Thanks Hector for such a clear and thorough presentation of the subject ! No surprise from a lefty like you ;-)
All the best, Jean-Marie -------------- >A few points about intabulations of sacred music in England. > >1) Availability of English music was an issue since England started printing >music in the late 1560s (there are very few exceptions to this). And even this >was rather minimal (e.g. Thomas Whythourne’s Songs in three, fower and five >parts did not come but until 1571, Byrd’s first print came in 1575). >Meantime the Continent was going full swing with printers such as Attaignant, >Gardano, Scotto, etc churning books non stop (with errors, misattributions and >all). Furthermore, the fashion for printing vihuela music in Spain was over by >1576; somebody may be able to share what happened after that. > >2) The majority of the music intabulated is for 3 or 4 voices in a narrow >range (no more than two octaves plus a sixth). Conversely, William Byrd liked >what he called the Great Compass, an arrangement of clefs with G2 on top and >F4 at the bottom (unusual for the time), which allowed for a range of three >octaves and a bit. The narrower Continental range, also called ’normal >clefs’ or ‘low clefs’ etc, can be intabulated on a 6-course up to the >8th or 9th fret (6th or 7th fret on a 7-course)… a very convenient part of >the instrument. > >3) Another important consideration is that many continental composers used the >lute as their compositional tool (we have clear documentation on Palestrina >and Lasso, for instance). I happen to believe that Tallis did use the lute but >have not had the time to delve with this in any detail. Conversely, it is very >obvious that Byrd composed on the keyboard. > >4) Despite all of this, we have about 500 surviving intabulations of music by >English and Continental composers in the collection of Edward Paston >(1550-1630); from Fayrfax and Josquin all the way to Victoria and Byrd. They >all lack the top part but are a good example of the Spanish tradition >transplanted to England for domestic use. > >Best wishes, > >Hector > > > >> On 19 Mar 2015, at 04:33, Edward C. Yong <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> Hello folks! >> >> I’ve been going through intabulations of sacred polyphony for lute, and >> after an admittedly brief search, I noticed something curious. >> >> The Continentals, particularly the Spanish, seem very interested in >> intabulations of sacred polyphony, but I haven’t found any examples of >> English/British either doing the intabulations or being intabulated. >> >> I’ve been looking at the Fuenllana, Narvaez etc, and I find Josquin, >> Morales, Gombert, but no Tallis or Byrd. Was English/British music entirely >> unpopular on the Continent? >> >> Curious, >> >> Edward C. Yong >> [email protected] >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> To get on or off this list see list information at >> http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > > >--
