About this page
A selective list of publications and websites (there are loads!) that have published Renaissance music and ukulele tabs, or have just inspired me, or I have found useful.
In this blog I try to credit all my sources; if I have failed to do so, please let me know.Publications
Lute
Why the lute? Firstly, lute music is an invaluable source for transcriptions for the ukulele. Secondly, it was the model for "posh" renaissance guitar music, which fits perfectly the low-G ukulele. Thirdly, lute tutors (ancient and modern) are a useful guide to contemporary playing styles.
Poulton, Diana. 1982. John Dowland (Revised Edition). London: Faber & Faber.The John Dowland book. Accounts of his life and his works for lute, song accompaniments, consort settings, etc. Exhaustive, and sometimes exhausting to read.
The P-numbers in titles of the transcriptions that I post refer to Poulton's numbering of JD's lute works in this book, thereby avoiding confusion when different pieces share the same name. Any semblance of learning in this blog is drawn mostly from this and the following publication.
Poulton, Diana and Lam, Basil. 1995. The collected lute music of John Dowland, Ed 3. London: Faber Music.
The definitive source for JD's music for solo lute. Expensive, but I am so glad that I eventually bought a copy. Has lute tabs (which could be used by a guitarist who didn't mind retuning his 3rd string to F#), and full transcription into piano or grand stave format (which I find useful in disentangling the often 4 voices in the original, and setting note lengths). One can only marvel at the assiduousness of the authors in travelling round the world to read MSS in an age before online publication of facsimilies.
Julia Craig-McFeely. 2000. English lute manuscripts and scribes 1530 – 1630. Doctoral Dissertation, Oxford. Published online by the author here.
A fantastically exhaustive account. Includes concordances for, as far as I can see, every MS and printed copy of lute music over the selected period. I have yet to explore the publication fully. All hail to the author for making it available online.
Diana Poulton. 1991. A tutor for the Renaissance lute. Schott, London.
Serious stuff, from beginner to advanced grade. Formats: French, Italian/Spanish and German (very scary). Exhaustive, and authoritative, but rather daunting.
Rob MacKillop. 2016. Introduction to the lute for lute and guitar players. Mel Bay Publications Inc.
A very accessible publication with twenty-odd pages of instruction, and 60 pages of music in French format (letters between-the-line) and modern (guitar) format (numerals on-the-line), but no musical notation to show how long to hold the notes.
Ben Salfield. The lutenist's handbook. 2016. Peacock books.
Not a tutor, but a series of very practical short articles on strings, frets, maintenance, tabs, left and right hand techniques, ornamentation, practice, performance etc.
Renaissance guitar
Keith Calmes. 2008. Guitar music of the 16th century. Pacific: Mel Bay.A quite excellent volume: over 130 pieces of music specifically written for Renaissance guitar by Mudarra, Fuenllana, Le Roy, Brayssing, Morlaye and Gorlier – all published in the narrow window of 1546 – 1553. The transcriptions are in notation format (no tabs) for the classical guitar, so if you pretend your ukulele is a guitar you can play off the dots. Some of the voicings must be a big stretch on the full-sized instrument. Since buying this book I use it to check my uke transcriptions against, which helps detect for errors, but I often deviate from his more expert versions where they seem to disagree with the originals. Highly recommended.
Frederick Noade. 1974. The Renaissance guitar. NY: Ariel / Amsco.
An anthology of 55 pieces for classical guitar in fully-fingered notation, from tablature for lute and vihuela, and just two from Renaissance guitar pieces. A good range of styles and difficulties, some of which are suitable for reduction to four strings. I am annoyed, however, by the misleading title. Praise be for Calmes' book.
Christopher Page. 2017. The guitar in Tudor England. CUP.
Not a lot is known about the role of the guitar in Tudor England, and this book seems to contain all of it, and more – quite an achievement. The instrument was imported from (mostly) France from the 1540s, and seems to have been played in two ways: in imitation of the lute or vihuela (the élite Continental style), and as a strumming instrument to accompany songs and dances (the robust common style inherited from earlier instruments). The book includes notational transcriptions assuming modern guitar tunings.
My two favourite parts: (a) Prof Page has managed to reconstruct a lost tutor for the instrument by Adrian Le Roy in Paris, c 1569, which gives guidance on how the music was played. (b) I was previously unaware of guitar tabs in the Osborne Commonplace Book (c. 1660, now at Yale): I have mined the online facsimile for pieces to blog here.
John M Ward. 1983. Sprightly and cheerful musick. The Lute Society.
