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)!

Authentic (?) Renaissance right-hand fingerings

I have in the past taken a cavalier attitude to right-hand fingering when playing Renaissance music on the ukulele. Obviously, one tends to use the thumb on the lower strings and the fingers on the other strings, but apart from that I have followed no particular rule – but now I am thinking of plucking "properly" and "authentically", although exactly what this means is not always clear.

Renaissance lute and guitar music had a pronounced rhythmic patterns, with obvious strong and weak beats (articulation). The Renaissance guitar was regarded as a little lute (or vihuela) in polite society, just as we can regard the ukulele as a little guitar, so playing techniques will be similar across the board.

Composers writing in French tablature often indicated RH fingering in a very concise way:
Unaccented notes are shown by a dot under the letter or numeral indicating the fret.
So, how was this applied in practice? And, do the experts agree?

Fig. 1. The first lines of the first piece in Adrian Le Roy's first book of tablature for guitar (1551) – see my transcription posted here. The dots indicating unaccented notes are clearly visible, and especially important where the accents do not fall on the first and third beats. See Figs 3a, 3b below.

Christopher Page

Below is the RH procedure in a manual for 4-course guitar published in 1574, paraphrased by Christopher Page (for full references see Resources page):

1. "When a single letter appeared with a dot ... below it, the note was to be struck upwards with one of the fingers, not necessarily the index but rather with the finger 'as shall best fit it'."

2. "If there were [no dot] the player used the thumb."

3. "Where a single dot appeared beneath two or three letters, the strings were to be plucked with the fingers alone..."

4. "... absence of a dot [beneath two or three letters] indicated a 'grip', meaning that the thumb struck the lowest course ... downwards, and the first two or three fingers struck upwards."

Diana Poulton

In her lute tutor, Diana Poulton gives an exercise (Fig. 2) in which a pair of notes (dyad), consisting of a lower and higher note on the first (strong) beat, is played with the thumb and middle finger. The index finger is used on the weakest beats. What is unusual to modern players is that the thumb is brought up to the high string, and is not reserved for the lower string. This must be harder on the lute with its great number of courses than on the contemporary guitar or the ukulele.

Fig 2. An extract from an exercise in Poulton's A tutor for the Renaissance lute, adapted to the Renaissance guitar or ukulele. The full marking system is on the left, the simplified equivalent (single dots only) in the middle, and the modern system on the right. The symbols p, i and m refer to the thumb, index and middle fingers. 

The strong first beat has the middle finger plucking the 1st string and and the thumb plucking the 4th.  Note that in the first bar (measure), if one counts "1 & 2 &", the weak beat is on the "&", whereas in bar 2 (count "1 & a  2 &") the first "&" is a strong beat and it is the the "a" that counts as the weak one. So, in a pair of notes of the same length, the second is normally weak. Where syncopation was required, however, the "unusual" weak notes would be indicated

 

Rob MacKillop

The following summary is given by Rob MacKillop in his lute tutor:    

"Thumb and middle [finger] play the strong beats, index plays the weak beats."

 This elevation of the second finger to strong status seems at odds with Page's point 1.

 

Lute Society

In her second lesson on the Lute Society website, Linda Sayce presents a simple piece consisting of two-part counterpoint (in the form of dyads or 2-note "chords"), and writes:

"Start by using the thumb and middle finger on every chord: it is easiest to get good contact and a good sound with this combination of digits. When you have that totally under control, play the piece again with thumb and index. Finally, for the ultimate in sophisticated plucking, use the thumb on every lower note, and for the upper notes alternate the middle finger on the strong beats (the first chord of each bar), and the index finger on the offbeats."

Ben Salfield

In his The lutenist's handbook, Ben Salfield writes extensively on right hand technique. He points out that when Spanish vihuelistas such as Fuenllana in the mid 16th century played the upper strings, the p-i pattern was replaced by m-i.

He states "... the middle finger replaces the thumb on the treble courses and plays the heavier beat".

The advantage of the middle-index system increased as the instruments gained more courses and the bass strings became even further from the treble. With the ukulele this is hardly a problem.

Compromise?

Perhaps we can summarise all these instructions and rank the digits thus:
     thumb > middle finger > index finger.

