Mayer Brown - Bossinensis, Willaert and Verdelot Pitch and The Conventions of Transcribing Music For Lute PDF

Société Française de Musicologie
Bossinensis, Willaert and Verdelot: Pitch and the Conventions of Transcribing Music for Lute
and Voice in Italy in the Early Sixteenth Century
Author(s): Howard Mayer Brown
Source: Revue de Musicologie, T. 75, No. 1 (1989), pp. 25-46
Published by: Société Française de Musicologie
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/928967
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Howard Mayer BRO WN
Bossinensis,
Willaert and Verdelot
Pitch and the Conventions
of Transcribing Music for Lute and Voice
in Italy in the Early Sixteenth Century
In 1546, publishers in Italy, Germany and the Netherlands brought
out at least twenty books of music for the lute. Relatively few written
sources survive from before that year, however, to enlighten us about
the repertory of Renaissance lutenists and to help clarify for us the
practice of lute playing in Italy during the first half of the sixteenth
century. Only a handful of manuscripts and printed books compiled
before 1546 contain fantasias, ricercars, dances and intabulations of
vocal music for solo lute or for two lutes : chiefly the two volumes of
music composed and arranged by Francesco Spinacino ', a volume by
Joan Ambrosio Dalza 2, the Capirola lute book 3, and the earliest
volumes of music commemorating the great virtuoso Francesco da
Milano 4. There are even fewer surviving collections of songs for solo
1. A facsimile edition of both volumes with an introduction by Franqois
Lesure has been published by Minkoff (Geneva, 1978). A modern edition of the
music is available in Henry L. Schmidt, The First Printed Lute Books
Francesco Spinacino's Intabulatura de Lauto, Libro primo and Libro secondo
(Ph. D. dissertation, University of North Carolina, 1969). For a list of the
contents of both volumes, see Howard Mayer Brown, Instrumental Music
Printed Before 1600 (Cambridge, Mass., 1965), 1507' and 15072, and Brown,
Anthologies of Music Printed Between 1501 and 1550 : Their contents (=
RISM) (forthcoming), 15075 and 15076.
2. A facsimile edition has been published by Minkoff (Geneva, 1980). For a
list of the contents, see Brown, Instrumental Music, 15082, and RISM 15084.
3. A facsimile edition has been published in the series Archivum musicum :
Strumentalismo italiano, vol. 39 (Florence : Studio per edizioni scelte, 1981).
For a modern edition with extensive commentary, see Compositione di miser
Vincenzo Capirola .- Lute-Book (circa 1517), ed. Otto Gombosi (Neuilly-sur-
Seine, 1955).
4. Four volumes published before 1546 mention Francesco da Milano on
their title pages : (1) Intabolatura da leuto del divino Francesco da Milano (N. p.
n. d.), described in Brown, Instrumental Music as 154?4, and in RISM as
[1536] ', (2) Intabolatura di liuto de diversi, con la bataglia, et altre cose
bellissime, di M. Francesco da Milano (Venice : Francesco Marcolini da Forli
1536), described in Brown, Instrumental Music, as 15363, and in RISM as
26 Revue de Musicologie, 75/1 (1989)
singer and lute among Italian sources : a fragment in Bologna 5, the
manuscript in Paris that once belonged to Mme de Chambure 6, the two
1536", (3) Intavolatura de viola o vero lauto... per lo eccellente & unico musico
Francesco Milanese... Libro Primo della Fortuna (Naples : Johannes Sultzbach,
1536), not listed in Brown, Instrumental Music, but described in RISM as
153616, and (4) Intavolatura de viola o vero lauto composto per lo eccellente &
unico musico Francesco Milanese... Libro Secondo de la Fortuna (Naples :
Johannes Sultzbach, 1536), not included in Brown, Instrumental Music, and
not described in RISM because it contains only ricercari by Francesco. The last
two volumes are published in a facsimile edition by Minkoff (Geneva, 1977). A
fifth volume published before 1546, Intabolatura de leuto de diversi autori
(Milan : Giovanni Antonio Casteliono, 1536), described in Brown, Instrumen-
tal Music, as 15369, and in RISM as 153610, contains a substantial amount of
music by Francesco, but no intabulations. All of Francesco's intabulations are
available in modern edition in The Lute Music of Francesco Canova da Milano
(1497-1543), ed. Arthur J. Ness, 2 vol. in 1 (Cambridge, Mass., 1970).
5. On Bologna, University Library, MS 596, HH2, the most recent study is
David Fallows, " 15th-Century Tablatures for Plucked Instruments : A
Summary, a Revision and a Suggestion ", The Lute Society Journal, 19 (1977),
10-18.
In that article, Fallows argues that the intabulation of Binchois's << Je loe
amours ) in the Buxheim Organ Book, marked there " in cytaris vel etiam in
organis ", was intended for two lutes. His argument is unconvincing. Whereas
it is true that the word " cytaris ", like most terms for instruments in the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, had both a generic and a specific meaning,
and can occasionally be found to mean a stringed instrument in general, it
almost always seems to means " harp " wherever it describes a particular
instrument (on the possible confusion with "chitarra ", which means "git-
tern ", see note 11 below). The connection between harp music and keyboard
music, moreover, is made specific later in the sixteenth century on the title
pages of Luis Venegas de Henestrosa, Libro de cifra nueva para tecla, harpa y
vihuela (Alcala, 1557) and Antonio de Cabez6n, Obras de musica para tecla
arpa y vihuela (Madrid, 1578), described in Brown, Instrumental Music, as
15572 and 15783, collections that contain between them 267 compositions in
tablature for the keyboard, also playable, if the title page is to be believed, on
harp or vihuela. At the very least, the existence of those volumes suggests a
connection in the minds of sixteenth-century musicians between music for
keyboard and for harp, and should caution us against the sort of premature
conclusions offered by Fallows about the idiomatic differences between music
for the two instruments. Moreover, the idea that " Je loe amours" was
intended for two lutes seems to me implausible, if only because of the notation.
I know of no other examples of music intended for the same instrument but
written in two quite different ways (staff notation and letters). Two lutes would,
in any case, not require quasi-score notation, whereas a harpist, playing
polyphonic music, would require some such tablature. But even though I
remain convinced that the composition in the Buxheim Organ Book described
as suitable for harp or organ was actually intended for harp or organ, the main
thing to be learned from the example is that much fifteenth-century "instru-
mental music ", for harp or organ as well as for gittern or lute made use of a
similar texture, a fast moving upper voice and slower moving lower voices.
6. On this manuscript, now in the Bibliotheque nationale, Paris, as Res.
Howard M. Brown : Bossinensis, Willaert and Verdelot 27
volumes of frottole arranged by Franciscus Bossinensis 7, a third
anonymous collection of pieces by Tromboncino and Cara 8', and
Adrian Willaert's intabulations of the first book of madrigals by
Philippe Verdelot 9.
All these volumes are important for what they teach us about the
place of the lute in musical culture as a whole; they show us that the
central core of a lutenist's repertory in the early sixteenth century
consisted of arrangements of every genre of vocal music both sacred
and secular : chansons, frottole and madrigals as well as motets and
even Mass movements. The collections of lute songs are especially
instructive in making clear that lutenists regularly accompanied singers
and must therefore have been subject to the same musical practices ".
Vmd. MS 27, see G. Thibaut, " Un manuscrit italien pour luth des premieres
annees du xvIe siecle ", Le luth et sa musique, ed. Jean Jacquot (Paris, 1958;
2nd ed., 1978), p. 43-76; and Lewis Jones, " The Thibault Lute Manuscript :
An Introduction " The Lute : The Journal of the Lute Society, 22/2 (1982), 73-
87, and 23/1 (1983), 21-26. A facsimile edition has been published by Minkoff
(Geneva, 1981).
7. A facsimile edition of both volumes has been published by Minkoff
(Geneva, 1978 and 1983). The volumes are reprinted in a modern edition in
Benvenuto Disertori, ed., Le frottole per canto e liuto intabulata da Franciscus
Bossinensis (Milan, 1964). For a list of the contents of both volumes, see
Brown, Instrumental Music, 1509' and 1511', and RISM, 15093 and 1511"1.
8. On this incompletely preserved volume, see Francesco Luisi, Frottole di B.
Tromboncino e M. Cara "per cantar et sonar col lauto " (Rome, 1987), which
includes facsimiles and transcriptions from the volume. For a list of its
contents, see Brown, Instrumental Music, 152?', and RISM [c. 1520]7.
9. The volume was published by the firm of Scotto in 1536, and re-issued by
the same firm in 1540; for a list of the contents of the volume, see Brown,
Instrumental Music, 15368 (and 15402). A facsimile edition of the volume has
been published in the series Archivum musicum . Strumentalismo italiano, vol.
