I used to. Horses for courses.

This post is also a bit of a plug for TablEdit, the setting software that I use, which is specifically designed for tablature.

First line of a transcription for lute

Procedure

1. Make a full transcription for lute – surprisingly easy in TablEdit. This means I always have a full copy to work with. When one has access to a published transcription with the tabs and notation in parallel it's pretty easy. And when the tabs reproduce the format used in Renaissance times, one can use them to get the notes in the right place, and then edit them according to the notation provided by ones learned predecessors.

2. Duplicate the lute version, and copy notes on the 4th to 7th strings an octave higher, on to normally the third and fourth strings. Play back each bar in MIDI, and listen for and correct any discords.

3. Eliminate the bottom strings, leaving just the top four strings. This gives a version playable on a ukulele with the 3rd string tuned down a semitone.

4. Make a copy of the above, adjust the tuning to that of a conventional low-G ukulele. All the notes on the third string will have to be dropped by one fret. Annoyingly, this means representing an open 3rd lute string at the 4th fret on the 4th string.

5. Now comes the refining stage: correcting the note lengths, and further modifying the fretting to fit more easily under the fingers. The upper voice will always be maintained, but the skill is in making the lower voice(s) comprehensible. Btw, lute music often uses open strings in the bass, but htat's an advantage that the ukulele lacks.

6. I have now started making two versions of the arrangements: 

(1) a fully-voiced version, to aid understanding of the musical lines, and 

(2) an unvoiced version with all the stems pointing up, and every note on the same stem of the same length. This sounds not too pleasant in MIDI playback, but it does help getting the timing right in more complex passages. And, of course, this is much as the Renaissance lute player would have dealt with - see the illustrations in THIS POST.

Why not have a go!

John Dowland: A Pavan, P16

 

The first line of Pavan P16 in the Matthew Holmes Lute Book in Cambridge University Library, Dd.5.78, f47v.
The presentation is not dissimilar to the unvoiced uke version below.

Unvoiced version of P16, arranged for ukulele.  The earlier format involved an extra beam to indicate duration. The lack of lower strings on the uke has meant that the occasional bass note has been omitted, whereas some have been included an octave higher where that does not disrupt the (implied) voices.

Yet another pavan that makes great use of JD’s favourite cadence-motif, in bars 5, 7, 10, 15, 22 and 23.

There are three sections, each of 8 bars. As usual I have not transcribed the challenging repeats. The third section is most inventive, and fun to play.

The arrangements are available to download for free:

A voiced version HERE

An unvoiced version HERE

I hope that you enjoy playing them.

____________________________

Adapted from the transcription in Poulton D, Lam B, Eds. 1995. ‘The collected lute music of John Dowland’, Edn 3. Faber Music, London.

John Dowland: Mr John Langton's Pavan, P14

 Quite lively for a pavan

The first few bars of the piece in the Matthew Holmes Lute Book, Cambridge University Library, Dd.5.78.3, f. 2v. Just looking at the complexity of bar 9, the first bar of the repeat of section A, you can see why I was content to just transcribe the initial statement only.

A surprisingly chirpy pavan, a version of which Nigel North plays at about 35 bpm. Diana Poulton describes it as a "fine, open-hearted piece". The variations to the three themes are finely wrought divisions which I have not transcribed – a challenge too far. The lower voices have necessarily had to be curtailed (Poulton & Lam detected up to four), and I have not included all the rests, just the ones needed for getting the timing right.

The piece can almost be regarded as a collection of variations on JD’s favourite cadence, touched on in my recent posts. One can detect it in bars (measures) 5, 7, 14, 21, 22 and 35. Bar 8 is particularly playful, and fun to play. Also, bars 19–20 seem to anticipate “Somewhere over the rainbow” by seversl centuries.

Two versions are free to download:

Fully voiced (as far as you can on the ukulele) HERE.

Unvoiced HERE.

Happy plucking!

