Nicholas Erneston Music Library

I. Overview

This is another edition of Millioni/Monte 1644, with two new ciaccone added in place of the six in the earlier editions on p. 12. Another group of dramatic Canzonetta has been added after the solo guitar pieces, but unfortunately the songs are given only with their lyrics and no music.

Title: Vero e facil modo d'imparare a sonare, et accordare da se medesimo la chitarra spagnuola . . . (Venetia: Giacomo Didini, 1673).

Description:
64 pp. in movable type
44 pieces [+ 18 songs]
Foliation: ABCA (8 ff. each)
Page Size -- I-Bc: c15.3 cm. (width) X c10 cm.

II. Prefatory Material

p. (1) -- VERO / E FACIL MODO D'IMPARARE / A SONARE, ET ACCORDARE DA SE MEDESIMO / La Chitarra Spagnuola, . . . IN VENETIA, Per Giacomo Didini. 1673. Con Licenza de'Sup. [title page]

p. (2) -- [Equals the hand from Millioni/Monte 1652 but right side up with new words:] "POLICE / INDICE / MEDIO / ANULARE / AURICUL." and in palm: "VIT/NAT/MEN"

pp. 4-5 -- [contents reversed as in Millioni/Monte 1652]

pp. 6-10 -- [contents = Millioni/Monte 1637 except p. 8: hands used for repeat signs, not flowers]

[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. (49) -- NOVISSIME CANZONETTE MUSICALI DE DIVERSI AUTTORI . . . IN VENETIA, Per il Didini. 1673. Con Licenza de'Superiori. [section of songs with text only; no melody or alfabeto chords]

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.". Songs on pp. 50-62: with text only and no alfabeto.

Instrument: 5-course guitar

IV. Indices

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

Index of Pieces:

Notes:
1. This piece should have come after the Ballo del Monte Verde on p. 21. Return to text

Index of Pieces (songs with text only--no melody or alfabeto chords):

Notes:
2. The previous page (50) is blank. 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 (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:

DIDINI, Giacomo [printer]
IN VENETIA, Per Giacomo Didini. 1673. / p. (1)
IN VENETIA, Per il Didini. 1673 / p. (49)

MILIONI, Pietro
VERO E FACIL MODO D'IMPARARE A SONARE . . . DA PIETRO MILIONI, 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)

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. 586

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

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

Condition: Uneven pages of varying length; extreme mildew stains but legible.

Binding: Dark white cardboard.

Manuscript additions:
Cover -- white tape: "AA 351" over "AA351" ink; blue tape: "351"; in ink: "Milioni Pietro e Monte Lodovico / Vero & facil modo d'imparare a sonare la chitarra spagnuola. Venetia, 1673"
Spine -- blue tape: "351"

p. (1) -- ink, top left: "5313"; black stamp: "ARCHIVIO MUSICALE NEL LICEO DI BOLOGNA"