36 (Florence : Studio per edizioni scelte, 1981). A modern edition of the lute
songs has been published as Intavolatura de li Madrigali di Verdelotto de
Cantare et Sonare nel Lauto, 1536, ed. Bernard Thomas, Renaissance Music
Prints, 3 (London : London Pro Musica Editions, 1980), and the original
madrigals in Philippe Verdelot, Twenty-two Madrigals for Four Voices or
Instruments, ed. Bernard Thomas, The Italian Madrigal, 3 (London : London
Pro Musica Editions, 1980).
10. An idea not always accepted by musicologists. See, for example, the
article " Musica ficta " in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians,
12 : 807 : " There is no reason to assume that the practices followed by
instrumentalists were carried over into the vocal literature, where the tradition
of solmization and musica ficta particularly applies ". Virtually every writer on
the lute who gives details about intabulations makes use of the concepts of
modality or the hexachord system, or explicitly uses the concepts of
solmization in explaining the techniques of lute playing. See, for example,
Adrian le Roy's lute treatise, which survives only in an English translation of
1574, reprinted in a modern edition in Jean-Michel Vaccaro, ed., (Euvres
d'Adrian le Roy : Les instructions pour le luth (1574) (Paris, 1977). Le Roy
explains the technique of intabulation in connection with the modal system,
It might be argued on the basis of musical style and archival and
literary documentation that frottole were more often performed as solo
songs with the accompaniment of lute than as pieces for small
unaccompanied vocal ensembles, and that therefore the polyphonic
versions published by Petrucci are closer to being " arrangements "
than the versions for lute and voice ". But the Paris manuscript and
Willaert's intabulations of Verdelot's madrigals demonstrate that
musicians also made similar arrangements of chansons and madrigals.
Lute songs thus embraced repertories from the written tradition of
high culture as well as repertories associated with the native Italian
unwritten tradition. The Paris manuscript, the collections of frottole
and Willaert's volume are the only Italian sources before the late
sixteenth century that demonstrate unequivocally that lutenists regu-
larly accompanied singers 12. We should use them, then, not only as
collections worthy in themselves of study but also as models of how to
and whereas he explains at the beginning of the treatise (p. 5 of Vaccaro's
modern edition) that the volume is designed for those "without great
knowledge of Musicke ", he seems to mean players who have not studied
counterpoint or composition, for he explicitly says that readers of his book
should know the solmization syllables, as well as the conventions for notating
rhythm.
11. On the performance of frottole and their relationship with unwritten
traditions, the most recent study is William F. Prizer, " The Frottola and the
Unwritten Tradition ", Studi musicali, 15 (1986), 3-37. It should, however, be
pointed out that Prizer neglects the evidence for the long tradition of
performance in Italy by gittern and lute (or gittern and fiddle), a tradition that
dates at least from the early years of the fourteenth century, and he confuses
the terms " cithara " and "cythara " (usually harp in fifteenth-century sources,
but sometimes a generic name for any stringed instrument, as he writes) with
"chitarra " or " chitarrino " (which seems usually to mean gittern). On this
distinction, see Howard Mayer Brown, " St. Augustine, Lady Music, and the
Gittern in Fourteenth-Century Italy ", Musica Disciplina, 38 (1984), 25-65.
12. There is, however, a considerable body of evidence that suggests the lute
(and other plucked strings) regularly accompanied all genres of secular vocal
music in the sixteenth century. See, for example, Index III of Brown,
Instrumental Music, which cites volumes containing arrangements for solo
voice and lute of German Lieder (those by Schlick, listed as Brown 1512'), and
of chansons (those published by Attaingnant, listed as Brown 15293, and by
Phalese, listed as Brown 15531', which also contains motets for solo voice and
lute). It is true that there are more volumes of music containing " lighter "
forms arranged in this way (or as part songs with lute and/or keyboard
accompaniment), such as more-or-less simple psalms (those published by Le
Roy and Ballard in Paris, listed as Brown 15523 and 15545), airs de cour (those
published by Le Roy and Ballard, listed as Brown 15713), and napoletane and
canzonette (those listed as Brown 1570', 15705, 15714 [reprinted as 15734],
15843, 15868 [reprinted as (1590)9 and 1592"], and 15908 [reprinted as 15959]).
But see also the volumes such as those listed in Brown as 15846 (Adriansen),
15926 (Adriansen), 15937 (Terzi), and 15945 (Denss), which reveal that one or
more lutes accompanied two or more voices (or instruments) in the perfor-
mance of chansons, madrigals, and even motets.
perform apparently vocal polyphony in the early sixteenth century.
Indeed, the sixteenth-century musicians who compiled these collections
may have intended their books to have a didactic purpose. They
themselves may have wished their works to serve as examples of how
to arrange apparently vocal polyphony for solo performance. Thus,
modern performers should learn from these few volumes what
repertories to arrange for solo singers and how to do it ; they should be
encouraged to make their own similar arrangements of chansons,
frottole and madrigals 13.
The connection of lutes and lutenists with the traditions of high
culture and with the musical practices of singers and composers is of
course made explicit by the fact that Verdelot's madrigals were
intabulated by one of the most distinguished composers of the time,
Adrian Willaert, already the chapelmaster at San Marco in Venice
when the volume was first published in 1536 14. Willaert was in fact the
only major composer of the sixteenth century to publish a collection of
such arrangements, and so his volume also gives us valuable insight
into the way learned musicians of the time arranged music for
performance, and into the nature of sixteenth-century polyphony,
which in performance was not always what it seems from the sets of
part books that have come down to us.
In setting as their goal the literal replication on the lute of the notes
of the polyphonic versions, both Bossinensis and Willaert follow the
advice of most of the later sixteenth-century writers on the technique
of intabulation, and especially that of the two best and most articulate
theorists, Vincenzo Galilei and Adrian Le Roy 15. Bossinensis and
13. Alfred Einstein, The Italian Madrigal, transl. Alexander H. Krappe,
Roger H. Sessions, and Oliver Strunk, 3 vols. (Princeton, N. J., 1949), vol. 1, p.
249, suggests that Willaert did not intabulate those madrigals of Verdelot
where there was no self-contained melody in a single voice. But Einstein points
out (on p. 250) that Willaert did intabulate Quanto sia liet'il giorno, which
includes a line of dialogue between a shepherdess and three shepherds, and
Willaert has simply omitted the reply of the shepherds, which is never sung by
the cantus part. In shcrt, there seems every reason to believe that sixteenth-
century musicians arranged virtually every sort of madrigal for solo voice and
lute.
14. Bernard Thomas, in the introduction to his edition of the intabulations
(Intavolatura, p. 2), raises the question of the extent to which Willaert was
himself involved in making the intabulations, citing the dubious attributions
often found in sixteenth-century printed books. But I know of no cases where
such an attribution on a title page is to be wholly dismissed, and I therefore see
no reason to doubt that Willaert was himself responsible for arranging
Verdelot's madrigals.
15. Vincenzo Galilei, Fronimo (Venice, 1568; 2nd ed., 1584) has been
published in facsimile by Bibliotheca Musica Bononiensis, Section II, no. 22
(Bologna, 1969), and translated into English in Carol MacClintock, Vincenzo
Galilei .- Fronimo 1584 (American Institute of Musicology, 1985). Le Roy's
treatise survives only in a sixteenth-century English translation; it has been
Willaert each employed slightly different principles, though, in making
their intabulations, because of the differing character of their reperto-
ries. Bossinensis transcribed the tenor and bass parts of frottole for
lute, duplicating quite literally all the notes of the polyphonic versions,
and adding more or less elaborate ornamentation. He simply omitted
the altus parts of the four-part polyphonic versions, and asked that the
cantus parts be sung. In leaving out the altus parts, Bossinensis
reaffirms their inessential nature; his intabulations also seem to me to
confirm the idea that many frottole are best thought of as melodies
'harmonized' by the bass rather than by the tenor 16. Moreover, in
decorating the lute parts (and especially the tenors) with stereotyped
melodic formulas, Bossinensis has given us a valuable set of early
sixteenth-century ornamentation, useful to follow in performing a