_______________

Adaped from Poulton D, Lam B, Eds. 1995. The collected lute music of John Dowlan’, Edn 3. Faber Music, London.

John Dowland: Resolution, P13

 Falls quite nicely under the fingers, phew!

The significance of the title “Resolution” is obscure. According to Diana Poulton’s biography of JD, a version of this piece arranged as a song is dedicated to Oliver Cromwell’s uncle, who wad knighted in 1603.

She describes the mood as “solemn”, but I can’t find a published performance on lute. I have played a MIDI version of the lute original, and it sounds not particularly sombre to me. And on the uke it’s quite spritely and tuneful, even at 35 bpm. You can find a MIDI lute version HERE and decide for yourself.

 Notes

The piece is in 3 sections, the statements of the first 2 followed by challenging divisions which I have not treated. The third section is shown in the original as repeated unchanged.

The cadences in bars 5 and 15 are found in many of Dowland’s pieces, and the earliest version I have found is in Le Roy, published about 1550.

Bar 17 is reminiscent of the beginning of “Greensleeves”.

Bars 6 and 13 look rather daunting, but they do fall under the fingers quite well. I find alternate thumb - index finger plucking helps me keep my place, and it is authentic to the style of the period too.

You can download two versions for the low-G ukulele:

1. A voiced version HERE.

2. An unvoiced version HERE. (In this file I have removed the voicings, so the note durations show you not how long the note sounds for but how long to wait before you pluck the next note. In general, let a note sound for a long as feasible.)

_____________________

Adapted from Poulton D, Lam B, Eds. 1995. The collected lute music of John Dowland, Edn 3. Faber Music, London.

Dowland: Mrs Brigide Fleetwood's Pavan (Solus Sine Sola), P11

 What's easier to play – the voiced or unvoiced version?

Some six years ago I posted an arrangement of "Solus cum sola, P10", a quite lively piece. You can read the original post here.

The present arrangement "Solus sine sola" ("A lone man without a woman") is much more serious and melancholic in tone, especially on the lute. It is quite a challenge to create melancholia on the chirpy ukulele.

I slavishly followed Poulton & Lam's transcription in making a copy of their lute transcription, the first time I have done this. 

My version, as close as I can get, to Poulton and Lam's transcription. They found 3, and occasionally 4, voices in the MS. Quite a challenge!

Then I edited it to transfer what notes I could from the lower 2 courses to the upper 4. This was then playable on a ukulele with the 3rd tuned down a semitone to B3. I had to reduce the number of voices to 2.

The next stage was to "correct" the fingering on the 3rd string to the standard uke tuning of C3. There seemed to be a lot of barrés in second position, so I dropped it a whole tone and everything fitted nicely (mostly) under the fingers.

In my new campaign to make my arrangements more accessible I have also prepared an unvoiced version. To look at the notation rather sets my teeth on edge, but I must admit that I find it easier to get the timing of the 2 voices right without voicings. It is after all, closer to what JD wrote. Perhaps we can say that the voiced version is for understanding, the unvoiced for playing. 

You can download the pdfs here:

Voiced

Unvoiced

John Dowland: Farewell, P3, simplified

 A fairly simple version of my favourite piece by John Dowland

Continuing my campaign to simplify my rather full transcriptions of lute music for the ukulele, here is my new easy-ish version of 'Farewell' (originally 'Farwell'), P3.

You can read the original post here.

A fantasy can be difficult to get to grips with, because it does not have a pronounced melody such as one finds in lute versions of songs or marches. Here, I have adapted the earlier transcription to make it rather simpler, whilst still maintaining the “melody” line that I sing in my head as I play the piece. This is, of course, mostly the upper voice, but sometimes the other voices where they carry the “tune”. I have also included some, often bass, notes that emphasise the beat, especially where the upper note is off the beat. For example, in bar 5, the absence of a note in the upper voice at the beginning of the 3rd beat is emphasized by the inclusion of an obviously bass note on the 4th string. In the interests of simplicity I have not included rests.

