Tutorial: intabulating vocal music into keyboard notation

*** General comment: the indication of “vocal music” in the title of the video should be understood to refer to any polyphonic music made for several parts, vocal or instrumental. The distinction between vocal and instrumental music in the 16th century was often blurred. For example, both vocal and instrumental music were assigned the same part names (canto, alto, tenor, bass), and the purely instrumental genre of the “canzona” literally translates to “song”. 

FOOTNOTES

1. [01:00] See our episode Intabulations in the 16th and 17th centuries [YouTube]. 

2. [01:17] Andrea Antico, Frottole intabulate per sonare organi (Rome, 1517) [imslp]. The frottola shown on the video is “Occhi miei lassi” by Bartolomeo Tromboncino [cpdl], found in a four-part setting in Andrea Antico, Canzoni nove con alcune scelte de varii libri di canto (Rome, 1510) [imslp]. 

3. [02:17] In other places, there was, for example, a manuscript by Hans Buchner (ca. 1520) that discussed how to intabulate pieces using what is now called the “Old German Tablature”; translation into German (from Latin) is available in (ed.) Jost Harro Schmidt, Hans Buchner: Sämtliche Orgelweke (Henry Litolff's verlag, Frankfurt: 1974). In the world of plucked instruments, notable sources that instruct how to intabulate are Juan Bermudo, El libro llamado declaración de instrumentos musicales (1555) [imslp], and Vincenzo Galilei, Fronimo (1568) [imslp]. 

4. [03:03] The examples shown in the video are taken from: Simone Verovio, Canzonette a 4 voci (1591) [imslp]; Claudio Merulo, Canzoni d'intavolatura d'organo, Libro 1 (1592) [imslp]; Claudio Merulo, Toccate d'intavolatura d'organo, Libro 1 (1598) [imslp]; Girolamo Frescobaldi, Toccate e partite d'intavolatura, Libro 1 (1615) [imslp]. 

5. [03:16] Diego Ortiz, Trattado de Glosas, 2nd book [De Diego Ortiz Toledano Libro Secondo] (Rome, 1553) [imslp], f. 47r. 

6. [03:30] Diruta refers more specifically to two battute per measure ("partire a due battute per casella") but in his examples it is quite consistently two semibreves. 

7. [04:15] Giovanni Picchi, Balli d'Arpicordo (Venice, 1621) [GoogleBooks].

8. [05:34] If a normal five-line staff had been used in the left hand, there would have been a need for many ledger lines - something that was generally avoided whenever possible. 

9. [07:04] GB-Lcm MS 2088 [imslp]. This Manuscript is mentioned in Howard Mayer Brown, Instrumental music printed before 1600 (1965), p. 343. We refer to the piece Vestiva i colli e le campagne by Giovanni Pierluigi Palestrina [cpdl] as “famous” because it has at least 11 diminution versions made by various authors from the late Renaissance; see Richard Erig, Italian Diminutions (Amadeus 1979), p.347. 

10. [08:19] More about early Basso continuo and its notation see Augusta Campagne and Elam Rotem, Keyboard Accompaniment in Italy around 1600: Intabulations, Scores and Basso Continuo (Forschungsportal Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, 2022) [link]. 

11. [09:58] Regarding the avoiding of adding unnecessary rests, he does give an exception: “Sometimes you put in the short rests to make the voice entries clear.” This is demonstrated in his intabulation of his own ricercar in that chapter. 

12. [11:13] “Non sarà mai in obligo la Partitura guardarsi da due quinte, né da due ottave; ma si bene le parti che si cantano con le voci” (It is not always necessary for the partitura [the continuo part] to avoid two [parallel] fifths, nor two octaves; only the parts which are sung should avoid these.) Lodovico da Viadana, li cento concerti ecclesiastici, organ part: Per sonal nel'organo (1602) [imslp], preface. 

13. [11:30] The famous theoretician Gioseffo Zarlino disagreed, and believed that composers should have their music correct even when played on an instrument: “Another error would result if these three parts were played on an instrument, for then one would undoubtedly hear three consecutive fifths. So composers must be careful about such things and not allow the parts to exchange places in this manner at the risk of displeasing the ear, even though the fifths are not heard when the parts are sung. I have mentioned this because many musicians seem unaware of it.” Gioseffo Zarlino, Le Istitutioni Harmoniche III [imslp], Cap. 61, p. 251. In the field of intabulations such parallels are extremely common. An exceptional case of an intabulation without such parallels can be found in Luzzascho Luzzaschi’s madrigali (1601).

14. [11:45] See our episode The Italian keyboard Partitura [YouTube]. 

15. [11:56] “Daß in dieser Tabulatur ein jeder Stim nur mit Fünff und nit mit sechs Linien auff Engel- und Niederländische Manier adornieret / ist der Ehrliebenden Deutschen Organisten halben /  weil ich auch ein Deutscher / geschehen / welche denn mehrentheil sich auff die Niederländische art entweder gahr nicht / oder aber nicht recht gründtlich verstehen / in deren sechs Linien auff die rechte / unnd sechs auff die lincke Handt gerichtet / bißweilen auf die Parteyen so wunderbarlich unter einander springen / das manch guter Gesell sich nicht recht drein schicken / und welches Discant / Alt /Tenor  oder Baß sey / wissen kan.” Samuel Scheidt, Tabulatura Nova (1624, Hamburg) [imslp], preface. In our episode Intabulations in the 16th and 17th centuries [YouTube] we quoted Frescobaldi and others who state that using scores (as opposed to intavolatura) is beneficial for organists, but that many have abandoned this skill; see footnotes 10, 11 and 12 [footnotes]. 

16. [12:27] See Juan Bermudo, El libro llamado declaración de instrumentos musicales (Osuna, 1555) [imslp]. See chapter 71: De ciertos avisos para la conclusion del cifrar (Some concluding recommendations on intabualtions), fol. 99r. To learn about the Vihuela, see Ian Pittaway’s blog post on Early Music Muse [link]. 

17. [12:42] Ioanne de Antiquis (ed.), Il secondo libro delle villanelle alla Napolitana a tre voci, de diversi Musici di Barri (Venice, 1574) [MDZ] [modern editions available on cpdl.org]. 

18. [14:40] Pierre Sandrin, Doulce memoire [original parts] [cpdl]. 

19. [15:44] Vincenzo Galilei, Fronimo (1568) [Google Books] [imslp]. 

20. [17:43] Regarding the minuta, Diruta gives the common diminution tip, that if the last note of each diminution is like the first one, you are not risking any errors. Or as he puts it: “By observing this rule no defect of parallel octaves or fifths will ever arise, and it will not result in ruining the composition nor even a little of its harmony. As for this, I have sometimes seen and heard vocal pieces intabulated whose harmony and beauty suffered because of so many diminutions.” 

21. [18:03] The gruppi and tremoli were also presented in Diruta’s first book (Transilvano I, 1593), along with a detailed explanation of how they should be executed and with which fingering etc. Specifically on the tremolo, Diruta wrote that when it is “executed with lightness and at the right moment, it can adorn all of the playing and gracefully bring the harmony to life.”  To learn more about the other ornaments, see our episodes The art of Diminution in the 16th century [YouTube] and Giulio Caccini: the good, the bad and the unclear [YouTube]. 

FURTHER RESOURCES - Intabulations with their vocal models

• Ian Pritchard's Intavolatura Projects [link]

• Augusta Campagne's website with information and materials about intabulations [link]

CREDITS:

Created by Elam Rotem, March 2023.

Special thanks to Augusta Campagne, Anne Smith, and Ian Pritchard.