Nicholas Erneston Music Library

I. Overview

This book is sometimes dated as 1627, but has no date and is more likely a later, expanded version of Millioni/Monte 1637, with 16 additional pieces and 18 songs with text and alfabeto only. Surprisingly, all of the additional solo guitar pieces are taken from Milanuzzi 1623, pp. 45-48 and 52-54, in their same order (see index). This version is undated, but a similar edition, with identical contents, was published in 1644.

Salvadori published another score (Monteverdi's "L'Arianna") in 1639 which also mentions Frezaria, a district of Venice, so this book should date to around that time. Unlike Milioni/Monte's earlier books, some of the new pieces for solo guitar use meter signatures ("C" "3"), but not barlines as in Milanuzzi's book.

Title: Vero e facil modo d'imparare a sonare, et accordare da se medesimo la chitarra spagnuola . . . (Venice: Angelo Salvadori, n.d.).

Description:
64 pp. in movable type
48 pieces (also, 18 songs with text and chords only)

II. Prefatory Material

p. (1) -- VERO / E FACIL MODO D'IMPARARE / A SONARE, ET ACCORDARE DA SE MEDESIMO / La Chitarra Spagnola, non solo con l'Alfabeto, & accordatura ordina- / rij, ma anco con un'altro Alfabeto, & accordatura straordinarij, nuo- / vamente inventati da Pietro Milioni, & Lodovico Monte Compagni. / Con una Regola per imparare il modo d'accordare sei Chitarre, per poterle / sonare insieme in concerto, ciascuna per differente chiave. / CON LICENZA DE'SUPERIORI. // IN VENETIA, Presso Angelo Salvadori. Si vende in Frezaria. [title page; guitar reversed from Millioni/Monte 1647; seems more like an arch-backed guitar]

pp. 2-10 -- contents = Millioni/Monte 1637

[Alfabeto:]

[The K, P, Q, R, V, and X chords are not used.]

[Alfabeto Straordinario: works with same pieces as normal alfabeto, but with A-c#-f#-c-e' tuning:]

p. 32 -- ALFABETTO ET INTAVOLATURA / Per la Chitarra alla Spagnuola [additional alfabeto for C and D fascicles]:

[Verbal Alfabeto (with fingerings):]

 

[The +, K, N, Q, S, T, V, X, Y, Z, &, Con, and Ron chords are not used in this section (pp. 33-48).]

III. Notation

Tablature: Alfabeto and stroke signs only; no rhythm signs or barlines. Meter signs are used only on pp. 33-48. Repeat signs are a hand symbol and the end is marked "fine."

Instrument: 5-course guitar

IV. Indices

Title information in brackets [ ] is editorial; information in parentheses ( ) is from the table of contents.

Index of Pieces (solo guitar):

 

Notes:

1. The titles of these last three pieces are contained in the index to Milanuzzi 1623 and appear to be identical to the ones found in this book. Return to text

Index of Pieces (songs with text and guitar accompaniment--no melody):

 

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 (solo guitar only):

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:

MILIONI, Pietro
VERO E FACIL MODO D'IMPARARE A SONARE . . . da Pietro Milioni, & Lodovico Monte Compagni. . . / p. (1)

MONTE, Lodovico
VERO E FACIL MODO D'IMPARARE A SONARE . . . da Pietro Milioni, & Lodovico Monte Compagni. . . / p. (1)

SALVADORI, Angelo [printer]
IN VENETIA, Presso Angelo Salvadori. Si vende in Frezaria. / p. (1)

In Venetia, Per il Salvadori, Con licenza de'Superiori, & Privilegio. / p. 64

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 2842

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

NL-DHgm > NL-DHnmi = Netherlands: Den Haag, Gemeentemuseum, Muziekafdeling

Not yet visited; a photocopy of this book was ordered by the author and is now at the Music Library of Duke University. Page 12 is missing in either the photocopy or the original.

 

US-NH = U.S.A.: New Haven (Connecticut), Yale University, Music Library  (visited in 2023)

Condition: pages reinforced at binding but in good shape; paper seems a bit thicker than similar small imprints of this era

Binding: white leather quater bound with marbled hardboards (modern); black ink on spine: "MILIONI & MONTE CHITARA SPAGN."

Manuscript additions:
inside cover: "MUSIC LIBRARY / YALE UNIVERSITY / Dragan Plamenac Fund"

1 added folio at front, on verso, pencil: "Rare MT 588 M7715 1627 [sic]"
f. 1r (t.p.), old ink: "Sig. Lauro [?] Saemei [?]"
p. 64 -- black stamp: [too blurry to read]

1 added folio at back