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.