German tablature facsimile
I recently bought a few lute items from an antiquarian bookseller and one item is completely unknown to me. It is a facsimile published in 1968 of Loutnova Tabulatura, a Czech manuscript from 1613 written in German tablature (which I can't decipher). Do the German tab enthusiasts (oxymoron?!) have any further info on this manuscript? Is it significant? Is there a particular page or piece that someone would be eager to have a copy or scan of? I can bring it with me to the LSA Cleveland meeting this month if anyone attending would like to see it.
Re: Moot (off topic)
if, however, criticism of this behavior is based on an understanding that they (the coalition) should know better then i suggest you read rudyard kipling's white man's burden to experience again the pomposity and embarrassment of such a notion. Re Kipling: Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen. RT http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/Kipling.html __ Roman M. Turovsky http://polyhymnion.org/swv
Re: Moot (off Topic)
Not really. Found myself in opposition to W. way too often, especially on music RT __ Roman M. Turovsky http://polyhymnion.org/swv From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Wed, 2 Jun 2004 07:21:17 EDT To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Moot (off Topic) Are you also a Wittgestein fan, Roman? I love his stuff, one of the best writers of German there has been. Cheers Tom --
Re: Ukrainian Lutes in Germany
Has anyone been able to see/hear this? Thomas? Comments? RT __ Roman M. Turovsky http://polyhymnion.org/swv A reminder: Dear e-friends, Several Ukrainians Cobza Players and Singers (members of the Kievan Cobzar Guild) will be guests at the Lissberg (Ortenberg) Hurdy-Gurdy festival in Germany (near Frankfurt-on-Main), that will take place May 20-23. Please come, if you are in the vicinity. RT
German tablature facsimile
Dear Daniel, You have bought a facsimile of Mikulas Schmall's Lute Book. I have only ever seen one copy of this facsimile, which is the one I bought. We discussed the Schmall manuscript on this List around the 11th and 12th of June 2001. The thread was called Prague MS, and I guess the postings will be accessible via the Archives at Dartmouth College. Peter Király said, this facsimile is extremely rare. Don't regret that you bought it. The tablature looks like Chinese gone wrong - tiny characters written in a spidery hand. Yet it is really not so difficult to read. The first thing is purely psychological. You take one look at it, and say, I can't read that. It's illegible. The fact is that someone was able to read it in the past, and there is absolutely no reason why you shouldn't be able to as well. I remember looking at French lute tablature for the first time, wondering how on earth anyone could manage to read it. Now I realise how easy it is. So it is with Schmall's German lute tablature. There should be a little fold-over insert showing you the different characters, and what positions they represent on the neck. It's a bit too schmall to be of much use, so I would suggest you make up your own chart of characters, copying as best you can Schmall's handwriting. In German tablature every possible note on the fingerboard is given its own unique character. The basic lay-out of the first six courses is like this: A12345 open strings Babcde notes at 1st fret Cfghik notes at 2nd fret Dlmnop notes at 3rd fret Eqrstv notes at 4th fret Fxyz79 notes at 6th fret So the six open strings are numbered 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, A. The German system emerged at the end of the 15th century, and was designed originally for a 5-course lute, hence the apparent illogicality of the lay-out. Various ways were used to describe the notes along the 6th course; Schmall used the capital letters A, B, C, etc. His letter A sometimes looks very much like a Greek alpha. I think I'm right in saying that Schmall's lute had nine courses altogether. The 6th course was a vertical line with a horizontal stroke through it, rather like a plus sign (+). The 8th course had two horizontal strokes, and the 9th course had three strokes. The 7th course looks like a 2 with a line through it. On 28th November 2000 Joachim Luedtke explained this symbol in a thread called German tab as follows: The seventh course may be notated as a 2 with a vertical line (that may be understood as meaning lower octave course of 2, 2 being the fourth course), course eight as a vertical line with two horizontal strokes and course nine with three of them. Schmall's handwriting is a little inconsistent. For example, he has at least two ways of writing the letter g: one like a modern hand-written g with a loop at the bottom; the other more like a round thing with a squiggle on top looking rather like a modern mordent sign. (I think it might be a Greek gamma). In fact, when you come to play from this manuscript, you can make sense of most of the music simply by