 

Worked example

In the examples below (Figs 3a & 3b) I show three extracts from Adrian Le Roy's "Fantasie première" (see Fig. 1 for the original) to show the range of possible fingerings. The extracts have been converted from French to modern tablature, and show the original dot system, plus my interpretation of RH fingering following the alternative systems:
Fig. 3a: p-i, relying on the thumb for most of the strong beats on the treble courses.
Fig. 3b: m-i, where the middle finger takes the strong beats on the trebles.

Fig. 3a. Three extracts from Adrian Le Roy's "Fantasie première" in modern tabs. The dots reproduce those in the original, and the letters beneath give my guess of what would have been played, using the p-i system for scale passages. 

Extract 1 starts with a canon of one, then two, then three voices. Bars 1 & 2 alternate strong and weak stress; in bar 3 all beats are strong; the stresses vary in pattern through the piece. It ends at a cadence using 4-note chords. 

Extract 2 shows a duet of upper single notes or duplets alternating with the bass line; the accent is not on the usual first and third beats. 

Extract 3 is the first part of a scalar passage, with the thumb venturing to the first string à la Poulton.

Fig.3b. The same piece as above, but with right-hand fingering with emphasis on the use of m-i fingering rather than p-i for scalar passages on the treble strings. I have also followed the Lute Society advice (above) that dyads (2-note chords) be played p+m on the strong beats and p+i on the weak beats. The thumb is largely reserved for the lower voice.

I now face three challenges:

1. To mark up transcripts as above, and play the music accordingly, which doesn't come easy after many years of a laissez-faire right hand;

2. To be able to use the "correct" RH finger just relying on Le Roy's dots;

3. To do the same when there aren't any dots.

Le Roy: Fantasie première revisited

Continuing the process of revising my earliest posts, now that I know (a little) more about the music, here is an improved (I hope) transcription of the first piece published in Le Roy's first book Premiere livre de tablature de guiterre, ff 1 – 2.

You can download the transcription freely here:

• pdf
• TablEdit
• MIDI

SOURCES

Facsimile online at: https://repository.royalholloway.ac.uk/items/36992e38-4a04-c705-affa-253d7b309c67/1/
(Permanent link: http://purl.org/rism/BI/1551/23)

Having transcribed these pieces from the Renaissance guitar facsimilie above, I was informed by the fine transcriptions for classical guitar by Keith Calmes in Guitar music of the 16th Century, 2008, Mel Bay Publications. I have not, however, followed his version slavishly, but have taken much from it.

Another excellent and learnèd publication is “Early Guitar Anthology, I, The Renaissance, c.1540-1580” by Charles Wolzien, music edited by Frank Bliven, available to download here: http://www.guitarlessonz.com/earlyguitaranthology/EGA_Renaissance-I.htm. As well as many musical scores, they provide useful essays on the music of the period. In some places have followed their version.

ANALYSIS

As with all music in French tabs, which were less prescriptive than modern notation, there is much scope for interpretation. For example, does an unoccupied place after a note represent a continuation of the note (sometimes ligatured across bars) or a rest?  Rather than agonise over this, if one follows the rule “hold a note down as long as physically possible” I don’t think one can go far wrong. (See footnote below.)

The piece is set in a counterpoint of two or three voices. The first voice makes a statement of the first motif in bars 1 – 2, the second voice repeats it a 4th below in bars 2 – 3, and a third voice (with doubled-length notes) starts on the open 4th string (an octave lower than the first voice) in bars 4 – 6.

In bars 7 & 8 we have a theme very similar to that often used by John Dowland about 50 years later (e.g. in “Solus cum sola”), partially echoed in the middle voice in the next two bars and leading via a kind of duet to a cadence in the dominant (D major).

The next passage, bars 20 – 44, includes a sequence of arpeggiated chords, in which one can detect a hint of the campanella style – depending of course on how long the notes are held. Bars 45 – 61 include a seriest of overlapping scalar fragments (counterpoint) leading to a high G-major chord.

There is then (in bars 65 – 69) a duet high on the fingerboard, repeated an octave lower (bars 70 – 73). After another chordal (campanella-like) passage, the piece closes in a very familiar way.

Such a lot going on in the narrow scope of four strings! The challenge is to first identify the voices, and then to bring them out in the playing as they move from string to string - I have coloured them in on a printout, as part of my self-tuition. The more you look the more you see.

FINGERING

For interpretation of the right hand fingering indications, see this post.