Probably the most esoteric book I have bought. It concerns music in MS and tablature written for the cittern (which had a very weird tuning), gittern and guitar. After thoroughly reading this and Page's book above, I am still not sure whether "gittern" was another word for guitar, or whether a gittern was a cittern tuned like a guitar. Ward was a specialist in early manuscript sources for music for fretted instruments. He exhaustively summarises the contents of all the MS and printed material available 40 years ago, and transcribes quite a few pieces, including all those in the Osborn Commonplace Book. I had never considered cittern music before, but the instrument continued to be played in the 17th century and later, whilst the 4-course renaissance guitar had been replaced by the 5-course baroque guitar. I have started transcribing some of the gittern pieces for playing on the ukulele: the different tunings give different voicing idioms.
Baroque guitar
Tyler, James. 2001. A guide to playing the Baroque guitar. Indiana University Press.
A most excellent work, clearly written and beautifully printed. If I had bought this book a month ago I would have saved myself a number of misconceptions, and hours searching online. Section 1 deals with the instrument and how to play it, whilst Section 2 has transcriptions of 17 pieces in a fair copy of the original formats, plus notation and commentary. I shall be shamelessly mining this book for pieces to transcribe for the ukulele.
A most excellent work, clearly written and beautifully printed. If I had bought this book a month ago I would have saved myself a number of misconceptions, and hours searching online. Section 1 deals with the instrument and how to play it, whilst Section 2 has transcriptions of 17 pieces in a fair copy of the original formats, plus notation and commentary. I shall be shamelessly mining this book for pieces to transcribe for the ukulele.
Ukulele arrangements
Putter, R J. 2023. Early Music for Low G Ukulele. Published online here.
An excellent and wide-ranging collection of early pieces, most of which I have never encountered before.
The pieces are arranged in campanella style, very appropriate for the composer. The level of hardness ranges from 2 to 6 on my scale. I have found it fascinating how the arrangements have been made, and have enormously enjoyed playing them.
Mizen, T. 2011. From lute to uke. Milwaukee: Hal Leonard.
A wonderful book showing tabs and notation for Renaissance lute music from Britain, France, Spain and Germany. Written for uke with re-entrant tuning. It was modifying these arrangements for the low-G lute that sent me back to the originals – hence this site.
Nelson, MK. 2006. Learn to play fingerstyle solos for 'ukulele. Pacific: Mel Bay.
Excellent range of music from Hawaiian (of course), to Danny Boy, to Bach. Also, a few nicely-harmonised Renaissance pieces.
Nelson, MK. 2012. Favorite fingerstyle solos for ukulele. Pacific: Mel Bay.
A wide range of pieces of varying hardness, and almost as good as the previous volume. There are four easy pieces from the Renaissance (Branle, Bonny Sweet Robin, Nonesuch and Volte), and I should learn from them how to make my own arrangements more accessible.
Sarek, O. 2010. Classics for Ukulele. Pacific: Mel Bay.
All good stuff: Monteverdi, Tchaikovsky, Greig etc. Unfortunately, the setter put the string lines in the tabs too close together, so it can be difficult to read the fingerings in the chords.
Michael Walker
Since starting this blog, I have been made aware of Michael's many publications for baritone ukulele and Renaissance guitar. They should mostly be playable on all ukes. Just put his name in Amazon or Abebooks, and browse.
Websites
Charles Wolzien & Frank Bliven
Early Guitar Anthology. I The Renaissance. c.1540-1580
Published online: www.EarlyGuitarAnthology.com
A wonderful (free) collection of pieces for Renaissance guitar, transcribed in notation for classical guitar. If you imagine your ukulele is a guitar, and can read music, you will enjoy playing them directly. Composers: Mudarra, Fuenllana, Barberiis, Gorlier, Le Roy, Rippe, Morlaye, Phalèse and Brayssing. It is interesting to compare the arrangements with Calmes' (see above). I found the 27 pp of introductory notes fascinating and helpful – I just wish I had read them before starting this blog!
A lovely collection of arrangements for low- and high-G ukuleles, by Michael Parmenter. I have had great fun playing them. This is where I heard about TablEdit. I try not to tread on his toes. (Note added 2019: this blog is apparently now invitation only.)
https://pdfminstrel.wordpress.com
Loads of arrangements for a range of instruments, including the low-G ukulele.
http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/index.php
Interesting chat and an archive of tabs, or links thereto. A must.