using your common sense. To help get you started, here is the Bergamasca on folio 13, transcribed into French tablature, but sticking to Schmall's barring for ease of reference. Remember to use a mono-spaced font like Courier to get the correct vertical alignment on the screen. It will look a total mess if you don't. On my computer I have to press Reply before I can access Courier. |\ |\ |\ |\|\|\ |\ | |\ | |\|\ | | | | | |\ _a_a___c_c_a_a___aa___a___ _c_c_|_d_d_a_a_|_c__c_c_|_d_d_a_a_|_c_c_d___|_ _d_d_|_d_d_c_c_|_d__d_d_|_d_d_c_c_|_d_d_|_ _|_a_a_c_c_|c_c_|_a_a_c_c_|_c___|_ _a_a_|_|_a__a_a_|_|_a_a_|_ _|_||_a_a_|_|_ a a |\|\ |\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\ |\|\ |\|\| |\|\|\|\|\|\| | |\ | |\| | |\| |\| |\| _c_a_c_a___a_a___a___c_a_c___e_c_e___f _d_a_|_c_c_d___|_d_|_a_|_c_||_ _d_c_a_c_|_d_d_|_d_|___|_d_||_ _a_c_|_|_a_|_c_|___||_ _|_a_a_|___|___|_a_||_ _|_|___|___|___||_ One last thought. Since the handwriting is so tiny, you may find it worth photocopying a few pages enlarged by as much as 100%. Good luck with your new acquisition. Best wishes, Stewart McCoy. - Original Message - From: Daniel Shoskes [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, June 02, 2004 11:58 AM Subject: German tablature facsimile I recently bought a few lute items from an antiquarian bookseller and one item is completely unknown to me. It is a facsimile published in 1968 of Loutnova Tabulatura, a Czech manuscript from 1613
German tablature facsimile
Dear Danierl, Stewart has already given a thorough answer to your question. Here is something I wrote before receving his message. What you have is the facsimile edition of the lute book copied by Mikulás Smala z Lebensdorf (Nickolaus Schmall of Lebensdorf), scribe for Jaroslav Borita, Baron of Martinic (1589-1649), a participant in the Defenstration of Prague. (Protestants invaded the Prague Castle in 1618 and threw Jaroslave and two companions out the Chancellery window. All three surivived the fall. Catholics claimed it was a divine miracle. The Protestants claimed they fell on a pile of horse dung.) This is really a carefully and professionally copied lute book and the ciphers are quite legible, once you become accustomed to the shapes of the letters. There is a lute fingerboard depicted on folio 37v which shows the tablature ciphers, and their shapes in relation to the frets and courses. The book was compiled for Baron Borita and the pieces are of moderate difficllty, and consist of many popular dances and songs of the time. Originally the facsimile edition came in a boxed set with a prefatory pamphlet in Czech, English, French, German and Russian by Jiri Tichota, the noted Czech lute scholar. If you are missing the preface, let me know and i'll bring my copy to Cleveland and you can Xerox it. ajn
Good, cheap, commerically available lute stand
Howdy Lute List - I recently discovered a cheap, good quality commercially available folding stand for acoustic guitar that works well for lute. It is available on Musician's Friend at http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/sid=040602130155066213218098624252/g=gui tar/search/detail/base_pid/454511/ http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/sid=040602130155066213218098624252/g=gu itar/search/detail/base_pid/454511/ Or try www.musiciansfriend.com www.musiciansfriend.com and item number 454511. The price is $15 US. The stand sits low, supports the lower bout of the instrument with two well-padded arms, and instead of a neck cradle (like most guitar stands) it uses a padded back support, which allows it to work with lutes. You might be able to see this from the low quality picture on the web site. This stand works for my 8-course Hieber lute, slightly larger baroque lute (with bass rider but no neck extension), and tourist quality oud. I would not put my small theorbo in it -- the center of gravity would be too high and it might tip over. I have no stake in the sale of this product - I just wanted to alert the lute community to a useful find. Ben Cohen Denver, Colorado PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL This electronic message transmission and any files transmitted with it, are a communication from the law firm of Shughart Thomson Kilroy, P.C. This message contains information protected by the attorney/client privilege and is confidential or otherwise the exclusive property of the intended recipient or Shughart Thomson Kilroy. This information is solely for the use of the individual or entity that is the intended recipient. If you are not the designated recipient, or the person responsible for delivering the communication to its intended recipient, please be aware that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this electronic transmission in error, please notify by telephone (816-395-0695), collect or by electronic mail ([EMAIL PROTECTED] ) and promptly destroy the original transmission. Thank you for your assistance. --
Ice cream and gentleness...