The first 7 bars are quite simple, and much as JD wrote them.

Incidentally, I have found that by filleting the piece I have come to understand and appreciate it more. In particular, the chromatic scale fragments are more apparent.

I have adopted (through gritted teeth) the notation convention that all the notes on a stem have the same length, which is used in a number of publications. This does make the piece easier to read, if not to interpret. It echoes the Renaissance tablature convention where the indications of note length tell you not how long the note sounds for, but how long you wait until you play the next note. (Playing back such notation literally via MIDI is not, therefore, a pleasant experience.) 

In summary, the general rule is: hold a note for as long as you can. 

You can download a free pdf of the simple version HERE.

SOURCES

GB-Cu:Cambridge University Library Dd.5.78.3 (1600), f.43v. Encoded and edited by Sarge Gerbode. 

Formatting informed by reference to a piano version by Peter Warlock (IMSLP) and to Poulton D, Lam B, Eds. 1995. The collected lute music of John Dowland, Edn 3. Faber Music, London.

John Dowland: Lachrimae, P 15 (simplified)

 My first attempt at an uncomplicated arrangement.

In all my previous posts I have been at pains to make the fullest possible arrangement, with all the voices that I can manage to include. This does not make for the easiest pieces to play, although ultimately very satisfying, and giving some feel of the original.

I have noticed, however, that other arrangers more skilful than me have made pieces that are much easier to play. As far as I can see they tend to concentrate on a chord-and-melody transcription without too much counterpoint. And, all their notes on a particular time-point (i.e. on the same stem) are of the same indicated duration, even though one would spontaneously hold many of them (especially in the bass) for longer.

The first 4 bars of my original (? over-the-top) arrangement of Lachrimae...

... and this is the way that I have simplified it.

You will see from the images above that I have:

(1) favoured the song melody, and (but not in this sample) simplified the melodic line where the lute original was ornamented;

(2) removed a lot of the counterpoint, but left in enough notes to emphasise the beat where the melody is syncopated;

(3) used tied rather than dotted notes, which I find helps getting the timing right;

(4) made all the notes on a stem the same duration, and put the stem directions all upwards;

(5) fattened up the chords at the beginning of each bar.

I had to decide whether or not to include the stems in the tab, and I have left them in, because it saves having to read the notation for note duration and the tabs for the fretting at the same time.

To download the pdf of this simple version, click here.

I hope you have fun.

John Dowland: Farewell (P4) (An in nomine)

What a challenge! Hard to understand, harder to arrange, even harder to play. 

Well, Autumn has arrived again here in Wales, so I'm back in uke transcription mode.

I made these arrangements from a version in: Poulton and Lam, 1981, ‘The collected lute music of John Dowland’, Faber & Faber. I would never have managed transcribing the MS off my own bat.

First, a description of the piece by the great Nigel North:

“Dowland's Farewell on "In Nomine" stands in a unique position within his lute music. By his curious choice of musical materials in this piece, Dowland is locating himself at the absolute center of English instrumental music. A century before, the Englishman John Taverner had composed a popular Mass on the plainsong Gloria tibi trinitas. The Benedictus of Taverner's Mass circulated seperately and quickly spawned a huge complex of instrumental pieces emulating it. These pieces became vehicles for composers to show off contrapuntal mastery and clever invention. Every important English composer in the sixteenth century seems to have written at least one piece of music for instrumental consort that uses a long-note cantus firmus taken from Taverner's "In nomine" section; later composers such as Christopher Tye and William Byrd left numerous "In nomines." This lute work is Dowland's only contribution to the genre, but is the only surviving "In nomine" for it. 

