In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Spain attained a level of cultural achievement which it has never equaled since. In my exploration of Iberian keyboard repertoire in the last 2 years (not just limited to music notated in tablature but works of Manuel Rodrigues Coelho, Pablo Bruna and Joan Cabanilles-whose works were originally notated in partitura-and of Domenico Scarlatti), I learned that Iberian keyboard music is not as widely acknowledged, studied, or performed in the current HIP scene. Obras de musica is more than 200 leaves, total of 427 pages Title page and a few other pages from Obras de musica (1578), gradually progressing from 2 to 3, 4 voices 9 This kind of a pedagogical presentation of works is similar to Obras de musica of Cabezón, where it starts out with just 2-part counterpoint based on liturgical tunes and progresses to 3- and 4-voice pieces. It is dedicated to the Portuguese King John III and includes more than 60 didactic intabulations of vocal music (Doderer and Ripoll call them “unembellished transmissions”) from Franco-Flemish masters in 2-, 3-, 4-voices, arranged in increasing number of voices. However, according to a more recent discovery, Doderer and Ripoll list the oldest source of Iberian organ music as wells as the earliest Iberian instrumental publication to be Arte novamente inuentada pera aprender a tanger 8 (1540) by Spaniard Gonzalo de Baena printed in the Lisbon workshop of Frenchman German Gallarde. Lash lists the very first appearance of such keyboard tablature to be from Declaración de instrumentos musicales (1555) by Juan Bermudo, and later to be more refined in Venegas de Henestrosa’s Libro de cifra nueva (1557) and Antonio de Cabezón’s Obras de musica (1578). 7 The written contests of Facultad will be discussed in more detail in “ Chapter 9: Tablature and Historically Informed Performance Practice.” Lash, in a preface to his translation of Corrêa’s Facultad organica, characterizes his music as an “evolution from refined high Renaissance to early Baroque." 6 A modern transcription in complete edition of Facultad organica has been produced by Macario Santiago Kastner in the1940s. The 26-leaf preface has very detailed instructions on ornamentation, fingering, playing techniques, tablature notation, inequality in rhythm of faster and smaller value notes, to name a few. 5 In addition the treatise of Tomás de Santa María (ca.1510-1570) Arte de tañer fantasia (Valladolid, 1565), Facultad organica is an exhaustive source of Spanish keyboard performance practice. 3 There is a mention of the Cabezóns 4 in Corrêa’s preface to Libro de tientos y discursos de musica practica, y theoríca de organo, intitulado Facultad organica. ![]() With the earliest keyboard source from the Iberian Peninsula from 1540, a century of Iberian keyboard literature has been notated in the number system. ![]() Nearly 50 years after the publication of Obras comes the last Spanish keyboard source to be printed in tablature. Personally, the contents of this thesis have greatly deepened my understanding of historical performance of keyboard music in the 16th century and enriched my experience as an Early Music performer.ġ6th-Century Keyboard Tablature as Performance Notation -Īn epigram to Antonio de Cabezón by Alonso de Morales from Obras de musica (1578)įrancisco Corrêa de Araujo (1575-1655) and Facultad organica (1626) This research presents historical and theoretical analysis of this notation and the results of an extensive systematic experiment-survey I devised and conducted with 32 non-musicians and musicians of all levels. I wanted to investigate why and, through this thesis, present it as a relevant, stimulating topic. At the beginning stages of this exploration, I noticed that keyboard tablature was not really in practice as performance notation in the current HIP dialogue. This research is a big part of this artistic endeavor, addressing 16th-century keyboard tablature notation from Spanish and German sources and finding answers for what it is, why it was invented, why it is not in practice today, and how one may bring it back to practice. ![]() Since then, I have been inspired to explore playing from original notation as part of my HIP training. As a harpsichordist and HIP performer, I was so fascinated with 16th-century keyboard tablature notation on my first encounter some years ago.
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