Nicholas Erneston Music Library

I. Overview

This is the first of three related books by Millioni from 1627. Millioni 1627b and 1627c are basically the same books with additional right-hand strums added, making these books some of the best sources for the exact use of these ornaments.

Title: Quarta impressione del primo, secondo, et terzo libro d'intavolatura. (Rome: Guglielmo Facciotti, 1627).

Description:
62 pp. in movable type
76 pieces
Foliation: none
Page Size -- I-Bc: c15.8 cm. (width) X 10.3 cm.; F-Pn: 15.8 cm. (width) X 10.1 cm.

II. Prefatory Material

p. (1) -- QUARTA IMPRESSIONE DEL PRIMO, SECONDO, ET TERZO LIBRO D'INTAVOLATURA. . . . [title page]

p. (2) -- [blank]

p. 3 -- DICHIARATIONE. Volendo dunque da se medesimo . . . [explanation of tablature and the alfabeto; with fingerings]

p. 4 -- [alfabeto (with finger dots)]:

 

[The Bt and N2 chords are not used.]

[Other chords used in the tablature:]

p. 5 -- Quando sarà posta bene . . . [alfabeto, alfabeto tagliato]

p. 6 -- . . . lettere. Quando si . . . [left hand, trillo, repicco]

p. 7 -- Modo di accordare . . . [tuning: possibly upper octave fifth course?]

p. 8 -- Modo di accordare . . . [tuning in tablature]

p. 9 -- Tavola delle lettere corrispondenti con le quali ciascuno se ne puol servire in trasmutar sonare da una lettera all'altra . . . [corrispondence chart]

III. Notation

Tablature: Alfabeto and stroke signs only; no meter or rhythm signs, or barlines.

Instrument: 5-course guitar

IV. Indices

Title information in brackets [ ] is editorial;

Index of Pieces (all solo guitar):

Notes:

1. Trilli and repicchi are ornamental strums that divide the normal rhythm into smaller groups. Return to text

Index of Genres:

The following chart summarizes the solo guitar contents of the book by genre. Major genres are given by the form used in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2d ed., with the forms actually used in the book in parentheses. Lesser known titles are grouped under "miscellaneous dances" and "songs." Rhythmic variations and rotte are considered part of the main work.

 

 

Index of Keys Used:

Keys used in the book; an * indicates that the key is only used in a passacaglia. Note that the pitch is relative and that since the guitarist was using tablature, there was no need to think in terms of traditional key signatures.

 

Index of Names:

FACCIOTTI, Guglielmo [printer]
IN ROMA, Per Guglielmo Facciotti. 1627 . . . / p. (1)

MILLIONI, Pietro [composer]
QUARTA IMPRESSIONE DEL PRIMO, SECONDO, ET TERZO LIBRO D'INTAVOLATURA. DI PIETRO MILLIONI . . . / p. (1)

V. Bibliography

Boye, Gary R. "Giovanni Battista Granata and the Development of Printed Guitar Music in Seventeenth-Century Italy" (diss., Duke Univeristy, 1995).

Boye, Gary R. "Performing Seventeenth-Century Italian Guitar Music: the Question of an Appropriate Stringing" in Performance on Lute, Guitar and Vihuela: Historical Practice and Modern Interpretation, ed. V.A. Coelho (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997).

Boye, Gary R. "The Case of the Purloined Letter Tablature: The 17th-Century Guitar Books of Foriano Pico and Pietro Millioni." Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music 11:1 (2005).

Hudson, Richard. Passacaglio and Ciaccona: From Guitar Music to Italian Keyboard Variations in the 17th Century (Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1981).

Répertoire international des sources musicales: Einzeldrucke vor 1800. RISM A/I [M 2834

Tyler, James, and Paul Sparks. The Guitar and Its Music: From the Renaissance to the Classical Era (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).

Weidlich, Joseph. "Battuto Performance Practice in Early Italian Guitar Music." Journal of the Lute Society of America 11 (1978): 63-86.

VI. Exemplars

F-Pn = France: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département de la Musique (visited in 1992)

Condition: darkly-stained pages at beginning and others dark; but all legible; worn page edges

Binding: recent hard cover with red/blue/green designs

Manuscript additions:
Cover -- white tape: "INVENTAIRE" [black ink]; "RESERVE" [blue ink on top of other]; "Vm8 u.4" ink; white tape: "Vm"
1 folio added at front

p. (1) signed: "[illegible (Brossard?)] . . . no.640"; red stamp: "BIBLIOTHEQUE ROYALE I"; ink: "Rés. Vm8 u4"

p. 4 -- all chords re-written in French tablature [partially fingered]:

 

[K2, N3 missing; M2 incorrect--should be M]

[Additional chord added on p. 4, not labelled (= F major w/ A not C on the 5th course)]:

[Another chord added on p. 9 (= Eb major)]

p. 21 -- red stamp: "BIBLIOTHEQUE ROYALE I"
p. 62 -- red stamp: "BIBLIOTHEQUE ROYALE I"
3 folios added at end

 

I-Bc = Italy: Bologna, Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale G. B. Martini (visited in 1991-1992)

Condition: thin, water-damaged pages but no tears; corners very good. Very legible; smudges: reddish/brown, especially pp. 52-53

Binding: recent marbled hard-cover with red/black/brown borders; white spine with gold design and "MILIONI / CHITARR / SPAGNUO /"

Manuscript additions:
Cover -- blue tape: "AA 343"
Spine -- blue tape: "AA 343"
1 folio added at front; 5 at the end [original??]
+f. 1r: "NN-5305" in ink, crossed out

p. (1) -- ink: "Ad usum D. Dominici . . . Januarij . . . Can. Reg.is . . . ar.is, 1691" [partially obscurred by decoration and stamp]
black stamp: "ARCHIVIO MUSICALE NEL LICEO DI BOLOGNA"

p. 64 -- black stamp: "LICEO MUSICALE G.B. MARTINI BIBLIOTECA BOLOGNA"