“Dowland [mostly] places Taverner's cantus firmus melody baldly in the highest voice, and weaves a fantastic net of counterpoint beneath it. Indeed, though he titles the piece "Farewell," a name he uses for only one other lute solo (a highly chromatic and difficult one), it properly belongs with his many Fantasias. The lower "voices" of the lute gradually shift through a number of different contrapuntal gambits and textures -- different imitative motives, syncopation and chromaticism, a dancelike change of meter, hocket, culminating in virtuosic passagework at the end. Dowland took a generation of music for five people and proved he was capable of playing it with five fingers.” [allmusic.com]

I have checked with Taverner’s "In Nomine" (available on IMSLP) and the theme (mostly in the upper voice) in Dowland’s piece agrees very closely with Taverner’s cantus firmus or superius, but the notes on the lute are struck twice in each bar. Both pieces set in Dm (which transposes to Em on the uke). The main deviations, are in bar 6 (Tav. has C, Dow. has A) and bar 55 (silent in Tav.).

An extract showing two particularly complex bars / measures. The cantus firmus is obvious in the notation as white notes. The second and third voices progress with their own rhythms, and in the 2nd bar the lower voice has a semiola rhythm. You can see how difficult it has been to fit all this onto a uke!

In transcription, some bars are much as in the lute original; these are: 1, 3, 4, 16 – 23, 27 – 29, 37, 38 and 54. In other bars much use is made of strings 5 – 7 on the lute; in some cases I have raised these notes by an octave if they contribute to the performance with little distortion of the music or of the fingers. 

The 1st voice or cantus firmus is generally evident by being a white note, whilst most of the others are black. It is not always possible to hold notes for as long as shown in the notation.

In many places, in a single bar, the 2nd and 3rd voices are syncopated to different rhythms (see image above), which it is not always possible to represent within the limited scope of the ukulele. My practice has been to substitute an appropriate note where there was one in the original, to maintain the rhythmic feeling. 

After much thought I have mostly combined the 2nd and 3rd voices in the notation to avoid a confusing forest of stems and make the timing clearer – but thereby obscuring which voice is which. When you see the original tabs as illustrated above, you will see that one is only told when to pluck a note, not its length or where it fits in the voicing, so in this transcription we can sympathise with the original lutenists.

It might well be a good idea to hold the notes in the lower voices for as long as feasible to maintain continuity. I have tried to indicate appropriate notes with a tie symbol immediately following the note. (This also improves the smoothness of the MIDI playback.) The main exceptions are in bars 44, 48 and 52 where Poulton & Lam found a hemiola rhythm in the 3rd voice, and which I have tried to indicate by stem direction.

I have made 3 versions of P4 for the ukulele.

The first arrangement [click to download] has been made for a ukulele with the 3rd string tuned a semitone lower than usual, to B3, giving the same intervals as between the upper four strings of a lute. I find that, not surprisingly, this places the notes more conveniently under the fingers than in the conventional tuning, although presenting some unfamiliar chord shapes.

The second arrangement [click to download] has been adjusted to the normal low-G uke tuning, but is a bit harder to play.

The third arrangement [click to download] has been raised from Em to Gm, to give a bit more scope for the lower voice. I have tried to indicate the voices by stem direction. If you would like the easier (?) to read unvoiced version, please ask. In any form, it's a real finger twister.

Philippus Thomassinus (Filippo Tomassini): Corrente (from theorbo original)

 A transcription for low-4th-to-F ukulele from the original tablature for 11-course theorbo in Conserto Vago...  

Facsimile at: Museo internazionale e Bibl. della musica, Bologna (I-Bc): V.156 

Please see my post of 13 Feb for the ToC and further info.

This is the third version of "Corrente"for uke, which I have already blogged in versions from Renaissance guitar (14 Feb) and for Lute (27 Feb).

The theorbo has the upper 2 courses tuned an octave lower than you might expect, so its harmonies tend to be voiced as block chords, sometimes with notes doubled. It is quite a deep-toned instrument.

