Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Mayer Brown - Bossinensis, Willaert and Verdelot Pitch and The Conventions of Transcribing Music For Lute PDF
Mayer Brown - Bossinensis, Willaert and Verdelot Pitch and The Conventions of Transcribing Music For Lute PDF
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
Accessed: 02-03-2016 14:20 UTC
REFERENCES
Linked references are available on JSTOR for this article:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/928967?seq=1&cid=pdf-reference#references_tab_contents
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/
info/about/policies/terms.jsp
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content
in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.
For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Société Française de Musicologie is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Revue de Musicologie.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 202.28.191.34 on Wed, 02 Mar 2016 14:20:51 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Howard Mayer BRO WN
Bossinensis,
out at least twenty books of music for the lute. Relatively few written
practice of lute playing in Italy during the first half of the sixteenth
vocal music for solo lute or for two lutes : chiefly the two volumes of
Joan Ambrosio Dalza 2, the Capirola lute book 3, and the earliest
Milano 4. There are even fewer surviving collections of songs for solo
Lesure has been published by Minkoff (Geneva, 1978). A modern edition of the
Printed Before 1600 (Cambridge, Mass., 1965), 1507' and 15072, and Brown,
list of the contents, see Brown, Instrumental Music, 15082, and RISM 15084.
Seine, 1955).
their title pages : (1) Intabolatura da leuto del divino Francesco da Milano (N. p.
[1536] ', (2) Intabolatura di liuto de diversi, con la bataglia, et altre cose
This content downloaded from 202.28.191.34 on Wed, 02 Mar 2016 14:20:51 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
26 Revue de Musicologie, 75/1 (1989)
1536", (3) Intavolatura de viola o vero lauto... per lo eccellente & unico musico
153616, and (4) Intavolatura de viola o vero lauto composto per lo eccellente &
not described in RISM because it contains only ricercari by Francesco. The last
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,
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
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
keyboard and for harp, and should caution us against the sort of premature
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,
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
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.
This content downloaded from 202.28.191.34 on Wed, 02 Mar 2016 14:20:51 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Howard M. Brown : Bossinensis, Willaert and Verdelot 27
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
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).
(Geneva, 1978 and 1983). The volumes are reprinted in a modern edition in
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.
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
36 (Florence : Studio per edizioni scelte, 1981). A modern edition of the lute
Cantare et Sonare nel Lauto, 1536, ed. Bernard Thomas, Renaissance Music
Prints, 3 (London : London Pro Musica Editions, 1980), and the original
10. An idea not always accepted by musicologists. See, for example, the
article " Musica ficta " in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians,
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
d'Adrian le Roy : Les instructions pour le luth (1574) (Paris, 1977). Le Roy
This content downloaded from 202.28.191.34 on Wed, 02 Mar 2016 14:20:51 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
28 Revue de Musicologie, 75/1 (1989)
than the versions for lute and voice ". But the Paris manuscript and
and Willaert's volume are the only Italian sources before the late
larly accompanied singers 12. We should use them, then, not only as
modern edition) that the volume is designed for those "without great
knowledge of Musicke ", he seems to mean players who have not studied
should know the solmization syllables, as well as the conventions for notating
rhythm.
traditions, the most recent study is William F. Prizer, " The Frottola and the
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
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,
voice and lute of German Lieder (those by Schlick, listed as Brown 1512'), and
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
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
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-
This content downloaded from 202.28.191.34 on Wed, 02 Mar 2016 14:20:51 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Howard M. Brown : Bossinensis, Willaert and Verdelot 29
when the volume was first published in 1536 14. Willaert was in fact the
into the way learned musicians of the time arranged music for
which in performance was not always what it seems from the sets of
In setting as their goal the literal replication on the lute of the notes
of intabulation, and especially that of the two best and most articulate
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
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.
(Intavolatura, p. 2), raises the question of the extent to which Willaert was
Verdelot's madrigals.
15. Vincenzo Galilei, Fronimo (Venice, 1568; 2nd ed., 1584) has been
This content downloaded from 202.28.191.34 on Wed, 02 Mar 2016 14:20:51 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
30 Revue de Musicologie, 75/1 (1989)
ries. Bossinensis transcribed the tenor and bass parts of frottole for
lute, duplicating quite literally all the notes of the polyphonic versions,
the altus parts of the four-part polyphonic versions, and asked that the
confirm the idea that many frottole are best thought of as melodies
decorating the lute parts (and especially the tenors) with stereotyped
particular repertory.
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
his editorial additions offer a rare glimpse into the musical thinking of
cognitione di tutti gli tuoni di canto figurato non da altrui piu scritti (Venice,
chap. 2, who says that the modality of frottole (and every other sort of genre) is
examples and other evidence that Willaert attempted to " improve " the text
placement.