particular repertory.
Willaert, on the other hand, is much more straightforward in setting
as his goal the literal intabulation of the bottom three voices of
Verdelot's madrigals, leaving only the cantus to be sung. He added no
ornaments to the melodic lines he arranged for lute; he hardly
changed a note. Nevertheless, his intabulations teach us extremely
interesting things about his priorities as an editor and about perfor-
mance practice. In the first place, it is clear that in rearranging the
madrigals for solo singer, Willaert took pains to change many of the
cadences where the lower three voices sing the final word of a line with
correct accentuation while the cantus, for the sake of the counterpoint,
sings the strong syllable on a weak note 7. Example 1 shows one of the
many passages where Willaert rewrote the cantus part to improve the
accentuation, given that the lower three melodic lines are played and
not sung in his arrangements 8".
Both Bossinensis and Willaert offer invaluable instruction in the way
sixteenth-century musicians added accidentals to their notated parts in
performance, but of course Willaert's musica ficta is for us the more
precious, just because he was such a distinguished composer, and thus
his editorial additions offer a rare glimpse into the musical thinking of
published in a modern edition in Vaccaro, Instructions. On other sixteenth-
century writers on intabulation, see Hiroyuki Minamino, Sixteenth-Century
Lute Treatises, with Emphasis on Lute Intabulation Technique (Ph. D.
dissertation, University of Chicago, 1988).
16. An idea explicitly contradicted in Pietro Aaron, Trattato della natura et
cognitione di tutti gli tuoni di canto figurato non da altrui piu scritti (Venice,
1525), reprinted in facsimile with a preface by Willem Elders (Utrecht, 1966),
chap. 2, who says that the modality of frottole (and every other sort of genre) is
controlled by the tenor.
17. A point made in Thomas, ed., Intavolatura, p. 3, who gives other
examples and other evidence that Willaert attempted to " improve " the text
placement.
18. Example I is taken from " Quanto sia liet'il giorno" : Verdelot,
Madrigals, p. 8-9, and Thomas, ed. Intavolatura, p. 8-11.
Example 1. Verdelot, << Quanto sia liet'il giorno >>, mm. 37-40,
and Willaert's intabulation
no- stri a- mo- ri.
- 2 k k- - "-,, - " " -
no- stri a- Io-
LLL stri a- ?o*
stria- Mo- ri, i no- stri a-
Solo no- strIa- mo- r
Voice
Note that the editorial accidentals in the lower three voices are those given in
the intabulation.
a great composer 19. These intabulations ought to be studied with the
greatest care, in fact, by all editors and performers for the many things
they can teach us about Willaert's policy with regard to musica ficta.
He favored double leading tones at many 26/3-1 cadences 20; in a few
19. On musica ficta in lute intabulations and what they can teach us about
the actual practice of musicians in the sixteenth century, see, for example,
Howard Mayer Brown, " Embellishment in Early Sixteenth-Century Italian
Intabulation ", Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, 100 (1973-74),
49-84; Brown, " Accidentals and Ornamentation in Sixteenth-Century Intabu-
lations of Josquin's Motets " in Josquin des Prez, ed. Edward E. Lowinsky in
collaboration with Bonnie J. Blackburn (London, Oxford University Press,
1976), 475-522; and Brown, " La Musica Ficta dans les mises en tablatures
d'Albert de Rippe et Adrian Le Roy ", in Le luth et sa musique II, ed. Jean-
Michel Vaccaro (Paris, 1984), p. 163-82.
20. For examples of double leading tones, see in Thomas, ed., Intavolatura :
no. 13 (" Madonna, il tuo bel viso "), mm. 10, 47 and 64, no. 14 (" Divini occhi
sereni "), m. 19, no. 15 (" Si liet'e grata morte "), m. 12, and so on. This point
is made in Thomas, ed., Intavolatura, p. 3, who gives as well various other
examples of Willaert's conventions regarding the addition of editorial acciden-
tals.
In describing individual sonorities I have identified the scale degree of the
lowest sounding note by an Arabic numeral and added superscript numbers to
indicate the most significant intervals above the bass.
madrigals 21, he added leading tones both before the fifth and the first
scale degrees at cadences; he added non-cadential leading tones in a
number of passages, and especially in points of imitation 22; he was
willing to juxtapose Phrygian forms of cadence (for example, those on
A approached by B flat) with Dorian forms (for example, those on A
approached by G sharp) in the same compositions (for example, those
with finals on E or A), without apparent regard for modal consisten-
cy 23; he evidently was predisposed to raise thirds from minor to major
at internal cadences, and especially where the context allowed the
following phrase to continue with the raised third 24 ; he was careful to
lower the sixth degree in many contexts in Dorian compositions 25;
and in general, he was, like most sixteenth-century lutenists, freer in his
application of unwritten accidentals than most modern editors would
dare to be.
In short, Bossinensis and Willaert teach us a number of things we
need to know before we can perform sixteenth-century music convin-
cingly. In this essay, however, I should like to concentrate on just one
aspect of their arrangements : the conventions they followed in
deciding the pitch level to choose in intabulating written polyphony for
the lute. To understand correctly what they did, and therefore to
establish at least partly prescriptive guidelines for modern lutenists and
editors, we need first to get the question correctly focussed. Lutenists
hardly need to be told that tablature is a notation that does not
indicate specific pitch levels but only where the player puts his fingers
down. The sounding pitch will vary depending on the size and
21. See Thomas, ed., Intavolatura : no. 4 (" Madonna, qual certezza "), m.
28, and no. 13 (" Madonna, il tuo bel viso "), mm. 29-30 (which is actually an
evaded cadence moving 6 3 -5- .-6).
22. See, for example, in Thomas, ed. Intavolatura : no. 1 (" Quanto sia liet'il
giorno "), mm. 2, 4, 11, 13, and so on; no. 2 (" Quand'Amor i begli occhi "),
mm. 7, 8, 12, 13 and so on; and no. 3 (" Donna leggiardr'e bella "), mm. 15
and 17.
23. On the juxtaposition of " Phrygian " and " Dorian " cadences within the
same piece in madrigals in A, see, for example, in Thomas, ed., Intavolatura,
no. 7 (" Igno soave "), mm. 7 (Phrygian cadence, with the B flat signed) and 9
(Dorian cadence), or no. 9 (" Donna, che sete tra le belle bella "), mm. 6 and
18 (Phrygian cadences) and mm. 13 and 19 (Dorian cadences).
24. For passages where Willaert has raised the third at an internal cadences
and then continued with the next chord major, see, for example, in Thomas,
ed., Intavolatura : no.'4 (" Madonna, qual certezza "), mm. 15; no. 7 (" Igno
soave "), mm. 9-10 (although the cadential raised third is signed); no. 8
(" Amor, se d'hor in hor "), m. 5, and so on. There are also, of course, passages
where he leaves the third minor, or where he raises it but then continues with a
minor third.
25. See, for example, his use of E flat in all the madrigals in G Dorian, for
example, nos. 1 (" Quanto sia liet'il giorno "), and 4 (" Madonna, qual
certezza "), and his use of B flat in madrigals in D dorian, such as nos. 2
(" Quand'Amor i begli occhi ") and 8 (" Amor, se d'hor in hor ").
Example 2. Tromboncino, <<Afflitti spirti miei >>, mm. 1-5,
intabulated by Bossinensis
La voce del sopran al terzo tasto del canto
Af- flit- ti Spir- ti Mii C16 t i con- ten- ti
Lute 'in A'
Lute 'in G'
IM
Lute 'in E'
Lute 'in D'
therefore the tuning of the lute. If the tablature, for example, tells the
player to pluck his open top string, it will sound a' on a lute " in A ",
g' on a lute " in G ", e' on a lute " in E ", and d' on a lute " in D "
In their published volumes, both Bossinensis and Willaert made
clear that they were not thinking of particular pitches when they made
their arrangements, by the way they took care to indicate the
relationship between the voice part and the lute. That is, they do not
specify the size or tuning of the lute, but instead they indicate the fret
on the lute which will produce the correct first pitch for the singer.
Thus, the rubric " La voce del sopran al terzo tasto del canto " at the
head of Tromboncino's Afflitti spirti mei, the first song in Bossinensis's
first book, means that the singer's first note, written as a c", should
correspond to the third fret on the top string of the lute (the beginning
is given as Example 2) 26. The actual pitch in performance depends on
26. Example 2 is taken from Disertori, ed., Le frottole per canto e liuto
intabulata da Franciscus Bossinensis, p. 308.
the actual pitch of the instrument; it would be a c" on a lute actually
tuned in A, a bb" on a lute in G, a g' on a lute in E, and an f' on a lute
in D. But in writing about lute intabulations of the sixteenth century
we seldom mean a lute actually tuned to a particular pitch. We should
usually take care to specify that we actually mean a lute only