To transcribe the piece into ukulele format is therefore a bit of a stretch. I think the original may have been intended as an accompaniment, so I have played (via MIDI) the RG-to-uke and Thiorbo-to-uke arrangements simultaneously, and they compliment each other quite well, but with the occasional clash where different passing tones occur. The RG-to-uke transcription sounds better against the deeper mellower tones of the MIDI-theorbo version.

If you want to try out the theorbo-to-uke version you can download it here.

Adrian Le Roy: A Plaisir (Mon Dieu Vostre Pitié)

 Following on from my previous post, here is the other piece set in the low-F tuning.

The melody line of the song. See previous post for more details.

The transcription plays more like an accompaniment than like a stand-alone piece. I have therefore made two versions, with and without the melody line included.

Download pdf with melody

Download pdf without melody

If you would like a MIDI file of the melody (played by synth recorder) please get in touch using the contact form in the column on the right.

Adrian Le Roy: Branle Gay (Maintenant c'est vn cas estrange)

It's a while since I posted a piece by Adrian Le Roy. Recently, however, I noticed mentioned on the wonderful Early Music Muse website that Le Roy had published two pieces in the low F tuning (temple viejo or corde avallée), and I thought "why not have a go?"  I have after all, been transcribing and posting pieces by Thomassinus (see post of 13 Feb 2023) set in the same tuning.

Here is the first. It was a simple piece to transcribe, and in the book was accompanied by the melody (below), and as far as I can tell by the antique notation, the top voice of the tabs follows the melody

The melody and first verse of the chanson. The meaning of the black diamonds had me stumped, but I have guessed that it means "fill the rest of the bar with this note". 
Source: Adrian Le Roy, 1555, Second livre de guiterre, Paris
.Facsimile: Early Music Online. Persistent url: http://purl.org/rism/BI/1555/7

The chord sequence is:

I    ♭VII    iv     V (repeated)    I     iv       iv     V (repeated)

The use of the ♭VII (here B♭) is reminiscent of the major form of the passamezzo antico.

You can hear and see a spirited performance on violin and classical guitar here: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYw2wjtDKQQ

If you want to try the piece out, you can download the free pdf here 

... or a version including what I hope is an accurate transcription of the melody here.

PS Don't forget to tune your 4th string to F3 (Helmholz f)!

Philippus Thomassinus (Filippo Tomassini): Balletto sopra listesso sogetto (from theorbo original)

 A transcription for low-4th ukulele from the original tablature for 11-course theorbo in Conserto Vago...  

Facsimile at: Museo internazionale e Bibl. della musica, Bologna (I-Bc): V.156 

Please see my post of 13 Feb for the ToC and further info.

The digits 7 and × just touching the top line indicate that the 7th and 10th (unfretted) strings are to be plucked whilst the digit 3 crossing the top line indicates that the 6th course should be stopped on the 3rd fret. It took a little while to work this out!

 The title means something like “Ballet on the same subject”, possibly referring to the previous (lute) piece “Canzone franzesca” (see my post of 10 March 2023).

According to James Tyler, the %-like symbols (annotations?) below the tabs indicated that chords were to be played as an arpeggio rather than as a pluck or strum. It was probably more impressive on the theorobo.

The theorbo was tuned like a lute (often pitched a whole tone higher) but with extra unstopped bass strings (diapaisons), and sometimes single-stringed courses. The first two courses were tuned an octave lower than expected, a re-entrant tuning. 

When I played back a transcription of the theorbo version using MIDI, the chords sounded heavy and solid, perhaps more appropriate to accompanying a singer. Indeed, this piece feels rather like an accompaniment even on the ukulele. See what you think.

You can download a free pdf file of the transcription for uke here.

Philippus Thomassinus (Filippo Tomassini): Canzone franzese (from lute original)

 A transcription for low-4th ukulele from the original tablature for 8-course lute in Conserto Vago...  