_________________________________
* FOOTNOTE

One difference between the published transcriptions (see refs above) is whether they maintain certain notes for as long as possible or insert breaks. In bars 32 – 41, as in Calmes, I have maintained a continuous upper voice (dotted minims), whilst in bars 76 – 83 I have followed Wolzein and Bliven and inserted rests in the upper voice. Unlike these authors, I am no expert, so it must be a matter of choice. To be quite honest, with a plucked instrument having little sustain it makes not a deal of difference to the listener. In any case, the choice is yours.

Le Roy: Pavane and Galliarde "De la Guerre"

A pair of pieces from Le Roy's Third book of tablature for guitar. It was usual at the time to play a piece in two versions:
a pavane, which was a rather stately dance in duple time, followed by
a galliard, a lively, gay dance in triple time, often with a skip in the middle of alternate bars (here the odd-numbered ones).

A gay military band.
From Wikipedia.

The warlike title suggests that the pieces be played in an appropriate style. Each is made up of four sections repeated. The repeats occur mid-bar, as was the space-saving style of the time.

If you have the skills it would be good to add some variation to the repeats. The most military-sounding part is in §D of the galliard, where one can hear the notes of a bugle call.

Yours to download free in the following formats:

• pdf (compendium of both pieces, with on-the-line and between-the-line tabs, and notation)
• TablEdit pavane
• TablEdit galliarde
• MIDI pavane
• MIDI galliarde

Enjoy!


Erratum in the pdf file: In the notes to the Pavane, the third sentence should read "This piece precedes Galliarde de la guerre". Sorry.

Le Roy: Fantasie Seconde

I've recently been playing a lot of pieces from Adrian Le Roy's books of Renaissance guitar tablature. Remarkable as they are in achieving so much on a 4-course instrument, they can get a bit boring: many are set in G or Gm, and the same cadences and phrases occur time after time. Here we have a piece set in F (mostly), which is not a popular key for the instrument as the root note is a whole-tone lower than the 4th string. Le Roy got round this by using the first inversion, with A on the 4th string, which may have been breaking the rules of the time, when chords were usually voiced in root position. (Mudarra solved this problem by retuning the 4th to F.)

The first page of Le Roy's tablature. The dots under certain notes indicate that they are to receive less emphasis, and to be played with the first (or possibly the second) finger, but not by the thumb.

This piece, being a fantasia, is not divided neatly into 4- or 8-bar segments, unlike an air or a dance. In fantasias the first few bars often contain a main theme, which is repeated with variations or as a canon. As far as I can see, this does not happen here.

I once read a description of Renaissance fantasias as "meandering amiably", but in this fantasia there is a fairly obvious structure. One can discern the rise and fall of overlapping voices (the style being derived from polyphonic ecclesiastical music), and the challenge is to bring them outseamlessly  in the playing.

HARMONIC ANALYSIS. As noted above, the piece is mainly in F, and whilst the chords are not fully voiced once can speculate that there is much reliance on I (of course), IV and V; IV is sometimes substituted by ii, and V by vii. The final cadence goes: I, ii, III (briefly) and ends, surprisingly, on VI (here, D major). Perhaps it’s the relative minor, but with the “tierce de Picardie” applied.

FINGERING. As you can see from the image above, the unaccented notes are marked by a dot, indicating that they are be to played with the index (or possibly middle) finger, rather than the thumb. Generally these are on the "&" when you count "1 & 2 &". To avoid cluttering, I have not indicated them in the score. Where this rule does not apply (as in bar 2 line 3 in the above image), I have indicated with an i the unaccented notes for the whole bar.

I should say that there seem to be different opinions amongst the cognoscenti as to whether the middle finger counts as a strong note digit, and whether a dot under a chord means "pluck using fingers only" or "strum up with the index finger". The 4th string seems to have been played mainly with the thumb.

SOURCE. Transcribed from the original tablature of: Premier livre de tabulature de guiterre, contenant plusieurs chansons, fantasies, pavanes, gaillardes, almandes, branles, tant simples qu’autres le tout composé. Par Adrian le Roy. Paris, 1551.
Facsimile online at: https://repository.royalholloway.ac.uk/items/36992e38-4a04-c705-affa-253d7b309c67/1/
(Permanent link: http://purl.org/rism/BI/1551/23)

Available to download freely in the following formats:

• pdf (notation + tabs between the lines)
• pdf (notation + tabs on the lines)
• TablEdit
• MIDI

Le Roy: Deux Préludes

The first bars from Adrian Le Roy's Prélude from Tiers livre de guiterre, Paris, 1552.
The index finger dot indicators can be clearly seen.
Facsimile at https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/music/research/earlymusiconline/home.aspx

Here are two pieces which are rather shorter than the fantasies I published recently, but still quite discursive. 

