Colista: Passacaille dite Mariona

Johannes Vermeer: The guitar player (1672)
I couldn't find an image of Colista, or a facsimile of the original,
so here's probably the most famous painting of a baroque guitar

Here is another foray into the transcriptions, expertise and learning of James Tyler in his A guide to playing the Baroque guitar (see Resources page). The mariona of the title was a sort of raunchy, body-popping dance popular in the Spanish theatre; consequently, we are enjoined to play the piece with panache.

The graces, dynamics and accent marks are those recommended by Tyler. In particular, the hemiola rhythms (in effect, altering the beat in short passages from 3/4 to 2/4) are shown partly by accents, and partly by the relative strengths of the down strokes (strong) and the up strokes (weaker). The stokes are usually made with the backs of the finger nails, but a circled T indicates a softer down stroke with the pad of the thumb.

There are twenty 4-bar variations based on the harmonic movement I, V, vi, IV, V, I (C, G, Am, F, G, C). At first I thought that this looked like a fairly easy piece, but played at the speed recommended by Tyler I can assure you that some of the variations certainly aren't.

I must admit that I do find it difficult to enjoy even the easier parts of this piece, but it does come with the recommendation of Tyler; furthermore the composer, Colista, was highly regarded by Corelli, Sanz and Purcell – so who am I to judge? It seems to me like a series of worked examples of all the things that a Baroque guitar could do: well-spaced notes, rapid short notes, strumming, altered rhythms (hemiola), syncopation, and campanellas (which I have tried to reproduce as accurately as possible.)

My problem may be that the variations are only 4 bars long, and each whizzes past before you can get a mental grip on it. I find it helps to repeat each variation before moving on to the next. In the print copy I have made the lines 4 bars long, to make the structure more obvious.

Anyway, see what you think.

You can find the transcriptions here:

• pdf (quick preview)
• pdf (auto download)
• TablEdit
• MIDI 

James Tyler: Baroque guitar graces

In his book A guide to playing the Baroque guitar, James Tyler gives an invaluable account (pp 18 – 20) of the kind of ornaments or graces used on the guitar at the time. Graces were known in Italy as abilimenti or tremoli; in France as agréments; in Spain as habilidades or affectos.

I have made myself this useful reference table from his considered opinions.

Ornament	Common symbols *	Examples of how played †	Comments
Vibrato	# ♯	Thumb off neck, hold finger tip down and jiggle	Vibrato was not played throughout a piece as we would now, just as an ornament
Slur	︶ ︵ (joining 2 or more notes)	C h D (h E ...) E p D (p C ...)	Produces dynamic rhythm effects as 1st note louder than the rest
Arpeggio	:∕:    ⋅/⋅	Hold chord and play notes in pattern ad lib	You need to see Tyler's book
Trills	t   T   •   x   ∙/∙		(It: trillo, tremolo. Es: trino, aleado)
— main note trill (It)		C h D p C ...	Normally 3 notes (when it is the same as an upper mordent); at cadences continue the pattern; used in Italian music
— upper note trill		D p C h D p C ...	(Fr: tremblement) Normally 4 notes; at cadences continue the pattern; used in French music
Mordent	|  v  +    ‿   ##	C p B h C	(Fr: mortellement or pincé) Also lower mordent
Appoggiatura			(Es: esmorsata, apoyamento, ligadur. Fr: cheute)
— descending app.	t    x   )   , ︶   ︵	D p C
— ascending app.	︶ ︵	B h C	? play more languidly

* As you can see, symbol use is a minefield. Also, some composers used a general purpose symbol meaning "use any grace you fancy". One just has to rely on the learning of the editor.

† Explanation of the examples:

1. Assume key of C major

2. Notes written in the score are bold red (e.g. C),

3. The first note in a sequence is plucked, the rest are rapidly hammered on (h) or pulled off (p), to form a clear unit.

Gaspar Sanz: Fuga 1 por primer tono (1: 16)

Facsimile of Sanz' original engraving.
He thoughtfully preceded the tabs with a statement of the theme in musical notation.

A simple fugue wholly in the idiom of lute and vihuela music, with none of the strumming that is so typical of the Baroque guitar. I have tried to indicate the overlapping lines by stem direction; there are also some bass notes.

Presumably, “primer tono” in the title means “first mode”, which would at that time have been the Dorian mode, and hence Dm in the original, and Gm in this arrangement. I guess that fuerte means loud, and suave means smooth or soft.

It is a pleasure to play on the low-G uke, although one does have to use "unusual" fingerings to maintain the lines.