Facsimile at: Museo internazionale e Bibl. della musica, Bologna (I-Bc): V.156 

Please see my post of 13 Feb for the ToC and further info.

This is the final piece for lute in Conserto Vago. The title translates as "French song", but I do not know whether it is a new composition in French style or is an entabulation or variations on an existing song. The beginning reminds me of Le Roy's "Fantasias".

You can download a pdf version for free here.

Philippus Thomassinus (Filippo Tomassini): Gagliarda (from lute original)

A transcription for low-4th ukulele from the original tablature for lute in Conserto Vago...  

Facsimile at: Museo internazionale e Bibl. della musica, Bologna (I-Bc): V.156 

Please see my post of 13 Feb for the ToC and further info.

A relatively simple piece, even in the 8-course lute version. I imagine that it was the basis for improvisation and decoration. I leave it up to you...

You can download the pdf file here, for free.

Philippus Thomassinus (Filippo Tomassini): Volta (unvoiced version)

 This is an alternative version of a transcription of "Volta" (originally written for Renaissance guitar) that I posted on 14 Feb 2023. 

The earlier version of 14 Feb.

In my earlier version I tried to discriminate 2 or 3 voices, but playing it through after a few weeks decided that I was being over-academic in the setting, and that it could be played in "campanella" style. 

I therefore removed all the voicing, simplified the note lengths to the minimum necessary for playing, and added the instruction: hold the notes for as long as possible, to achieve the campanella effect. 

Also, I changed the tempo from 3/2 to 3/4. This enables me to use beaming on the notes to indicate where the (?hemiola) rhythm count changes from 

1& 2& 3&

to

1&a 2&a

Some bars were, however, rather ambiguous, and I leave the interpretation up to you.

The new simplified version

It always surprises me how many ways one can notate relatively simple tabs.

You can try it out by downloading the tabs for free here.

Philippus Thomassinus (Filippo Tomassini): Corrente (from lute original)

 A transcription for low-4th ukulele from the original tablature for lute in Conserto Vago...  Facsimile at: Museo internazionale e Bibl. della musica, Bologna (I-Bc): V.156 

Please see my post of 13 Feb for ToC and further info.

The first line of "Corrente" in upside-down format

A lively little piece with a skipping tempo. As usual I have had to take some liberties with the lower voice in adapting from an 8-course to a 4-course instrument.

You can download a pdf of the arrangement here.

Philippus Thomassinus (Filippo Tomassini): Balletto (from lute original)

 A transcription for low-4th ukulele from the original tablature for lute in Conserto Vago...  Facsimile at: Museo internazionale e Bibl. della musica, Bologna (I-Bc): V.156 

Please see my post of 13 Feb for further info.

The first line of "Balletto" in "upside-down" tabs

A charming piece and good practice at playing successive 3-note chords. 

You can download a free pdf of the transcription here.

I hope that you enjoy playing it.

Philippus Thomassinus (Filippo Tomassini): Volta (from lute original)

 A transcription for low-4th ukulele from the original tablature for lute in Conserto Vago... 

Please see my post of 13 Feb for further info.

The first line of "Volta"
(The bar number was inserted by me as an aid to transcription.)
Facsimile at: Museo internazionale e Bibl. della musica, Bologna (I-Bc): V.156 

In an earlier post I was rather grudging about the first pieces in this compilation, but on mature consideration I find them to have some interesting fingerings that one doesn't normally find in uke music. So, a good exercise in playing shapes that don't "automatically" fall under the fingers.

You can download a free pdf of the transcription here.

Philippus Thomassinus (Filippo Tomassini): Ricorcata sopra la Canzone

  This "Ricorcata" is the fifth and longest of five pieces for Renaissance guitar in Concerto Vago ... , described in my post of 13 February 2023.  

