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Wednesday, 29 March 2023

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.