nominally tuned, say, to A, that is, an instrument of whatever pitch,
which the player merely thinks of as being tuned to A d g b e' and a'.
Even after John Ward's excellent articles that make the convincing
case that the music has been moved to fit the instrument, so to speak,
some editors still persist in writing about lutes in G and A, as though
the music was notated at an immutable pitch level and the player
needed to be supplied with a number of instruments of different
sizes 27. So it needs to be repeated that we are not dealing with music
specifically conceived or performed at particular pitch levels but rather
with the different ways editors used to transcribe music from one
medium to another, that is, with the way in which particular pieces
best fit the lute, how the notes best fall under the hands of the player 28.
The proper question to ask of the lute songs arranged by Bossinensis
and Willaert, then, is not for what size of lute was each of the frottole
and Verdelot's madrigals intended, but rather why did the two
musicians choose the nominal pitch levels they did ? What makes each
intabulation better or more convenient for the lutenist than an
intabulation at some other nominal pitch level ? Of course, John Ward
and the later sixteenth-century writers on the lute - Vincenzo Galilei,
for example - are absolutely correct when they claim that any written
note can be sounded on any string or fret of any sized lute 29. Within
that absolute freedom, though, sixteenth-century musicians did follow
certain conventions, and it would be good to understand what they
were and why they were adopted if we are to come closer to
understanding the details of musical practice in the Renaissance.
27. John Ward, " Le probl6me des hauteurs dans la musique pour luth et
vihuela au xvIe siecle ", in Le luth et sa musique, ed. Jean Jacquot (Paris, 1958 ;
2nd ed., 1978), 171-78, published in an expanded version in English as
" Changing the Instrument for the Music ", Journal of the Lute Society of
America, 15 (1982), 27-39.
28. One of the lessons to be learned from the study of lute tablature, it seems
to me, is that pitches in the sixteenth century (and perhaps also earlier) were
notated in a purely conventional manner, perhaps merely to conform to
assumptions about musical space derived from the systems of hexachords or of
the church modes. On the other hand, tablatures and the explanations of their
uses suggest that music in the sixteenth century was performed at whatever
pitch level best suited a particular group of performers; pitch could be shifted
to suit the convenience of singers and players. That conclusion certainly seems
to be apply to lutenists and the singers they accompanied, and it may well be
true for other sorts of sixteenth-century musicians as well.
29. See Ward, " Changing the Instrument ", p. 32-34, and Galilei, Fronimo,
transl. MacClintock, p. 37.
The conventions adopted by Bossinensis are easier to understand
than those of Willaert if only because Bossinensis's two volumes
contain so many more pieces, 126 arrangements of frottole for solo
voice and lute, as opposed to the twenty-two madrigals arranged by
Willaert. Table I shows the notional tuning of all the pieces in
Bossinensis's two books correlated with the final on which piece
ends 30. From studying it, two things immediately become clear. First
of all, the normal nominal tuning of the lute is " in A ", not, as later in
the century, " in G " 31. That is, almost 60 % of his songs can be
transcribed at the notated pitch of the vocal version if they are
conceived to be tuned in A. Second of all, Table I makes clear the
normal relationship between notated pitch and nominal tuning.
Bossinensis usually transcribed pieces that end on D as if for a lute in
E, and pieces that end on G (with or without a flat in the key
signature) as if for a lute in A. Twenty-two of the thirty-four pieces in
D are intabulated for lute in E, and forty-four of the forty-nine pieces
in G are intabulated for lute in A.
The reason for the high correlation between the finals of the music
and the nominal tunings of the lute is not hard to understand so long
as the basic premises are kept firmly in mind. Pieces notated in D lie
too low on the lute nominally tuned in A. The final, for example,
which is usually notated as d' in the cantus would be played on the
third fret of the third course on a lute nominally tuned in A ; if the
music is transcribed as for a lute nominally tuned in E, the final d'
would fall instead on the third fret of the second course. Thus, to
intabulate a piece as if for lute in E has the effect of placing it, so to
speak, a fourth higher than it would sound if it were intabulated for a
lute in A. Bossinensis's normal scheme of transposition, if that is the
right thing to call it, has the effect of moving music that lies too low on
the instrument up to a more comfortable range. To say the same thing
in another way, pieces notated in untransposed mode 1 on D will
sound in transposed mode 1 on G on a normal lute nominally tuned in
A 32
30. Table I is drawn from the lute songs of Bossinensis as published in
Disertori, ed., Lefrottole per canto e liuto intabulata da Franciscus Bossinensis.
31. On the fact that A was conceived to be the standard tuning for lutes
early in the sixteenth century, see Minamino, "Sixteenth-Century Lute
Treatises ", who points out that it is regarded as the primary notional pitch by
Sebastian Virdung, Hans Judenkiinig, Giovanni Maria Lanfranco, the scribes
of the Bologna fragment and the earliest layer of Pesaro, Biblioteca Oliveriana,
MS 1144, and even as late as Michele Carrara in 1585. On the other hand, both
Vincenzo Capirola and Willaert are among the musicians working in the first
half of the sixteenth century who appear to have thought of the lute in G as the
standard size.
32. This statement echoes Adrian le Roy's method for explaining the
technique of intabulation. He proceeds systematically through each of the eight
modes. At the beginning of his treatises, he even sets down as a " generall
There are, however, as you can see from Table I, numerous
exceptions to that rule. They, too, can all be explained, but on
practical grounds slightly different from those I have just enumerated.
Pieces in D that do not go below low A in the bass can most
conveniently be intabulated in the standard way, for a lute nominally
tuned in A. But if Bossinensis could not follow the standard procedure
because the notated range goes too low, then he simply chose an
alternative convenient for the player. Thus, all those pieces in D that
descend to low D in the bass were intabulated for a lute nominally
tuned in D, the only solution that allowed the vocal versions to be
transferred literally to the lute, preserving the original intervallic
relationships. Bossinensis followed a similar practice in intabulating
pieces in G : he transcribed them for a lute in D when the range goes
down to low D, and for a lute in E or G when the range descends to
G 33
A strong correlation between the ranges of the frottole as notated
and the pitch level Bossinensis chose for his intabulations can be seen
to operate with only two exceptions in all his other arrangements, that
is, those with finals on E, F, A or C, as Table II makes clear 34
rule " that authentic modes should be intabulated lower on the lute than plagal
modes, because plagal modes have a lower range; he usually disregards his
own rule, however, for reasons apparently having mostly to do with the overall
range of particular pieces. For one statement of the general rule, see Vaccaro,
Instructions, p. 5-14 : "every Mastertune [music in authentic mode] hath
alwaies his retch or compasse higher by a fourth and the sequeles or servaunt
tunes [music in plagal modes], the base likewise contrary ". In principle, then,
according to Le Roy the final of music in mode 1 (d' in the cantus part) should
be played on the open second course, while the final of mode 2 (also d' in the
cantus part) should be played on the open top course. But even in his first
example, Le Roy sets aside the rule (in a sense), for he recommends
intabulating Lasso's " Quand mon mari ", in G Dorian, so that the final g' falls
on the open second course (sounding d' on a lute in G, Le Roy's normal
notional pitch). It should be noted, too, that Le Roy urges intabulators to take
care to match the notional pitch of the intabulation with the range of the vocal
composition.
33. To sum up, of the twelve pieces in D that Bossinensis did not transcribe
in E tuning, six do not descend below low A and can therefore be played
" without transposition " on a normal A lute, and four descend to D and can
therefore only be played with the correct intervallic relationships if transcribed
as if for a D lute. It may be that Benedetto Cariteo's " Amando e desiando "
(vol. II, no. 11) is transcribed (exceptionally) as if for a lute in G (the music
descends to G) because the bass lies relatively high and there was therefore no
need to bring it higher by transposition, but it is not clear to me why