18. Example I is taken from " Quanto sia liet'il giorno" : Verdelot,
This content downloaded from 202.28.191.34 on Wed, 02 Mar 2016 14:20:51 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Howard M. Brown : Bossinensis, Willaert and Verdelot 31
Example 1. Verdelot, << Quanto sia liet'il giorno >>, mm. 37-40,
Voice
Note that the editorial accidentals in the lower three voices are those given in
the intabulation.
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.
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,
lations of Josquin's Motets " in Josquin des Prez, ed. Edward E. Lowinsky in
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-
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
tals.
This content downloaded from 202.28.191.34 on Wed, 02 Mar 2016 14:20:51 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
32 Revue de Musicologie, 75/1 (1989)
madrigals 21, he added leading tones both before the fifth and the first
dare to be.
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
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
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
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 ").
This content downloaded from 202.28.191.34 on Wed, 02 Mar 2016 14:20:51 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Howard M. Brown : Bossinensis, Willaert and Verdelot 33
intabulated by Bossinensis
IM
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 "
clear that they were not thinking of particular pitches when they made
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
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
26. Example 2 is taken from Disertori, ed., Le frottole per canto e liuto
This content downloaded from 202.28.191.34 on Wed, 02 Mar 2016 14:20:51 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
34 Revue de Musicologie, 75/1 (1989)
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,
the music was notated at an immutable pitch level and the player
sizes 27. So it needs to be repeated that we are not dealing with music
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.
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
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
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 ;
" Changing the Instrument for the Music ", Journal of the Lute Society of
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
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
29. See Ward, " Changing the Instrument ", p. 32-34, and Galilei, Fronimo,
This content downloaded from 202.28.191.34 on Wed, 02 Mar 2016 14:20:51 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Howard M. Brown : Bossinensis, Willaert and Verdelot 35
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
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,
would fall instead on the third fret of the second course. Thus, to
right thing to call it, has the effect of moving music that lies too low on
A 32
31. On the fact that A was conceived to be the standard tuning for lutes
Treatises ", who points out that it is regarded as the primary notional pitch by
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
modes. At the beginning of his treatises, he even sets down as a " generall
This content downloaded from 202.28.191.34 on Wed, 02 Mar 2016 14:20:51 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
36 Revue de Musicologie, 75/1 (1989)
because the notated range goes too low, then he simply chose an
alternative convenient for the player. Thus, all those pieces in D that
G 33
and the pitch level Bossinensis chose for his intabulations can be seen
to operate with only two exceptions in all his other arrangements, that
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,
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
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
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
Tromboncino's " Dolermi sempre voglio " (vol. II, no. 42) was transcribed as if
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
This content downloaded from 202.28.191.34 on Wed, 02 Mar 2016 14:20:51 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Howard M. Brown : Bossinensis, Willaert and Verdelot 37
below for a lute nominally tuned in D or E, and all those pieces whose
their ranges; all the songs in F are intabulated as if for lute in D if they
relatively high; and all the songs in C are intabulated as if for lute in D
" 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
because the details of particular pieces better fit one kind of notional
closely.
early sixteenth century, and they even have some theoretical justifica-
tion. That is, various theorists, both early and late in the century,
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
step lower ". Music in C Dorian, for example, that is, in C with two
rule makes sense for lutenists, for it is clear that the standard sixteenth-
fourth and lie in a more normal middle range, where many of these pieces lie. I
Antonio Caprioli's " Quella bella e biancha mano " (vol. II, no. 43), a song in
Kathleen Moretto Spencer, " How Alfonso della Viola Tuned His Viols, and
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
This content downloaded from 202.28.191.34 on Wed, 02 Mar 2016 14:20:51 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
38 Revue de Musicologie, 75/1 (1989)
intabulator of whom I know), even though they all make use of the
and D 38. It might be argued that lute songs constitute the wrong
since the cantus part is sung and not played and hence the range of the
ments for solo lute. But the intabulations of vocal music for solo lute
Bossinensis 39. In both, mode and range appear to be the two decisive
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
lower his lowest string to F, and in the other two (nos. 21 and 35), and
below Gamma ut, and therefore lute " in G " does in fact seem the
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
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
Manuscript ", vol. 22/2, p. 84-85. I am grateful to Kevin Mason for calling my
39. Table III was prepared from the information offered in Gombosi,
This content downloaded from 202.28.191.34 on Wed, 02 Mar 2016 14:20:51 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Howard M. Brown : Bossinensis, Willaert and Verdelot 39
(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
best fit, a solution favored by most lutenists for much of the rest of the
Even though the reason for stepwise transposition thus seems not to
pitch for A lute. That central rule was modified in instances where the
range went too low to fit the standard disposition comfortably. Table
regarded the lute " in G " as the standard size 40. In short, Willaert
in the key signature) for E lute, and all those in G for G or A lute. For
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
The way Bossinensis and Willaert moved the notated music around
notes. Their system also enabled lutenists to take part more easily in
fact that transposition by step and by fourth were the two standard
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.,
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
This content downloaded from 202.28.191.34 on Wed, 02 Mar 2016 14:20:51 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
40 Revue de Musicologie, 75/1 (1989)
corresponding to the four nominal tunings 6f the lute and their octave
for moving notated music around to fit onto instruments that was
raise, of course, difficult questions about the best way to edit lute
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
that is at once both practical and scholarly simply cannot guide our
into staff notation are prepared for study purposes only, either for the
sake of the scholar who would not otherwise have access to this
simply because they involve too many page turns to be fully practical.