The first two lines of "Ricortata..."
(The bar numbers were inserted by me as an aid to transcription.)
Facsimile at: Museo internazionale e Bibl. della musica, Bologna (I-Bc): V.156 

I am not sure exactly what the title means, possibly "Variations on (or explorations of) the song", but what song? One would have expected a song entabulation to have sections of the same length, but these are 22, 23 and 18 bars long. 

Nevertheless, its a pretty ingenious piece with up to three voices squashed into the 4-course instrument. It is a good puzzle to disentangle and represent the voices as they come and go, and you will have your own opinions on this. When you see how much variation there is in transcriptions of a single piece of tablature (by e.g. Le Roy) published by qualified musicians, I think you will agree that any reasonable interpretation is fair game. 

In general Concerto Vago... has a pretty low rate of errors, but whoever was making the plates must have been tired when cutting this, the last piece in the book. You will see from the notes at the bottom of the score that I had to make a number of editorial decisions.

Envoi

Finally, thanks again to Gilles T for drawing my attention to this book. My next task is to transcribe and arrange the greater number of lute pieces that start the book. I have done the first two, which are not half so interesting as "Ricorcata". But, since the tabs have fingering indications, I guess that the book was intended as a tutor. 

By the way, I have not reproduced the fingerings in the guitar pieces in the present transcriptions (mostly single dots, occasionally double) because they don't seem to mean the same as those that were conventional in the Renaissance: see my earlier post for a full description.

You can download a pdf file for Ricorcata here

Philippus Thomassinus (Filippo Tomassini): Gagliarda

  This "Gagliarda" is the fourth of five pieces for Renaissance guitar in Concerto Vago ... , described in my  post of 13 February 2023. 

The first two bars of "Gagliarda"
Facsimile at: Museo internazionale e Bibl. della musica, Bologna (I-Bc): V.156 

This piece, although entitled "Gagliarda", is not what I had expected a galliard to sound like (metre: 1  2  3  |  1   &3) but is set in 3/2 time following the original. In effect, 3/2 alternates with 6/4. Gilles T has pointed out to me this is known as hemiola, which I now remember encountering when transcribing Gaspar Sanz' pieces for Baroque guitar. (Incidentally, the more I read about hemiola and sesquialtera – are they or are they not synonymous? – the more confused I become.)

You can download a pdf version of "Gagliarda" here for free

Philippus Thomassinus (Filippo Tomassini): Corrente

 This "Corrente" is the third of five pieces for Renaissance guitar in Concerto Vago ... , described in my  post of 13 February 2023. 

The first few bars of "Corrente"
Facsimile at: Museo internazionale e Bibl. della musica, Bologna (I-Bc): V.156 

The corrente was a lively ("running") dance in triple time, whereas the French equivalent, the courante, was rather more complicated and measured in pace.

I have nothing to say except that it's not too challenging, and good fun to play.

You can download a pdf version of "Volta" here for free

Philippus Thomassinus (Filippo Tomassini): Volta

 This "Volta" is the second of five pieces for Renaissance guitar in Concerto Vago ... , described in my previous post. Like all the others it uses the temple viejo tuning: i.e. with the 4th string tuned to F3.

The first few bars of "Volta"
Facsimile at: Museo internazionale e Bibl. della musica, Bologna (I-Bc): V.156 

It is set in 3/2 time, which at this period apparently implied something like a slow waltz tempo.

The piece is reminiscent of Spanish music published 100 years before. It seems to me to involve both chordal and polyphonic styles, and to have up to 3 voices – quite an achievement on and instrument with such a tonal range. It was a challenge to indicate these in the setting.

There are seven unequal sections of 8, 8, 8, 4, 5, 5 and 8 bars.

You can download a pdf version of "Volta" here

Update: See also a plainer version posted 7 March 2023

Philippus Thomassinus (Filippo Tomassini): Conserto Vago: Introduction and Ballette

Introduction: the book 

I have been stirred from my musical slumbers to start posting transcriptions again, all thanks to the knowledgable Gilles Tordjman (alias Gilles T. of a number of early music fora).