Tromboncino's " Dolermi sempre voglio " (vol. II, no. 42) was transcribed as if
for lute in D, even though the music descends only to G.
34. It may be that Bossinensis transcribed Tromboncino's " Non val aqua al
mio gran foco " (vol. II, no. 25) - one of the two exceptional intabulations -
as if for lute in E, even though the music descends only to low A, simply
because the voice part in this particular piece lies so low. If it were played on
Bossinensis intabulated all the pieces that descend to Gamma ut or
below for a lute nominally tuned in D or E, and all those pieces whose
lowest note goes only to A, Bb, B or c for a lute tuned in G or A. All
the songs in E or A are intabulated for lute in E or A depending on
their ranges; all the songs in F are intabulated as if for lute in D if they
go below Gamma ut, and for lute in G or A if their notated range is
relatively high; and all the songs in C are intabulated as if for lute in D
or E if they descend to Gamma ut or below, and as if for lute in A if
their notated range permits it.
What is not clear to me, however, are the conventions governing
" stepwise transposition ". Some pieces in F, for example, are intabula-
ted for G lute and others for A, even though none goes below Bb and
all the pieces share approximately the- same range in all voices; and
some pieces in C are intabulated for D-lute and others for E, even
though they all descend to E, F or G and all share approximately the
same range in all voices. I can only explain these discrepancies as
stemming from personal preferences on the part of the editor or
because the details of particular pieces better fit one kind of notional
tuning or another. It is a problem that still needs to be studied more
closely.
Transposition schemes by step, it is true, were conventional in the
early sixteenth century, and they even have some theoretical justifica-
tion. That is, various theorists, both early and late in the century,
imply these kinds of transpositions, but without exception they explain
them in the same way that Silvestro di Ganassi and Alfonso della Viola
did for the viola da gamba ; if the music had to be solfeged in the flat
or ficta hand - that is, if the music had a key signature of one or two
flats - then it should be intabulated as though for an instrument a
step lower ". Music in C Dorian, for example, that is, in C with two
flats, would be played according to this theory on an instrument
nominally tuned a step lower - on a G lute, say, if it were normally to
be played on an A lute - and thus it would sound a step higher, on D,
as untransposed rather than twice transposed Dorian. And, indeed, the
rule makes sense for lutenists, for it is clear that the standard sixteenth-
century chord progressions for G Dorian are easier to play on a G lute
than on an A lute 36.
an A lute in its present arrangement, the voice part would be brought up a
fourth and lie in a more normal middle range, where many of these pieces lie. I
can only assume that the other exception, Bossinensis's intabulation of
Antonio Caprioli's " Quella bella e biancha mano " (vol. II, no. 43), a song in
F that descends to Gamma ut, is to be explained simply by the force of the
convention to transcribe pieces in F as if for lute in G.
35. On these conventions of transposition, see Howard Mayer Brown and
Kathleen Moretto Spencer, " How Alfonso della Viola Tuned His Viols, and
How He Transposed ", Early Music, 14 (1986), 520-33.
36. That is, chords on G minor, B flat major, C minor, D major, and so on
(the chords most frequently written in pieces in G Dorian) lie more easily under
the fingers on a G lute than on an A lute.
Transposition by step is mentioned in passing by a number of
theorists, as though it were a commonplace 37, but it is certainly not
systematically observed by Bossinensis or Willaert (or any other
intabulator of whom I know), even though they all make use of the
practice, intabulating music as if for lutes in both A and G and both E
and D 38. It might be argued that lute songs constitute the wrong
repertory in which to seek the conventions of stepwise transposition,
since the cantus part is sung and not played and hence the range of the
music actually intabulated for lute is much narrower than in arrange-
ments for solo lute. But the intabulations of vocal music for solo lute
made by Vincenzo Capirola about 1517, listed in Table III, seem to
suggest that Capirola followed principles analogous to those of
Bossinensis 39. In both, mode and range appear to be the two decisive
factors in deciding whether to pitch a piece high or low, and the
principles governing the choice of instruments a step apart appear not
to be entirely clear or logical. To judge from Table III, Capirola, when
he could, intabulated vocal pieces for lute in G, evidently for him the
normal nominal tuning. He even chose G lute in three cases where the
lowest note of his model is F, a step below the open sounding lowest
course. In no. 14, he used a scordatura tuning, asking the player to
lower his lowest string to F, and in the other two (nos. 21 and 35), and
in no. 34, which he transcribed, most exceptionally, as if lute in B, he
simply rewrote the counterpoint to take the lowest notes up an octave,
a procedure disapproved of by most of the later writers on the
technique of intabulation. For Capirola, range seems to have been of
greater significance than mode in choosing the pitch level of his
intabulations. Most of the music he intabulated does not descend
below Gamma ut, and therefore lute " in G " does in fact seem the
most logical choice. When the bass descends to D, though, Capirola,
like Bossinensis and Willaert, transcribed the music as if for a lute in
D. But there is some correlation between mode and pitch level.
Capirola transcribed pieces in E and A as if for a lute in E where the
range descends to E, F, or G, and he transcribed pieces in A (nos. 22,
32, and 34), as well as one piece in F (no. 8), for higher lutes in A (and
even B) where the notated vocal range does not descend below A. In
short, whether lutenists wrote for solo voice and lute or for solo lute
37. On this point, see Brown and Spencer, " How Alfonso della Viola tuned
His Viols", p. 531.
38. That lutenists felt some freedom to intabulate pieces at various pitches is
suggested by Tromboncino's " Vale diva mia, vale in pace ", which appears in
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale, Res. Vmd. MS 27, transcribed both as if for lute
in E and as if for lute in D. On this song, see Jones, "Thibault Lute
Manuscript ", vol. 22/2, p. 84-85. I am grateful to Kevin Mason for calling my
attention to this piece.
39. Table III was prepared from the information offered in Gombosi,
Compositione di Meser Vincenzo Capirola.
(and thus with an extended range), they applied the same principles
and chose a pitch level for their arrangements best suited to the range
of the music, and to a lesser extent to its mode. For Capirola, unlike
Bossinensis, the combination of G lute and G Dorian mode seemed the
best fit, a solution favored by most lutenists for much of the rest of the
century. But although he practiced transposition by step, Capirola
seems not to have practiced it in a mechanical way, rigidly equating
pitch level with mode.
Even though the reason for stepwise transposition thus seems not to
have been regulated by generalizable principles, the main procedures
followed by Bossinensis (and by Capirola as well) are clear : pieces at
low pitches had to be raised. Pieces in D were usually transcribed for E
lute, so that when they were performed on a normal A lute they
sounded higher, whereas pieces in G could be transcribed at notated
pitch for A lute. That central rule was modified in instances where the
range went too low to fit the standard disposition comfortably. Table
IV shows that the same conventions operate in Willaert's intabulations
of Verdelot's madrigals, although he, like Capirola, seems to have
regarded the lute " in G " as the standard size 40. In short, Willaert
transcribed all Verdelot's madrigals in D (except for those with a flat
in the key signature) for E lute, and all those in G for G or A lute. For
pieces in E, F, A and C, he chose a pitch level compatible with the
range of the vocal music. Where the bass descends below Gamma ut,
Willaert chose D or E lute (and he even chose E lute for the two pieces
in D which descend only to Gamma ut), where the bass descends to
Gamma ut, he chose G lute, and when it descends only to A, Bb or C,
he chose A lute. In short, Willaert's procedures are almost exactly like
those of Bossinensis, although they are more difficult to see simply
because there are so many fewer examples.
The way Bossinensis and Willaert moved the notated music around
in certain predetermined and conventional ways to fit well on the lute
eased the player's difficulties, helping him adapt polyphony to his
chordal instrument and enabling him to avoid awkward chromatic
notes. Their system also enabled lutenists to take part more easily in
ensembles, for the lutenists' conventions of transposition corresponded
