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 Kir�ly 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:
A 1 2 3 4 5 open strings
B a b c d e notes at 1st fret
C f g h i k notes at 2nd fret
D l m n o p notes at 3rd fret
E q r s t v notes at 4th fret
F x y z 7 9 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___a____________________a___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
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.