Valéry Sauvage
The incredibly productive UkeVal (see below) has kindly sent me these links to his great list of tabs:
https://app.box.com/s/4jdof9zrjvjeljneyba4
https://app.box.com/s/m4hulvdlexuw7ehfh5qqatgm9fzo9r9o
https://app.box.com/s/irvh3o14yw40w0lwqttcrzcf7j8ihdw8
https://app.box.com/s/4latmpgz2txyady7rlm6a4qubndfg2x7
Warning: he is so good, he may leave you with feelings of inadequacy!
Ukestuff
https://ukestuff.wordpress.com/ukulele-education-resources/
A selection of the most useful sites etc, selected by a professional teacher. Should save you a lot of searching.
Got a ukulele
http://www.gotaukulele.com
An exhaustive site. Reviews of instruments, books & brands; chords & tabs; tuition; lists of uke clubs; etc, etc.
Tontonremy
http://www.tontonremy.com/ukulele/
Large resource of words & chords for most types of music for ukulele players. Very well catalogued and indexed. Mostly in French (with English subtitles), but perfectly accessible. See his museum page for a good laugh.
Ukulele chords by Ukebuddy
https://ukebuddy.com/ukulele-chords
There are many chord finders on the web. This is the best designed that I have found, and accommodates the F Bb D G tuning I used to use on my tenor. Also: scales, arpeggios, scales and chord namer.
The uke's ancestors and how they were tuned
As the uke probably evolved from and was similar to, various early guitars, the old music often fits well on it. As the music was mostly in tablature, we have to know the tunings that were used - particularly when they were re-entrant.
Early Music Muse
"The guitar: a brief history from the renaissance to the modern day"
https://earlymusicmuse.com/guitarhistory/
Tuning the Renaissance guitar
http://www.laguitarra-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/strining-and-tuning-the-renaissance-four-course-guitar.pdf
My summary: it was tuned more or less like the ukulele (G C E A), but with the second, third and fourth courses having paired strings (the second and third in unison), whilst the first (chanterelle) was single. The 4th course could be G3–G3 (low-G or linear), G4–G4 (re-entrant, as in most ukes) or G3–G4 (bordón plus requinta, with G4 nearest the third course, as in the lute).
Tuning the Baroque guitar
http://tunings.pbworks.com/w/page/22530575/Baroque%20guitar
My summary: tuned A D G B E: rather like the modern guitar but without the bottom E string, and with paired strings in all courses, except sometimes the first. The 4th course could be D3–D3 or D4–D3 (with D3 nearest the 3rd course, the opposite to the Renaissance guitar.) The 5th course (which has to be represented on other strings on the uke) could be A4–A3 or A4–A4. It is not always clear from the tabs which tuning was used.
About the Baroque guitar
https://www.thisisclassicalguitar.com/baroque-guitar-for-smarties-by-clive-titmuss/
An accessible account of the Baroque guitar, its tuning, and its composers.
Early music sources
http://www.gerbode.net
Fantastic resource of lute tabs clearly transcribed – there must be thousands of pieces here that would take me several lifetimes to transcribe and play. How does he do it? Almost a one-stop shop.
Early music Online
Facsimilies of c 10000 pieces by Le Roy etc etc.
British library
Digitised music manuscripts from the Renaissance etc.
Cambridge Digital Library
Digitised music manuscripts from the Renaissance etc.
The Lute Society: English Renaissance Lute Music
Some free stuff, and facsimilies for sale.
Lute Society of America
List of sources of tablature facsimilies
Guitar Loot Lute Sources
Where Eric Crouch gets his originals for his arrangements for guitar.
Delcamp.net
An enormous catalogue of free transcriptions for classical guitar.
UkeVal
The Youtube page of the remarkable lutenist Valéry Sauvage who plays the uke too! There are hundreds of great uke solos here.
Nigel North. John Dowland: Complete lute music. Naxos, 4 CD box set.
A brilliant lutenist. I listen to these tracks, and pick the least demanding ones to translate from the lute transcriptions on Sarge Gerbode's site or, more recently, from Poulton & Lam. (see above). It is fascinating to listen to North's own variations - lots of fast runs (= divisions, or twiddly bits).
Last updated 13 March 2023
Listen to the music
UkeVal
The Youtube page of the remarkable lutenist Valéry Sauvage who plays the uke too! There are hundreds of great uke solos here.
Nigel North. John Dowland: Complete lute music. Naxos, 4 CD box set.
A brilliant lutenist. I listen to these tracks, and pick the least demanding ones to translate from the lute transcriptions on Sarge Gerbode's site or, more recently, from Poulton & Lam. (see above). It is fascinating to listen to North's own variations - lots of fast runs (= divisions, or twiddly bits).
Last updated 13 March 2023
