hidden baroque gems now transcribed for uke !

[gilles T]

Dear Fellows,
Reaserching old manuscripts on the net, I once stumbled a very curious collection : "Conserto vago", various pieces gathered by one Filippo Thomaisini. The end part features a handful of pieces written for a "chitarrino", which we can assume was the vernacular italian term for "renaissance guitar". These pieces are of great interest for at least two reasons : they make use of a tuning known as "templo viejo" in Spain, which consists simply in tuning your low G to low F. What's more, this very ancient tuning, used in the oldest collections from renaissance masters is to be found in this collection dated back to ... 1645, which is the latest music for renaissance guitar ever printed !

I sent it to my dear friend Harry, aka "LowG" on this forum, who marvels me with his ability to fit the most complex music on 4 strings, with all the accuracy you might except. Of course, he did wonders with these pieces that sound part renaissance/part baroque and published them on his beautiful website https://renaissance-ukukele.blogspot.com/

I strongly encourage any of you, wether you're already an early music enthusiast or just interested in broadening the boundaries of ukuleles, to deep dive into these pieces — and the rest of the website, of course, because they both deserve a wider recognition.

As a personal note, I deeply thank Harry for his enduring kindness and friendship — it's a blessing to meet such good people on the internet.
Regards,
Gilles

 

[merlin666]

Thanks this is quite interesting. I don't know much about renaissance outside of historical basics, but wonder how the renaissance guitar and lute compare to ukulele in terms of range? For example, a ukulele broadly covers the treble range of a modern guitar and more than on octave of basses is not included. So if modern guitar music is translated to uke it usually implies substantial simplification and loss of key parts. Is there a similar limitation to adaption of renaissance music?

 

[Low-G]

Thanks this is quite interesting. I don't know much about renaissance outside of historical basics, but wonder how the renaissance guitar and lute compare to ukulele in terms of range? For example, a ukulele broadly covers the treble range of a modern guitar and more than on octave of basses is not included. So if modern guitar music is translated to uke it usually implies substantial simplification and loss of key parts. Is there a similar limitation to adaption of renaissance music?

Hi Merlin666
The renaissance guitar is rather like a slightly over-long tenor uke, with the same (low-G) tuning but with the 1st course single (chanterelle) , the second and third double unison, and the fourth double-octave. The lute has rather more courses than the uke, up to 8 in fact, with in later instruments several lower bass courses. This means that the bass lines in the music have to be compressed, raised an octave, and often omitted. By following Ren guitar tabs one can get a feeling for how they did it 400 and more years ago. I actually wrote a brief account of the process here.

 

[Low-G]

Dear Fellows,
Reaserching old manuscripts on the net, I once stumbled a very curious collection : "Conserto vago", various pieces gathered by one Filippo Thomaisini. The end part features a handful of pieces written for a "chitarrino", which we can assume was the vernacular italian term for "renaissance guitar". These pieces are of great interest for at least two reasons : they make use of a tuning known as "templo viejo" in Spain, which consists simply in tuning your low G to low F. What's more, this very ancient tuning, used in the oldest collections from renaissance masters is to be found in this collection dated back to ... 1645, which is the latest music for renaissance guitar ever printed !

I sent it to my dear friend Harry, aka "LowG" on this forum, who marvels me with his ability to fit the most complex music on 4 strings, with all the accuracy you might except. Of course, he did wonders with these pieces that sound part renaissance/part baroque and published them on his beautiful website https://renaissance-ukukele.blogspot.com/

I strongly encourage any of you, wether you're already an early music enthusiast or just interested in broadening the boundaries of ukuleles, to deep dive into these pieces — and the rest of the website, of course, because they both deserve a wider recognition.

As a personal note, I deeply thank Harry for his enduring kindness and friendship — it's a blessing to meet such good people on the internet.
Regards,
Gilles

And thank you, Gilles, for educating me, and getting me back transcribing again after a long gap, and posting here. Blush blush.
Having transcribed the 5 Ren guitar pieces, I've now made a start at the lute pieces – not so easy as the tabs are "upside down", as was the convention in Italy and Spain.
Harry

 

[ploverwing]

Magnificent. Thank you very much @Low-G for your continuing efforts in transcribing these beautiful pieces of ancient music for modern ukulele enthusiasts. I will share this update with my teacher (I'd already shared your site with him a few months ago) - who also plays lute, oud, theorbo, guitar.... yup, you get the picture.

 

[Mike $]

I just made my way through Balletto. After figuring out the notation idiosyncrasies (everyone is a little different in tabbing/notating), it sounds very nice. I definitely will be practicing these tunes which are completely unknown to me. Thanks for this Low-G, your efforts are greatly appreciated. And thanks for posting this gilles T

 

[Low-G]

Magnificent. Thank you very much @Low-G for your continuing efforts in transcribing these beautiful pieces of ancient music for modern ukulele enthusiasts. I will share this update with my teacher (I'd already shared your site with him a few months ago) - who also plays lute, oud, theorbo, guitar.... yup, you get the picture.

So pleased you enjoyed the pieces. I envy your teacher: I own a lute but sadly only have 4 fingers, so I'm sticking to the uke. Harry

 

[Low-G]

I just made my way through Balletto. After figuring out the notation idiosyncrasies (everyone is a little different in tabbing/notating), it sounds very nice. I definitely will be practicing these tunes which are completely unknown to me. Thanks for this Low-G, your efforts are greatly appreciated. And thanks for posting this gilles T

Yes, the fingering/voicing does feel a bit strange, but I have tried to follow the original closely as this is a transcription, not a translation. When I play I may change the fingering to fall more easily under my aged fingers – this is not really an academic exercise but a search for new pieces, thanks to Gilles. I am always happy to receive any suggestions you may have for improving the tabs. I imagine that originally they would have been a starting point for improvisation, so changes are fair game. Cheers, Harry

 

[Mike $]

Yes, the fingering/voicing does feel a bit strange, but I have tried to follow the original closely as this is a transcription, not a translation. When I play I may change the fingering to fall more easily under my aged fingers – this is not really an academic exercise but a search for new pieces, thanks to Gilles. I am always happy to receive any suggestions you may have for improving the tabs. I imagine that originally they would have been a starting point for improvisation, so changes are fair game. Cheers, Harry

I think you did a fantastic job, the melody sounds great. I have no problem with the fingerings or voicings. I will try to pm you with a small suggestion that you may agree with or not, but either way, I can adapt. I am learning a lot from these pieces. Thanks again.