Dear Stewart;
By the 18th century tablature rhythm signs are the same as
modern rhythm signs. For instance, facsimiles of E.G. Baron's music
list time signatures, and pieces in 3/4 time have the quarternote
(crotchet) listed as a vertical line, the eighthnote (quaver) as a
vertical line with one flag, etc. I wonder if the disappearance of
the "long" may have had something to do with the halving of the
rhythnmic values. How to notate a "long" in modern notation?
Gary Digman
----- Original Message -----
From: "Stewart McCoy"
Date: Tue, 8 Jun 2004 13:03:43 +0100
To: "Lute Net"
Subject: Tablature rhythm signs
> Dear All,
>
> While examining the Scolar Press facsimile of Campion's "My sweetest
> Lesbia" to be able to reply to Peter Nightingales' query, my mind
> turned to note values. It is perfectly clear from this song, or
> indeed any other song from this period, that the tablature rhythm
> sign
>
> |\
> |
> |
>
> means one minim (or half-note). I find it immensely frustrating that
> so many people either misunderstand or choose to ignore that
> relationship.
>
> It was fashionable some years ago to halve note values when
> transcribing lute tablature into staff notation. Diana Poulton and
> Basil Lam do so in _The Collected Lute Music of John Dowland_
> (London: Faber Music Limited, 1974). In their edition that minim
> sign is transcribed as a crotchet. I have the second edition (1978),
> which includes a few extra pieces which came to light after the
> first e dition had been published. In this newer edition the editors
> no longer adhere to their policy of halving note values. Nos 93-6
> have the correct transcription, nos 97-8 have halved note values,
> nos 99-100 are correct, and nos 101-3 have halved note values. It is
> a vertitable dog's dinner, at least as far as the rhythmic values
> are concerned.
>
> Pascale Boquet, in her _Approche du Luth Renaissance_ (n.p.: n.p.,
> 1987) goes one stage worse. She confusingly regards that same minim
> sign as a quaver (quarter note).
>
> Alain Veylit with Stringwalker and Francesco Tribioli with Fronimo
> both get the relationship wrong in their computer software. I think
> both their programmes are excellent in their different ways, and
> have proved immensely useful, yet both make the mistake of
> automatically halving note values. Stringwalker can create instant
> transcri ptions of tablature, but with the option of halved or
> quartered note values, not the correct value. Fronimo can reproduce
> lute songs, but the singer's notes have half the value of the notes
> for the lute. One is left with the dilemma: do I give the wrong note
> values to the singer or to the lute? It is confusing
> performing lute songs prepared with Fronimo, since the lutenist
> reads his tablature with one set of note values, while glancing up
> to the singer's part, which has a totally different set of note
> values.
>
> -o-O-o-
>
> To show how fashions have changed over the years, here are a few
> books where the value of tablature rhythm signs has been halved.
> Note the date of publication:
>
> Thomas Morley, _The First Book of Consort Lessons_, ed. Sydney Beck
> (New York: C. F. Peters Corporation for The New York Public Library,
> 1959) < BR>>
> _Jacobean Consort Music_, ed. Thurston Dart and William Coates,
> Musica Britannica 9 (London: Stainer and Bell Ltd for the Royal
> Musical Association, 2nd edn 1962)
>
> Anthony Holborne, _The Complete Works of Anthony Holborne_, ed.
> Masakata Kanazawa, Harvard Publications in Music 1 (Cambridge,
> Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1967)
>
> Contrast this with more recent editions, where the tablature rhythm
> signs have been transcribed with their correct value. Again note the
> date of publication:
>
> Alfonso Ferrabosco the Elder, _Opera Omnia_, Corpus Mensurabilis
> Musicae 96, vol. 9 (Neuhausen-Stuttgart: H�nssler-Verlag for the
> American Institute of Musicology, 1988)
>
> _Collected English Lutenist Partsongs: 1_, ed. David Greer, Musica
> Britannica 53 (London: Stainer and Bell for the Musica Britannica
> Trust established by the Royal Musical Association, 1987)
>
> Francis Cutting, _Collected Lute Music_, ed. Jan W. J. Burgers
> (L�beck: Tree Edition, 2002)
>
> -o-O-o-
>
> Older editions tend to have triple time treated differently from
> duple time. This results in a somewhat anomalous transcription in
> _Chansons au Luth_ ed. Lionel de la Laurencie (Paris: Heugel, 1976),
> p. 164. At the top of the page the music is in triple time, and the
> tablature rhythm signs are transcribed with halved note values. Half
> way down the page there is a change of meter to C with a slash, and
> thereafter the rhythm signs are given their correct value. It's all
> rather confusing really.
>
> I leave the final word to Thomas Robinson. On page B2v of _The
> Schoole of Musicke (London, 1603) he writes:
>
> |\
> |
> | A Minim.
>
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Stewart McCoy.
>
>
>
--
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