with those of other instrumentalists. I have already written about the
fact that transposition by step and by fourth were the two standard
transpositions for the principal melodic instruments of the sixteenth
century : recorders, flutes and violas da gamba 41. And Grant O'Brien's
40. Table IV was prepared from the information offered in Thomas, ed.,
Intavolatura, and Verdelot, Twenty-two Madrigals, ed. Thomas.
41. See Howard Mayer Brown, " Notes (and Transposing Notes) on the
Viol in the Early Sixteenth Century ", Music in Medieval and Early Modern
Europe, ed. lain Fenlon (Cambridge University Press, 1981), 61-78; Brown,
" Notes (and Transposing Notes) on the Transverse Flute in the Early
recent dissertation on the Ruck`ers firm of harpsichord builders adds
unexpected support for the prevalence of this system of transposition,
for he demonstrates that Ruckers built eight sizes of harpsichord,
corresponding to the four nominal tunings 6f the lute and their octave
transpositions (as though, for example, in G, A, d, e, g', a', d", and
e") 42. In short, it seems that detailed separate studies of various
individual instruments have revealed a widespread set of conventions
for moving notated music around to fit onto instruments that was
surprisingly uniform and widespread in the sixteenth century, even
though it was never written about as such.
Consideration of pitch level and the conventions of transposition
raise, of course, difficult questions about the best way to edit lute
music in modern editions, a problem, I feel, that we have still not
solved in an ideal way 43. The problem is quite different from that
facing editors of vocal music, for the truth is that performers do not
need our editions; they play quite happily and by preference from
facsimiles of the original tablature, so the ideal of a modern edition
that is at once both practical and scholarly simply cannot guide our
actions. Instead, it is clear to me, editions that transcribe lute music
into staff notation are prepared for study purposes only, either for the
sake of the scholar who would not otherwise have access to this
repertory, or for lutenists who ought to study the relationship of the
vocal version to their instrumental arrangement in preparing their
performances. Moreover, modern editions that juxtapose tablature,
staff notation, and an edition of the vocal version, commendable as
they are, still do not completely satisfy the players' requirements
simply because they involve too many page turns to be fully practical.
Although performers today need facsimile editions, they hardly satisfy
the rest of us - and should not completely satisfy even the lutenists -
because we all need also to compare in detail the vocal versions with
the tablature.
It seems to me, then that an ideal edition of lute music will supply
the tablature either in facsimile or in a diplomatic transcription, either
as a separate booklet or an inserted part, and perhaps with those
Sixteenth Century ", Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society, 12
(1986), 5-39; and Brown and Spencer, " How Alfonso della Viola Tuned His
Viols"
42. George Grant O'Brien, Ruckers : A Harpsichord and Virginal Building
Tradition (Ph. D. dissertation, University of Edinburgh, 1983), chap. 4, p. 141-
79, and especially Table 4-9, "The Pitch Scheme of Ruckers Instruments ".
43. The best summary of current thinking about modern editions of lute
music can be found in Jean Jacquot, " Problemes et methodes d'6dition :
introduction a un nouvel examen ", in Le luth et sa musique II, ed. Jean-Michel
Vaccaro (Paris, 1984). Jacquot sets out there the principles followed in the
main in the exemplary editions issued by the Centre National de la Recherche
Scientifique in their series Corpus des luthistes frangais.
irritating parts in German tablature translated into Italian or French
tablature. That would leave room in the modern edition to prepare a
proper edition of the vocal music juxtaposed against the lute version
given in staff notation. Since such an edition would clearly be
understood as a study score for scholarly purposes only, it seems to me
to follow logically that the staff transcription should be made at the
pitch of the vocal version in order to facilitate comparison between the
two 44. Such editions would not be useful in performance, of course,
since lutenists will still continue to perform from corrected facsimiles,
and, after all, they can in principle play any piece at any pitch. The
lutenist, in short, needs the transcription into staff notation in order to
prepare his performance by comparing the original vocal composition
with the instrumental arrangement, and the scholar needs it for study
purposes only, to give him access to a repertory of music that reveals
more than any other exactly how sixteenth-century music in perfor-
mance.
SUMMARY
Surprisingly few collections of sixteenth-century lute music unequivocally
demonstrate that lutenists regularly accompanied singers, notably the frottole
arranged by Franciscus Bossinensis and Verdelot's madrigals intabulated by
Willaert. Both collections reveal that lutenists felt free to transpose the notated
pitch of the music so that it fit more comfortably onto their instrument,
ignoring absolute standards of pitch. Whereas there is a correlation between
the mode of the music and the nominal pitch of the intabulation, range also
played a decisive part in influencing a lutenist's decision about transposition.
The actual pitch sounded in performance would, of course, depend on the size
of the lute. This attitude towards transposition seems to be have been
widespread in the sixteenth century. Separate studies of various instruments
have revealed that the standard transpositions were by step and by fourth. This
should encourage modern performers not to feel compelled to respect
scrupulously the notated pitch of the music they perform.
44. Most modern editions - such as those in the Corpus des luthistes
franCais and Gombosi, Compositione di Meser Vincenzo Capirola - transpose
the vocal model, offering the intabulation transcribed as if for lute in G.
TABLE I
The Arrangements by Franciscus Bossinensis of Frottole for Voice and Lute
Listed by Nominal Tuning
(the lowest sounding note is indicated in parentheses)
Number of Pieces
Lute " in D" (total : 13)
Final on D : vol. I, no. 16 (D); vol. II, nos. 6
(D), 9 (D), 12 (D), and 42 (G) 5
Final on F (signature of one flat) : vol. I, no. 39 (F) 1
Final on F (no signature) : vol. II, no. 22 (F) 1
Final on G (signature of one flat) : vol. II,
no. 32 (D) I
Final on C : vol. 1, nos. 10 (F), 19 (G), 27 (F),
62 (F), and 64 (F) 5
Lute "in E " (total : 33)
Final on D (no key signature) : vol. I, nos 5 (G),
11 (F), 18 (G), 28 (G), 34 (G),
42 (F), 43 (G), and 59 (F);
vol. II, nos. 7 (G), 14 (G), 16
(G), 17 (A), 24 (G), 26 (A), 36
(G), 37 (F), 44 (G), 51 (G), 52
(G), and 53 (G) 20
Final on D (signature of one flat) : vol. I, nos. 22
(F) and 56 (G) 2
Final on E : vol. II, nos. 25 (A) and 28 (E) 2
Final on G : vol. I, no. 40 (G) 1
Final on A : vol. I, nos. 25 (G), 26 (G), and
50 (G); vol. II, no. 45 (F) 4
Final on C : vol. I, nos. 13 (E), 14 (F), and 60
(F) vol. II, no. 31 (G) 4
Lute " in G " (total: 8)
Final on D : vol. II, no. 11 (G) 1
Final on F (signature of one flat) : vol. I, no. 9
(Bb); Vol. II. nos. 29 (Bb), 38
(Bb), and 43 (G) 4
Final on G (no signature) : vol. I, no. 20 (G) 1
Final on G (signature of one flat) : vol. II, nos. 55
(G), and 56 (G) 2
Lute "in A " (total : 72)
Final on D (no signature) : vol. I, nos. 21 (Bb),
29 (c), 38 (A), 46 (A), and 65 (c) 5
Final on D (signature of one flat) : vol. I, no. 23 (c) 1
Final on E : vol. II, no. 13 (A) 1
Final on F (signature of one flat) : vol. I, nos. 44
(Bb), and 54 (Bb) 2
Final on G (no signature) : vol. I, nos. 1 (c), 2 (c),
3 (c), 6 (c), 7 (c), 8 (c), 12 (c), 24
(c), 31 (c), 36 (c), 37 (c), 41 (Bb),
45 (c), 47 (c), 48 (c), 49 (c), 51
(c), 52 (c), 53 (c), 55 (c), 58 (c),
67 (c), 68 (B), and 70 (c) ; vol. II,
nos. 4 (c), 15 (c), 23 (c), 27 (d),
34 (c), 39 (c), and 54 (Bb) 31
Final on G (signature of one flat) : vol. I, 4 (c), 30
(A), 57 (c), and 61 (c); vol. II,
nos. I (d), 3 (c), 8 (Bb), 18 (Bb),
19 (A), 40 (c), and 48 (c) 11
Final on A : vol. I, nos. 15 (A), 17 (A), 33 (A), 35
(A), 66 (A), and 69 (A); vol. II,
nos. 2 (A), 5 (A), 10 (A), 20 (A),
30 (A), 33 (A), 35 (A), and 50
(A) 14
Final on C : vol. I, nos. 32 (c), and 63 (Bb); vol.
II, nos. 21 (B), 41 (A), 46 (c),
47 (c), and 49 (Bb) 7
TABLE II
Pieces on E, F, A, and C in Bossinensis
(an asterisk signals an exceptional procedure)
A. Arranged by Lowest Note
Lute Lute Lute
Tuning Tuning Tuning
Lowest Note : E I, 26 E II, 30 A
Final on E I, 50 E II, 35 A
II, 28 E II, 14 E II, 50 A
Final on C Final on C
I, 13 E I, 19 D Lowest Note : Bb
Lowest Note : F II, 31 E Final on F
Final on F Final on C I, 9 G
I, 39 D II, 41 A I, 44 A
I, 54 A
II, 22 D Lowest Note A II, 29 G
Final on A Final on E II, 38 G
II, 45 E II, 13 A Final on C
Final on C *II, 25 E I, 63 A
I, 10 D II, 49 A
I, 14 E Final on A
1,27 D 1,15 A Lowest Note : B