It is clever how Le Roy manages to fit in up to three voices with such a limited range. I have set the middle voices mostly stem-down, but a few look better stem-up; this should not affect their interpretation. 

There are some quite fast runs in the second half of the first prelude, so it might be a good idea not to start playing too rapidly. As these aren't for dancing or singing to, the player is free to change tempo at will.

FINGERING

Until recently I have ignored Le Roy’s indications of right hand fingering. Since, however, they were intended to emphasise the dynamics of the rhythm, I thought that I would have a go at including them.

The very simple system was to indicate (with a dot) only that the weaker notes were to be played by the (weaker) index finger (i). The other (unmarked) notes were stressed and played with the (stronger) thumb (P) and/or middle finger (m). 

Runs of single notes would often have been played P-i, even on the top string.

When two notes are played together, the dot under the lower note means, I think, use i-m rather than P-i or P-m. Three-note chords were generally played P-i-m, and four-note chords either P-P-i-m or P-i-m-a (or even P-i-i-m). There was therefore normally no need to show the dots.

When I tried to use the more modern “P-i-m-a” system for the RH digits it made the score very cluttered and hard to read, so I have kept to the old dot system. It is unfortunate that this is not 100% compatible with on-the-line tabs.

I have gleaned much of this information from lute tutors written by Diana Poulton and Rob MacKillop, but it should apply also to Le Roy’s guitar works as he was originally a lutenist, and would probably played guitar in a similar way.

Available for free download in the following formats: 

• pdf (between the lines)
• pdf (on the lines)
• TablEdit

("Between the lines" means that, in the tabs, the spaces between the lines on the stave represent the strings, as in the Renaissance French system, which was used also in the UK. "On the lines" means that the lines represent the strings, which is the modern system. I find that the numbers are clearer in the former system, but fully understand that they are harder to play from if you're used to the latter. Hence, I've now started posting pdfs of both formats. If you have access to TablEdit, you can format as you wish.)

Le Roy: Fantasie Première

Note on 25/9/19: Now revised yet again, and posted HERE.

This was one of my first posts, but here is an improved (I hope) version. You can download it free in the following formats:

• pdf
• TablEdit
• MIDI

Being a fantasia, this piece (unlike an air or a dance) is not divided neatly into 4- or 8-bar segments. For ease of reference I have divided the 91 bars (note the prime number) into sections A to K, according to where I see a new idea emerging. You may hear the sections differently.

The first page of the original tablature: of "Fantasie Première" in Premier livre de tablature de guiterre, ff  2 – 3.

From a facsimile at  Early Music Online

The piece consists mostly of two lines or voices (counterpoint), based mainly on overlapping scale fragments; these lines tend to start and stop at different places. There is also the occasional base note to add rhythm.

The key seems to vary at whim from G major to G minor (note the B-flats and F-naturals).

As with all music in French tabs, there can be problems in assessing whether an unoccupied space before or after a note represents a continuation of the note (sometimes ligatured across bars) or a rest. I have made a comment about this:

     (a) between bars 33 and 41 (§ E), where I have inserted a rest in the bass at the beginning of each bar; and
     (b) between bars 76 and 81 (§ J), where I have I have opted for the ligature in the top voice.

Either option could be chosen, but the rest is obviously easier to play, and on an instrument such as a ukulele which has no great sustain, there is little difference in sound. There are other occasions in the score where this confusion occurs.

It is interesting to note that bars 7 to 9 are very close to what I have described elsewhere as John Dowland's "Solus cum sola motif", which appears in a number of his works about half a century later. The only difference is that in Dowland's version the third note on the top string (a D) would not be sounded, and the previous note would be held.

I am sure that a professional musician could interpret this piece at sight, but I find it helps to sit down with the score and mark out where the voices lie. The difficulty in performance is to maintain the lines when two lines are moving from fret to fret and string to string. The image below shows my own markings on an early draft of the tabs: you may have a different opinion. Incidentally, in some sections I can detect a hint of the campanella style.

My notes on an early draft of the first page of the tablature.
The upper voice is in red, the others in blue and green. There is much scope for different interpretations throughout the piece: for example, I missed the lower voice starting on the 4th string in bar 4.