Comparing the second bar of the theme with the second bar of the fugue, one can see that on the 1st and 3rd beats, the melody is harmonised with higher notes on the 1st string.

The indefatigable “Luthval” can be heard performing the piece on baroque guitar here .

Since Sanz' guitar had re-entrant tuning, I have tried playing the original on a re-entrant ukulele, but have been unhappy to find sudden octave jumps that break up the lines. It is instructive, and great fun, to play Rob MacKillop's version of Fuga for re-entrant uke (see Resources page), which he has ingeniously adapted to the campanella style avoiding any nasty jumps.

You can find the transcriptions here:

• pdf (quick preview)
• pdf (auto download)
• TablEdit
• MIDI 

Names of notes in scientific and Helmholz notation

When I'm doing transcriptions for ukulele from tablatures for lute or guitar, I have to know how the instruments are tuned. This can be a problem for Renaissance or Baroque instruments, as the various composers assumed different tunings.

One minor irritation is that modern writers on the subject of tuning use different systems of nomenclature: the scientific and the Helmholtz (in its various versions). Wikipedia provides accounts of both systems, so I have made this concordance that would be relevant to ukulele players. I'm going to print it out and stick it on my wall for reference.

For my own use, I will keep to the scientific, as all you have to know is middle C = C4, and the rest progresses from there.

Scientific pitch notation (Wikipedia)

Helmholtz pitch notation (Wikipedia)

CONCORDANCE

Scientific:   C0   C1   C2   C3   C4   C5   C6   C7   C8   C9    

Helmholtz:    C〟  C、   C    c    c'   c"   c"'  c""  c""' C"""  

For the record, you might like to know that the standard guitar tunings are as follows in the two systems:

1 = E4 = e'

2 = B3 = b 

3 = G3 = g 

4 = D3 = d 

5 = A2 = A 

6 = E2 = E 

Valdambrini: Corrente Nona

The title page

I'm still mining James Tyler's book on Baroque guitar for pieces to play on the low-G ukulele. This one is a corrente (= courante, corrento), a lively Italian courtship dance.

There are quite a few strummed chords, so you'll be able to spank your plank with this one! There's not too much to worry about. The triplets are very fast, and played as pull-offs. (To get the tempo stuck in my head, I started playing the piece with only the first note of the triplets, and then they seemed not too bad when I came to play them.) Valdambrini didn't specify the nature of the ornaments; see notes at the end of the transcription.

You can find the transcriptions here:

• pdf (quick preview)
• pdf (auto download)
• TablEdit
• MIDI 

Carré: Sarabande

Frontespiece of Carré's book of guitar music.
Facsimile of the original available at the BNF here

This sarabande, published by Antoine Carré in 1671, is the source of the arrangement published by Gaspar Sanz in 1674 which I posted here recently. The versions are very similar, although the appearance of the originals quite different, as Carré's is in French tablature (see below), and Sanz' in Italian/Spanish format. You might want to perform them in chronological order.

Facsimile of the original, in French tablature.
The calligraphy is elegant, but the score is not easy to play from. Note lengths above the stave refer to the fingerings shown beneath, in the normal way. The strummed chords, however, are indicated by note length symbols within the stave (stem down = down-stroke and vice versa) immediately following the chord, but the only fingerings shown are for the notes stopped by the fingers, whilst un-fingered strings are not marked and implicitly assumed to be open when strummed. Quick to write but hard to play.

You can find the transcriptions here:

• pdf (quick preview)
• pdf (auto download)
• TablEdit
• MIDI 

Cromwell: Suite of English Tunes

At last, some easy pieces. I have taken them from a transcription in my new favourite book: James Tyler's (2011) A guide to playing the Baroque guitar, pub. Indiana University Press, which I shall mine for further pieces to arrange and post here.

Lady Elizabeth Southwell, neé Cromwell. Portrait by Kneller.
From Wikipedia.

The original MS was, according to Tyler, compiled ca 1684 by The Rt Hon Lady Elizabeth Cromwell (1674 – 1709), so she must have been about 10 years old at the time. It is sad to note that she died of consumption aged only 34.

It's all harmless stuff, with some strumming and lots of single-string playing, made livelier by the appogiaturas (fingering the note above the main note and quickly pulling-off.) The sections in each tune are marked with double bars, and Tyler says that as they are dance tunes each section should be repeated: it's all up to you.

As usual with transcribing from pieces for the re-entrant guitar, I have indicated where the tabs for re-entrant and low-G uke diverge.

You can find the transcriptions here:

• pdf (quick preview)
• pdf (auto download)
• TablEdit
• MIDI