I, 60 E I, 17 A
I, 62 D I, 33 A Final on C
I, 64 D I, 35 A II, 21 A
Lowest Note : G I, 66 A
I, 69 A Lowest Note : C
Final on F II, 2 A Final on C
*II, 43 G II, 5 A I, 32 A
Final on A II, 10 A II, 46 A
I, 25 E II, 20 A II, 47 A
B. Arranged by Final (lowest note in parentheses; asterisk signals exceptional
procedure)
Final on E
Lute in E : II, *25 (A) and 28 (E)
Lute in A : II, 13 (A)
Final on F
Lute in D : I, 39 (F); II, 22 (F)
Lute in G : I, 9 (Bb); II, 29 (Bb), 38 (Bb), and *43 (G)
Lute in A : I, 44 (Bb), and 54 (Bb)
Final on A
Lute in E : I, 25 (G), 26 (G), and 50 (G); II, 14 (G) and 45 (F)
Lute in A : I, 15 (A), 17 (A), 33 (A), 35 (A). 66 (A), and 69 (A); II,
2 (A), 5 (A), 10 (A), 20 (A), 30 (A), 33 (A), 35 (A), and 50 (A)
Final on C
Lute in D : I, 10 (F), 19 (G), 27 (F), 62 (F), and 64 (F)
Lute in E : I, 13 (E), 14 (F), and 60 (F); II, 31 (G)
Lute in A : I, 32 (c), and 63 (Bb); II, 21 (B), 41 (A), 46 (c), 47 (c),
and 49 (Bb)
TABLE III
Intabulations by Vincenzo Capirola
of Vocal Compositions for Solo Lute
A. Listed by Order of Appearance in the Volume
1. Anon., La Villanella
no model known
3. Alexander Agricola, << Oublier vueil tristesse >. Agricola, Opera Omnia, ed.
Edward R. Lerner, vol. 5 (American Institute of Musicology, 1970), no. 41
b G G-d" lute in G
5a. Cara, << O mia cieca e dura sorte . Disertori, ed. Le frottole per canto e
liuto intabulate da Franciscus Bossinensis, p. 352-53 (I, no. 26)
no b A G-a' lute in E
5b. Michele Vicentino, << Che farala, che dirala >. Canzoni Sonetti Strambotti
et Frottole, Libro Tertio (Andrea Antico, 1517), ed. Alfred Einstein
(Northampton, Mass., 1941), no. 27, p. 52-53
no b A F-a' lute in E
8. <<Sit nomen Domini >> (Prioris, <<Dulcis amica dei >>). William M. McMurtry,
The British Museum Manuscript Additional 35087 (Ph. D. dissertation, North
Texas State University, 1967), p. 306-7
b F BbC 1 lute in A
10. Bartolomeo Tromboncino, << Stavasi Amor dormendo >>. Francesco Luisi,
II Secondo Libro di Frottole di Andrea Antico, 2 vols. (Rome, 1975), vol. 2,
no. 8, p. 30-31
no b D F-a' lute in E
11. Bartolomeo Tromboncino, <<Voi che passate qui >>. Disertori, ed., Le
frottole per canto e liuto intabulate da Franciscus Bossinensis, p. 324-25 (I, no.
10), as by Francesco Varoter
no b C F-a' lute in E
13. Hayne van Ghizeghem, o De tous biens plaine >>. Harmonice Musices
Odhecaton A, ed. Helen Hewitt (Cambridge, Mass., 1942), no. 20
b G G-c" lute in G
14. Antoine de F6vin, << Sancta Trinitas >>. Das Liederbuch des Johannes Heer
von Glarus, ed. Arnold Geering and Hans Triimpy (Basel, 1967), no. 62, p.
101-3
b F F-d" lute in G (with lowest string tuned to F)
15. Anon., (<Canto bello >>
no model known
20. Jacob Obrecht, Christe from Missa Si dedero. Obrecht, Werken, ed.
Johannes Wolf, vol. 3 (repr, ed., Farnborough, 1968), p. 4-7
no b G G-d" lute in G
21. Hayne van Ghizeghem, <<Allez regrets >>. Odhecaton, no. 57
b F F-c" lute in G
22. Anthoine Brumel, Agnus III from Missa Ut re mifa sol la. Brumel, Opera
Omnia, ed. Barton Hudson, vol. 1 (American Institute of Musicology, 1969),
p. 63-64
no b G c-e" lute in A
30. Anon., Non ti spiaqua l'ascoltar>>
no model known
31. Anon., ? Gentil prince >>. Odhecaton, no. 90
b G G-bb, lute in G
32. Anon., <<Nunqua fue pena maior >>. Odhecaton, no. 4
no b E B-e" lute in A
33. Josquin des Prez, < Et resurrexit >> from Missa L'homme arme sexti toni.
Josquin, Werken, ed. Albert Smijers, Missa V (Amsterdam, 1931), p. 118-21
b A D-g' lute in D
34. Johannes Ghiselin, << O florens rosa >>. George Warren Drake, The First
Printed Books of Motets (Ph. D. dissertation, University of Illinois, 1972),
Motetti A, no. 15
no b A A-g" lute in B [sic]
35. Alexander Agricola, ? Si dedero >>. Odhecaton, no. 56
no b G F-d" lute in G
36. Anthoine Brumel, ? Benedictus >> from Missa Ut re mi fa sol la. Brumel,
Opera omnia, ed. Hudson, vol. 1, p. 59-60
b G G-d" lute in G
38. Josquin des Prez, ? Et in terra>> from Missa Pange lingua. Josquin,
Werken, ed. Smijers. Missa XVIII (Amsterdam, 1952), p. 4-6
no b E G-e" lute in G
39. Josquin des Prez, < Qui tollis >> from Missa Pange lingua. Josquin, Werken,
ed. Smijers, Missa XVIII, p. 6-8
no b E G-d" lute in G
42. Nicolas Craen, ? Tota pulchra es >>. Motetti C (Venice : Ottaviano Petrucci,
1504), no. 5
no b E E-c" lute in E
B. Listed by nominal tuning (the lowest sounding note is indicated in
parentheses; those pieces where the lowest note of the vocal model goes
beneath the bottom open string of the lute are marked with an asterisk)
Lute " in D " (total number: 1)
no. 33 in A with flat (D)
Lute " in E" (total number : 5)
nos. 5a in A (G); 5b in A (F); 10 in D (F); 11 in C (F); and 42 in E (E)
Lute "in G " (total number : 10)
nos. 3 in G with flat (G) ; 13 in G with flat (G); *14 in F with flat (F) ; 20 in
G (G); *21 in G with flat (F); 31 in G with flat (G); *35 in G (F); 36 in
G (G); 38 in E (G); and 39 in E (G)
Lute " in A " (total number : 3)
nos. 8 in F with flat (Bb); 22 in A (c); and 32 in A (B)
Lute "in B " (total number : 1)
no. *34 in A (A)
TABLE IV
Verdelot's Madrigals Intabulated by Adrian Willaert
Arranged by Nominal Tuning
No. in Final with Overall range
Willaert Key signature
Lute " in D" (total number : 1)
15 D (with b) F-a'
Lute " in E" (total number 9)
2 D G-c"
3 C F-a'
8 D F-a'
11 D F-c"
14 D G-c"
17 E F-d"
18 D F-a'
19 D F-c"
20 A F-d"
Lute "in G" (total number: 7)
4 G (with b) G-d"
7 A G-c"
9 E G-c"
10 E G-d"
12 D (with b) G-e'
21 G (with b) G-c"
22 G (with b) G-c"
Lute "in A" (total number : 5)
1 G (with b) Bb-d"
5 F (with b) Bb-d"
6 F (with b) BbC"r
13 G c-e"
16 A A-d"