Dear musicians, I had a couple of beers with a (Finnish) lutenist, who only reads this list, doesn't write. We were talking of music - of course ;-) To whom do you play, to whom do you perform? He tended to think he plays to himself, mainly and basically only to himself. This is a very interesting question! To me to play is to send a message to the audience. To me playing to myself would be as being gentle to myself. As if I were touching gently to my left hand by my right hand... You know the difference to touch anothers hands? (BTW, I guess RT could find very rude analogies in his style?) But perhaps you could also think playing is as serving ice cream to yourself? Pleasing only yourself? To me playing music, anyhow, is always performing! To me there really is music only when there is a sender and listener. And perhaps that is why I am so lazy in practising? ;-) How do you feel, do you share gentleness to others, or do you eat your own ice cream, when you play? Arto
Re: _L_ute (on topic)
Ooops! I typed L by accident! Oh well, at least I'm back ON topic Kenneth Be
Re: Ice cream and gentleness...
I think music is contact with the inner self, with the author of the music, the period, and the listener at the same time.(Or at different times...) It's just as a writer: first you must have something inside, if you want to give it to others, as you can't give what you have not, and it's also like chatting with people, sometimes you get nothing, it's a waste of time and energy, sometimes you get a real understanding and you feel enriched.Music is not different, I wouldn't put it as eating an ice cream... Anyway I think some of us need an audience and need showing their skill - but the lute and its music are not the shortest way to come to that, so many lutenists really do like playing first of all, in my opinion. Donatella. http://web.tiscali.it/awebd - Original Message - From: Arto Wikla [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, June 02, 2004 10:25 PM Subject: Ice cream and gentleness... Dear musicians, I had a couple of beers with a (Finnish) lutenist, who only reads this list, doesn't write. We were talking of music - of course ;-) To whom do you play, to whom do you perform? He tended to think he plays to himself, mainly and basically only to himself. This is a very interesting question! To me to play is to send a message to the audience. To me playing to myself would be as being gentle to myself. As if I were touching gently to my left hand by my right hand... You know the difference to touch anothers hands? (BTW, I guess RT could find very rude analogies in his style?) But perhaps you could also think playing is as serving ice cream to yourself? Pleasing only yourself? To me playing music, anyhow, is always performing! To me there really is music only when there is a sender and listener. And perhaps that is why I am so lazy in practising? ;-) How do you feel, do you share gentleness to others, or do you eat your own ice cream, when you play? Arto __ Tiscali ADSL libera la velocita'! Attiva Senza Canone entro il 14 giugno: navighi a 1,5 euro l'ora per i primi 3 mesi,se scegli il modem e' tuo in comodato gratuito e in piu' hai gratis SuperMail per 12 mesi. Non aspettare, attivala subito! http://abbonati.tiscali.it/adsl/prodotti/640Kbps/
