Nicholas Erneston Music Library

I. Overview

The contents of this book equal those of Millioni/Monte 1637.

Title: Vero e facil modo d'imparare a sonare, et accordare da se medesimo la chitarra spagnuola . . . (Rome/Macerata: Agostino Grisei, 1647).

Description:
32 pp. in movable type
32 pieces
Foliation: AB (8 ff. each)
Page Size -- I-Bc: 15.1 cm. (width) X 10.3 cm.

II. Prefatory Material

p. (1) -- VERO / E FACIL MODO D'IMPARARE / A SONARE, ET ACCORDARE DA SE MEDESIMO / La Chitarra Spagnuola, non solo con l'Alfabeto, & accordatura ordinarij ma' / anco con un'altro Alfabeto, & accordatura straordinarij nuovamen- / te inventati da Pietro Millioni, & Lodovico Monte Compagni. / Con una Regola per imparare il modo d'accordare sei Chitarre, per poterle sonare insie- / me in concerto, ciaschuna per differente chiave. / ET DI NUOVO RISTAMPATO, DA ME LODOVICO MONTE BOLOGNESE. . . . / IN ROMA, e' di Nuovo In MACERATA, Appresso Agostino Grisei. M.DC.XXXXVII. Con licenza de'Superiori. [title page]

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:]

III. Notation

Tablature: Alfabeto and stroke signs only; no meter or rhythm signs, or barlines. Repeat signs are a flower symbol and the end is marked "fine."

Instrument: 5-course guitar

IV. Indices

Title information in brackets [ ] is editorial; information in parentheses

Index of Pieces:

 

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:

GRISEI, Agostino [printer]
IN ROMA, e di Nuovo In MACERATA, Appresso Agostino Grisei. M.DC.XXXXVII. / p. (1)

MILLIONI, Pietro
VERO E FACIL MODO D'IMPARARE A SONARE . . . DA PIETRO MILLIONI, ET LODOVICO MONTE COMPAGNI. . . / p. (1)

MONTE, Lodovico
VERO E FACIL MODO D'IMPARARE A SONARE . . . DA PIETRO MILLIONI, ET LODOVICO MONTE COMPAGNI. . . / p. (1)

. . . ET DI NUOVO RISTAMPATO, DA ME LODOVICO MONTE BOLOGNESE. . . . / 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 B/VI/2 p. 585

Tyler, James, and Paul Sparks. The Guitar and Its Music: From the Renaissance to the Classical Era (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002): 86.

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

VI. Exemplars

VI. Exemplar:

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

Condition: Pages in very good shape; little damage or stains.

Binding: Cardboard with vertical black lines on red; horizontal white diagonally patterned lines between.

Manuscript additions:
Cover -- ink: "AA"; yellow tape: "348"
Spine -- "-rra Spagn." [partly missing]; blue tape: "348"

p. (1) -- ink, top left: "5310"; black stamp: "ARCHIVIO MUSICALE NEL LICEO DI BOLOGNA"
p. 32 -- black stamp: "LICEO MUSICALE G.B. MARTINI BIBLIOTECA BOLOGNA"

A copy is available in microfilm and in facsimile from Arnaldo Forni (1977). Unfortunately, this is the less expanded edition and Millioni/Monte 1644 would have been a better choice for a facsimile.