Lute and Organ Tablatures from the 15th to 17th Century

Scores that show two or more voice-parts on a single staff, using symbols to
indicate how to produce a sound and its duration, are called tablatures.1 Although
there are some significant keyboard sources in the fifteenth century and many for
other instruments in the eighteenth century, the tablatures were mostly used in in the
sixteenth and seventeenth century Western Europe.2
The use of letter-notation is characteristic of German organ tablatures.3 The old
German organ tablature, which applied letters to all voices except the top line (which
was notated on a staff), was used from the early fifteenth century to the middle of the
sixteenth century. The notation system varied during this period. In regard of the staffnotation part, i.e the top line, the note value was presented as __________, or
__________ with the stems invariably going upwards.4 Accidental was indicated by
downward stem or a loop attached to the note.5 As for the letter-notation part, the
letters (a, b, c, etc.) indicated the pitch names; a dash above a letter meant an octave
higher, and a capital letter, or sometimes a dash underneath a letter, suggested the note
in the lowest octave.6 The accidentals in letter-notation were indicated by a scroll, an
abbreviation of the Latin is, attached to the letter. The time value was assigned above
each letter: _____________.7 From the second half of the sixteenth century onwards,
German organ tablature employed letters for the whole texture of the music, known as
the new German organ tablature.8During this period a more unified practice in
terms of rhythmical signs was developed. The semibrevis was always indicated by a
vertical stroke, and the smaller values were represented by additional flags:
______________. 9 The primary advantage of this notation was the saving of space.10
Spanish organ tablatures used numbers to represent particular notes on the

1 Tablature, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians,

2001 ed.
2 Richard Rastall, The Notation of Western Music, New York: St.
Martins Press, 1982, p. 143
3 Apel, p. 21
4 Apel. p. 23
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid.
7 Apel, p. 26
8 Rastall, p. 143
9 Apel, p. 33
10 Rastall, p. 148

keyboard.11 Spanish theorist, Jaun Bermudo, discussed a new system of notation

which all the black and white keys from C to a (with a short lowest octave) were
numbered from 1 to 42.12 The staff he used consists of four or more lines, and each
line indicated not a pitch but a voice part; the numbers written on the line represented
the note of the corresponding voice.13 In this notation, the rhythm signs were absent
and the ties in the inner part could not be indicated. Another simpler system that
Bermudo advocated was to number only the white keys from 1 to 23; a cross above
the number indicated the black key.14 The right hand and left hand parts were
separated by a horizontal line.15 The rhythm symbols were identical to those in the
new German tablature and appeared above the right hand part; however, only the
shortest time value was written and only for the first of a group.16 In addition, special
indication of a single note value was placed next to the number: ;=1.5 minima, :=2
minima, =3 minima, ?= 4 minima.17 In the third system, the same series of numbers
(1-7) were used to indicate each octave from F to E, and different octaves were
distinguished graphically.18
The basic rule of lute tablature was to instruct the performers left hand on the
fingerboard; it had to be able to identify each intersection of fret and course, which
corresponds to a specific note.19 In the Italian lute tablature, six horizontal lines
indicating the six courses formed a staff, with the lowest string on top (this order
was used in all Italian and Spanish lute tablatures except the works of Luis de
Milan)20; on each line, numbers 0 to 9 represented the frets, with 0 being the open
course, 1 the first fret, which is a semitone higher. Higher frets (10, 11, 12) were
shown as x, x, and x.21 The metrical signs which appeared above the staff were the
same as those in new German organ tablatures. As with the Spanish organ tablature
and other lute tablatures, the notation was not capable of indicating different rhythms

11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21

Rastall, p. 149
Apel, p. 47
Apel, p. 48
Apel, p. 49
Ibid.
Rastall, p. 151
Apel, p. 49
Rastall, p. 151
New Grove Dictionary
Apel, p. 56
Apel, p. 58

occurring simultaneously in different part.22

Among all lute tablatures, the French one was the most successful. The staff of
French lute tablature consisted of five lines, with the highest course on top; notes to
be produced on the lowest (sixth) course were written beneath the staff. The eight
frets were indicated by letters from a to i.23 The rhythm signs are the usual ones (
). Later in the seventeenth century, bass-courses were introduced, and the signs for
them were placed underneath the staff, appearing as a, a, a, and a.24
The German lute tablature applied a system in which each intersection of course
and fret was indicated by a letter. The system was originally designed for lute with
five courses: starting from the bottom, the open courses were numbered from 1 to 5;
starting from the bottom again, the tones on the first fret are indicated by letters a to e,
the ones on the second fret are f to k, and so on.25 For higher frets the letters were
repeated either in double letters (aa, bb, cc) or in letters with a dash (a, b, c).26
As we observed, various notation systems were designated according to instrument
type and the way of producing sound. The lute tablatures would guide the performer
which string to pluck and which fret to press by finger notation27, presented on a
five or six staff in which each line corresponds to a course, whereas the keyboard
(usually organ) tablatures use pitch notation28 indicated by letters or numbers.
Despite of their diversity in design, the simplicity and clarity are common features of
these tablatures.29

22 Apel, p. 59
23 Apel, p. 64
24 Rastall, p. 156
25 Rastall, p. 161
26 Appel, p. 74
27 Willi Apel, The Notation of Polyphonic Music, 900-1600,
Cambridge: The Mediaeval Academy of America, 1953, p. 54
28 Ibid.
29 The New Grove Dictionary.