Dear Monica, Many thanks indeed for your kind words. Tablature and alfabeto certainly make a lot of sense when it comes to the baroque guitar.
I think it is important to see notation as having two functions: 1) To tell the musician what he must do to reproduce the music; 2) To show what is happening in the music, i.e. what sounds are to be expected. Tablature serves the first function very well, but fails with the second. People often complain that, since tablature doesn't show pitch, it is easy to overlook the musical logic, the harmony, the counterpoint; we can't be sure how long notes last, and so on. To some extent this is, of course, true. However, I would argue that there are instances where staff notation is as unsatisfactory as tablature at explaining what is happening in the music: 1) Octave stringing. We cannot tell simply by looking at a piece of tablature whether or not a course is tuned in octaves or unisons. Staff notation could show this, but very few people bother to show octave stringing when they make transcriptions into staff notation, and with good reason. How much you hear of an upper or lower octave is open to question, but the page would be horribly cluttered, if you transcribed all the notes in octaves say for the 4th, 5th, and 6th courses of a 6-course lute. It would look a mess. Similarly, it would look a total mess on the page if you notated every note heard at every octave of a large church organ with all the stops pulled out (including those funny nazard ones). You'd never see the wood for the trees. Conclusion: tablature and staff notation both fail to show the reality of the sound with regard to doubling at the octave, which arises from the inherent nature of the instrument. 2) How long notes last. Thomas Mace took great pains to show that notes may last longer than they appear to, when notated in tablature. He transcribes a viol solo which consists of two voices to make his point. What so many people fail to understand is that tablature rhythm signs do not work like crotchets and quavers in staff notation. They do not set out to tell us how long a note should last; they tell us how long a note lasts before the next one comes in, i.e. they tell us something about the note after the rhythm sign, rather than the note underneath it. The advantage of staff notation is supposed to be that it shows exactly how long notes last, but does it? What if you have an Alberti-style accompaniment in the left hand of a piano piece, i.e. broken chords consisting of quavers? ____a__________a__________ _________a___________a__|_ ______c___________c_____|_ _c__________c___________|_ ________________________|_ ________________________|_ (It would be in staff notation for the piano, of course.) OK. You can lift your finger for each note and make quavers. Now, what happens if the music has "Ped." written underneath? The sustaining pedal will cause all those notes to ring on, whether you lift your fingers or not. They aren't quavers any more. They ring on as they would on the lute, guitar or harp. The notation no longer reflects the actual sound heard, but it is written like that, because it is helpful for the player to see the music notated in that way. Best wishes, Stewart McCoy. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Monica Hall" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Stewart McCoy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: "lutenet" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2003 6:02 PM Subject: Re: Staff Notation/Tablature > As usual Stewart has said it all and said it succinctly. I would only add a > couple of comments. > > When instrumental music began to be written or printed towards the end of > the 15th century the method of musical notation in general use for vocal > music was unsuitable for the purpose since it didn't necessarily indicate > the actual pitch at which the music was to be performed and method of > indicating time and rhythm was very complex. Other instruments, including > keyboard instruments and the violin also used tablature. By the time Campion > and Perrine expressed a view this had radically changed. Even Campion could > hardly have written all his guitar music using seven different scordature in > staff notation. > > Tablature is much simpler and easier both to hand copy and to engrave or > print - important considerations in the 16th and 17th centuries. Anyone who > has ever tried writing out or playing series of 5-part chords for the > baroque guitar in staff notation, or even in tablature, could hardly fail to > see the logic of alfabeto - a form of notation perfectly suited for its > purpose. As Stewart says - its a doddle because it is perfectly adapted to > the instrument! > > Monica