He kindly sent me a facsimile of music for lute, theorbo and chitarrino (4 course Renaissance guitar). I am gradually working through the transcriptions.

Facsimile at: Museo internazionale e Bibl. della musica, Bologna (I-Bc): V.156 

I have tried to translate "Conserto Vago" but most suggestions online are of limited help; the nearest relevant translation I can guess is "collected wanderings", but a language scholar will know better. 

Google Translate, assuming modern Italian,  translates the blurb as follows:

Conserto Vago of ballets, vaults, current, and vigorous choirs of their song in the French style. Newly brought to light for playing together with lute, theorbo and quarter-string guitar a la Napolitana, or pieces ad arbitrarily, and the delight of virtuosi and noble professors or scholars of these instruments, composed by a good but uncertain author.

Not a bad attempt attempt at translation after almost 4 centuries. At least we know that the composer is Anon.

I was surprised to see music for the Renaissance guitar published as late as 1645, well into the early Baroque era. 

The tuning in the book is one that I haven't encountered before, since the bass string is lowered a whole tone to F3 (or f in Helmholz notation). 

Gilles points out that this is known as temple viejo tuning in Spanish. This is presumably is what "alla Napolitana" on the title page refers to. (The interval between 4th and 3rd strings that will be familiar to banjo players using the "C tuning".)

All six pieces are set, not surprisingly, in the key of F, not the easiest key to make transcriptions for in the usual 4th-to-G tuning. I want to explore further the possibilities that this tuning offers.

You can read an article by Michael Fink on Renaissance guitar tunings, including temple viejo and nuevo,  here. (I am not sure that this is the original site.)

As you will see from the facsimile below, the book is set in "upside-down" tabs, the convention used in Italy and Spain. I have tried playing directly off the facsimile, with little success – hence these transcriptions.

When transcribing and adapting for guitar or uke from lute tablature I do not keep too closely to the fingering, but modify it to aid performance. With 4-course guitar tabs, however, I try to keep closely to the original, and indicate in footnotes where modifications such as position playing might be advantageous.

Contents table of Conserto Vago

This is a progress report on my transcription activity, and blog dates for the RG and Uke arrangements. I will try to keep it up to date.

 

Title of piece *	Instrument	Page	Transcribed /Arranged for †	Blogged for RG and Uke
Balletto	Luto	4	Lute, RG, Uke	28/2/23
Volta	Luto	5 – 6	Lute, RG, Uke	27/2/23
Corrente	Luto	6 – 7	RG, Uke	7//3/23
Gagliarda	Luto	7 – 9	Lute, RG, Uke	9/3/23
Canzone franzese	Luto	9 – 12	Lute, RG, Uke	10/3/23
Balletto sopra listesso sogetto	Tiorba	13 – 14	Lute, RG, Uke	11/3/23
Volta	Tiorba	14 – 15	Lute
Corrente	Tiorba	16 – 17
Gagliarda	Tiorba	17 – 18
Ricercata sopra la canzone	Tiorba	19 – 21
Ballette	Chitarrino	22 – 23	RG, Uke	13/2/23
Volta	Chitarrino	23 – 26	RG, Uke (3/2, 3/4)	14/2/23, 7/3/23
Corrente	Chitarrino	26 – 28	RG, Uke	15/2/23
Gagliarda	Chitarrino	28 – 30	RG, Uke  (3/2, 3/4)	16/2/23
Ricortata sopra la Canzone	Chitarrino	30 – 36	RG, Uke	17/2/23

* Original spellings retained

† Renaissance guitar (RG) is tuned the same as low-G Uke

The first piece

I will be posting the five Renaissance guitar pieces over the coming days. Here is the first, "Ballete". I hope you enjoy playing it, and seeing if you can find any hint of post-Renaissance forms.

The first line in the original

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE PDF FILE OF 'BALLETE' FOR FREE

Edit log.

9/3/23 ToC added