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Willaert and Verdelot

Pitch and the Conventions

of Transcribing Music for Lute and Voice

in Italy in the Early Sixteenth Century

In 1546, publishers in Italy, Germany and the Netherlands brought

sources survive from before that year, however, to enlighten us about

the repertory of Renaissance lutenists and to help clarify for us the

century. Only a handful of manuscripts and printed books compiled

before 1546 contain fantasias, ricercars, dances and intabulations of

music composed and arranged by Francesco Spinacino ', a volume by

volumes of music commemorating the great virtuoso Francesco da

1. A facsimile edition of both volumes with an introduction by Franqois

music is available in Henry L. Schmidt, The First Printed Lute Books

Francesco Spinacino's Intabulatura de Lauto, Libro primo and Libro secondo

(Ph. D. dissertation, University of North Carolina, 1969). For a list of the

contents of both volumes, see Howard Mayer Brown, Instrumental Music

Anthologies of Music Printed Between 1501 and 1550 : Their contents (=

RISM) (forthcoming), 15075 and 15076.

2. A facsimile edition has been published by Minkoff (Geneva, 1980). For a

3. A facsimile edition has been published in the series Archivum musicum :

Strumentalismo italiano, vol. 39 (Florence : Studio per edizioni scelte, 1981).

For a modern edition with extensive commentary, see Compositione di miser

Vincenzo Capirola .- Lute-Book (circa 1517), ed. Otto Gombosi (Neuilly-sur-

4. Four volumes published before 1546 mention Francesco da Milano on

n. d.), described in Brown, Instrumental Music as 154?4, and in RISM as

bellissime, di M. Francesco da Milano (Venice : Francesco Marcolini da Forli

1536), described in Brown, Instrumental Music, as 15363, and in RISM as

singer and lute among Italian sources : a fragment in Bologna 5, the

manuscript in Paris that once belonged to Mme de Chambure 6, the two

Francesco Milanese... Libro Primo della Fortuna (Naples : Johannes Sultzbach,

1536), not listed in Brown, Instrumental Music, but described in RISM as

unico musico Francesco Milanese... Libro Secondo de la Fortuna (Naples :

Johannes Sultzbach, 1536), not included in Brown, Instrumental Music, and

two volumes are published in a facsimile edition by Minkoff (Geneva, 1977). A

fifth volume published before 1546, Intabolatura de leuto de diversi autori

(Milan : Giovanni Antonio Casteliono, 1536), described in Brown, Instrumen-

tal Music, as 15369, and in RISM as 153610, contains a substantial amount of

music by Francesco, but no intabulations. All of Francesco's intabulations are

available in modern edition in The Lute Music of Francesco Canova da Milano

(1497-1543), ed. Arthur J. Ness, 2 vol. in 1 (Cambridge, Mass., 1970).

5. On Bologna, University Library, MS 596, HH2, the most recent study is

David Fallows, " 15th-Century Tablatures for Plucked Instruments : A

and can occasionally be found to mean a stringed instrument in general, it

arpa y vihuela (Madrid, 1578), described in Brown, Instrumental Music, as

connection in the minds of sixteenth-century musicians between music for

conclusions offered by Fallows about the idiomatic differences between music

in any case, not require quasi-score notation, whereas a harpist, playing

thing to be learned from the example is that much fifteenth-century "instru-

6. On this manuscript, now in the Bibliotheque nationale, Paris, as Res.

volumes of frottole arranged by Franciscus Bossinensis 7, a third

anonymous collection of pieces by Tromboncino and Cara 8', and

Adrian Willaert's intabulations of the first book of madrigals by

central core of a lutenist's repertory in the early sixteenth century

consisted of arrangements of every genre of vocal music both sacred

and secular : chansons, frottole and madrigals as well as motets and

even Mass movements. The collections of lute songs are especially

instructive in making clear that lutenists regularly accompanied singers

7. A facsimile edition of both volumes has been published by Minkoff

Benvenuto Disertori, ed., Le frottole per canto e liuto intabulata da Franciscus

8. On this incompletely preserved volume, see Francesco Luisi, Frottole di B.

been published in the series Archivum musicum . Strumentalismo italiano, vol.