Dear Andreas,
Thank you very much for your comments. I have a vague recollection that
German tablature was discussed somewhere in the Allgemeine musikalische
Zeitung early in the 19th century, but exactly when, I cannot recall. And
of course Baron mentions German
tablature, apparently the first mention for over a century. He even
reproduces the Newsidler Lautenkragen.
Thank you for reminding me about Podolski's article. I re-read it again
early this morning. I had forgotten about it. I think he may misread the
German when he sets
forth his idea of a split course. The instructions say to tune the
"Kleinsaitte die Newen dem mitl Brumer stet, der zieffer fuern, gleich als
da 4" (the octave string [Kleinsaite] next to the fifth string) to the
second course ("4"
in German tablature), not to the fourth fret of the second course. Ziffer
means a number or cipher, and a fret would be Bund or Gryff (as HN spells
it). To spell it out as Fuern (Vier?) and then as a number ("4") is just
the kind of redundancy one finds in writigs back then. Anyway, that's my
take on it. What do you think? How does he get fret out of that?
Incidentally, it seems that Newsidler might have
a special name for the first course when tuned to that fourth fret (cipher
"t"). See part 2.
Otherwise it's a rather detailed and complicated discussion of the various
Judentänze and much derives from Heckel's Judentanz of 1556. He seems to
want to apply the Heckel tuning to the Newsidler piece, and really doesn';t
address the scordatura tuning as spelled out by HN..
Did you go to Gijon? I hear it was a wonderful conference, and wish so much
that I could have attended.
Grüß, Arthur.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Andreas Schlegel" <[email protected]>
To: "A. J. Ness" <[email protected]>
Cc: "G. Crona" <[email protected]>; "Lutelist" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, July 27, 2011 1:52 AM
Subject: [LUTE] Re: (1 of 2) Judentanz (was) Re: What's the point to
'historical sound'
The oldest transcriptions from German tablature I know date from 1848 to
1852 and were probably made by Robert (de) Pearsall. He transcribed D-Bds
40588 from German tablature to old fashioned guitar notation. This
original manuscript was then in the library of the Wildegg castle 25 km
from my home.
http://www.ag.ch/wildegg/en/pub/
The transcription is here: Burgerbibliothek Bern, Ms.Hist.Helv.XLIV.135.
Later, in 1876, Anselm Schubiger wrote: System der Lauten. Aus einem
Manuscript vom Jahre 1532 [!], in: Monatshefte für Musikgeschichte 8
(1876), Nr. 1, S. 6-7. He clearly refers to the same source.
About the Judentanz tuning:
The first person who realized the splitted tuning of the 4th course was
IMHO Michel Podolski:
http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Podolski-Michel.htm
Michel Podolski: Le Juden tantz. Analyse et transcription, in: Revue Belge
de Musicologie XVII, 1963, pp. 29ff. In tablature equivalent notation,
this is ffh(e/a)h, in a-tuning:
a1
e1 e1
b1 b1
(g#1 e)
ee
aA (not used, only supposed).
Podolski reads the tuning instruction as follows: "Tune the 5th course
with its octave string to the 2nd course. Tune the 4th course to the same
note. The octave string of the 4th course has to correspondent to the 2nd
course's 4th fret." The 6th course is not used, but supposed to be at the
(second) octave from the first course. This tuning's speciality consists
of the octave string of the 4th course being tuned to another note than
the bass string.
Andreas
Am 27.07.2011 um 02:19 schrieb A. J. Ness:
With all due respect, G. Crona, practically everything you have
written here about the Judentanz is erroneous.
Don't you feel an obligation to check the accuracy of your facts before
posting to this list?
I sense a need to set the record straight, lest such misformation reach
a larger audience.
Nor should I permit the memory of one of the most eminent pioneering
scholars of the lute
and its music, Adolf Koczirz, to be maligned. What G. Crona says about
him and
Willi Apel is especially ugly because it is so farfetched.
G. Crona wrote:
Especially funny to read about the Newsidler "Judentanz" that
had
musicologists baffled in those early days because they
couldn't read the
German tablature properly (dash above cipher) and therefore
totally
misjudged the piece as an atonal <sic: recte: bitonal> piece
centuries ahead of its time.
Luckily, thanks to David Munrow <sic> who was there on
recorder, they were able
to put things straight. But they still bowed to contemporary
musicologist
knowledge and recorded a faulty atonal <sic> version as well.
Shows you never to put too much trust in your contemporary
musicologists!
He-he ;)
<<Huh? Koczirz, d. 1941: Apel, d. 1988; Morrow, d. 1994; Munrow, d.
1976>>
I fear the only person baffled around here is G. Crona. In 1911, the
first modern publication
of the Judentanz appeared in Koczirz's edition of Austrian lute music
issued as volume
37 of the monumental Denkmaeler der Tonkunst in Oesterreich (Jarhg.
XVIII).
It was but one of hundreds of transcriptions he made and published from
German and
other tablatures. A volume of lute music in the DTOe was even
assembled from his papers
and published posthumously, indicating the extent his work was revered
by his colleagues.
He was a student of Guido Adler at the University of Vienna.
The Judentanz was later published and its notation explicated by Willi
Apel in his
famous book on the notation of polyphonic music before 1600. Later
Apel printed the
Newsidler Judentanz in his widely available [Harvard] Historical
Anthology of Music (HAM),
No. 105b. Interestingly, he did not publish his own transcription, but
rather in a bow to his
distinguished predecessor, he publisher Koczirz's.
(HAM seems to be the fake book used by John Renbourn, judging by the
titles of many tracks on his CDs.<g>)
Koczirz and Apel were eminent professionals who could properly read
German tablature, and
well understood the meaning of a dash over a tablature cipher, and
other special signs.
Apel's book on the notation of polyphonic music before 1600 even
includes a chapter on
German lute tablature, with extended graphic examples showing how to
transcribe it
(including a correct explanation of the ciphers with dashes!) . G.
Crona's notion that Koczirz
and Apel couldn't read German tablature correctly is absurd. THIMK!
As a matter of fact, the Koczirz/Apel transcriptions are absolutely
correct
renditions of the piece according to the tablature and tuning
instructions
published in Hans Newsidler's 1544 book. If you examine the editions,
and compare them with the printed tablature (see below for facsimile),
you will discover that theirs were NOT FAULTY READINGS, as
Crona would have the readers of this newsgroup believe.
AS PUBLISHED IN NEWSIDLER'S 1544 TABLATURE BOOK,
THE JUDENTANZ IS A BITONAL* WORK.<Hee-hee>
Actually the dance is partially bitonal, because the cadences
are tonally stable.
So the piece dips in and out of bitonality, but is rooted in one tonal
center, D.
To be continued<<<<
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