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
(1986), 5-39; and Brown and Spencer, " How Alfonso della Viola Tuned His
Viols"
79, and especially Table 4-9, "The Pitch Scheme of Ruckers Instruments ".
43. The best summary of current thinking about modern editions of lute
Vaccaro (Paris, 1984). Jacquot sets out there the principles followed in the
This content downloaded from 202.28.191.34 on Wed, 02 Mar 2016 14:20:51 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Howard M. Brown : Bossinensis, Willaert and Verdelot 41
proper edition of the vocal music juxtaposed against the lute version
and, after all, they can in principle play any piece at any pitch. The
with the instrumental arrangement, and the scholar needs it for study
mance.
SUMMARY
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,
the mode of the music and the nominal pitch of the intabulation, range also
The actual pitch sounded in performance would, of course, depend on the size
have revealed that the standard transpositions were by step and by fourth. This
44. Most modern editions - such as those in the Corpus des luthistes
This content downloaded from 202.28.191.34 on Wed, 02 Mar 2016 14:20:51 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
42 Revue de Musicologie, 75/1 (1989)
TABLE I
Number of Pieces
no. 32 (D) I
This content downloaded from 202.28.191.34 on Wed, 02 Mar 2016 14:20:51 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Howard M. Brown : Bossinensis, Willaert and Verdelot 43
(A) 14
TABLE II
Final on E I, 50 E II, 35 A
Final on C Final on C
I, 13 E I, 19 D Lowest Note : Bb
Final on F Final on C I, 9 G
I, 39 D II, 41 A I, 44 A
I, 54 A
Final on C *II, 25 E I, 63 A
I, 10 D II, 49 A
I, 14 E Final on 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
*II, 43 G II, 5 A I, 32 A
I, 25 E II, 20 A II, 47 A
This content downloaded from 202.28.191.34 on Wed, 02 Mar 2016 14:20:51 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
44 Revue de Musicologie, 75/1 (1989)
procedure)
Final on E
Final on F
Final on A
Final on C
and 49 (Bb)
TABLE III
1. Anon., La Villanella
no model known
3. Alexander Agricola, << Oublier vueil tristesse >. Agricola, Opera Omnia, ed.
b G G-d" lute in G
5a. Cara, << O mia cieca e dura sorte . Disertori, ed. Le frottole per canto e
no b A G-a' lute in E
5b. Michele Vicentino, << Che farala, che dirala >. Canzoni Sonetti Strambotti
no b A F-a' lute in E
8. <<Sit nomen Domini >> (Prioris, <<Dulcis amica dei >>). William M. McMurtry,
b F BbC 1 lute in A
10. Bartolomeo Tromboncino, << Stavasi Amor dormendo >>. Francesco Luisi,
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.
no b C F-a' lute in E
This content downloaded from 202.28.191.34 on Wed, 02 Mar 2016 14:20:51 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Howard M. Brown : Bossinensis, Willaert and Verdelot 45
13. Hayne van Ghizeghem, o De tous biens plaine >>. Harmonice Musices
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
no model known
20. Jacob Obrecht, Christe from Missa Si dedero. Obrecht, Werken, ed.
no b G G-d" lute in G
b F F-c" lute in G
22. Anthoine Brumel, Agnus III from Missa Ut re mifa sol la. Brumel, Opera
p. 63-64
no b G c-e" lute in A
no model known
b G G-bb, lute in G
no b E B-e" lute in A
33. Josquin des Prez, < Et resurrexit >> from Missa L'homme arme sexti toni.
b A D-g' lute in D
34. Johannes Ghiselin, << O florens rosa >>. George Warren Drake, The First
Motetti A, no. 15
no b G F-d" lute in G
36. Anthoine Brumel, ? Benedictus >> from Missa Ut re mi fa sol la. Brumel,
b G G-d" lute in G
38. Josquin des Prez, ? Et in terra>> from Missa Pange lingua. Josquin,
no b E G-e" lute in G
39. Josquin des Prez, < Qui tollis >> from Missa Pange lingua. Josquin, Werken,
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
This content downloaded from 202.28.191.34 on Wed, 02 Mar 2016 14:20:51 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
46 Revue de Musicologie, 75/1 (1989)
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)
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
TABLE IV
15 D (with b) F-a'
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"
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"
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"
This content downloaded from 202.28.191.34 on Wed, 02 Mar 2016 14:20:51 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions