Nicholas Erneston Music Library

I. Overview

A well-printed late source with interesting repertoire and a wide variety of genres. This book is not often studied, but is a good summation of the period's changing styles and includes a rare piece for "mandola"

Title: Scuola d'intavolatura . . . (Rome: Paolo Moneta, 1677).

Description:
64 pp. in movable type
59 pieces (+ 8 songs and 2 pieces for the mandola and guitar)
Foliation: ABC [8 ff. each] D [8 ff.]
Page Size -- F-Pn: 15.2 cm. (width) X 9.8 cm.; GB-Lbl: 14.3 cm. (width) X 9.6 cm.

II. Prefatory Material

p. [1] -- SCUOLA D'INTAVOLATURA Con la quale ciascuno senza Maestro puole imparare à suonare la Chitarriglia Spagnuola, accordare, fare il trillo, il repicco, trasmutar da una lettera all'altra corrispondenti. Aggiuntovi in quest'ultima impressione bellissime Sonate di Mandola & in fine una ghirlanda di Villanelle intavolate con lettere della Chitarriglia. DA GIO. PIETRO RICCI, Dedicata al Molt'Illustre Signore il Signor Cavalier GIROLAMO LUCENTI. . . . In Roma, Per Paolo Moneta. MDCLXXVII. Con licenza

p. [2] -- [guitar with strings/frets marked; hand with fingers marked]

p. [3] -- Molt'Illustre Sig. e Padrone mio Osservandisi . . . [dedication]

p. [4] -- [dedication; signed by Bertocchi, not Ricci]

pp. 5-8 -- Al Benigno Lettore . . . [Ricci states that his book is for beginners and is thus notated simply; explanations of strokes and tuning]

p. 8-11 -- Dichiaratione del modo di pratticar le lettere per poter poi speditamente battere ogni suonata . . . [verbal alfabeto, organized by parallel major/minor chords, +/F, A/O, B/L, etc., here in alphabetical order:]

 

p. 11 -- [Alfabeto finished; then letters with numbers added to them:]

p. 12 -- Delle Lettere tagliate . . .

p. 13 -- Del Modo di trillare . . . [right-hand ornaments, as opposed--Ricci says--to the left-hand ornament called a trill; he connects this type of trill to the French; the more advanced types of left-hand ornaments such as the tremolo, mordents, strascini, etc. are not discussed as the book is only for beginners]

p. 14 -- Tavola delle Lettere corrispondenti . . . [22 major and minor chords are given in four different positions]

p. [48] -- TAVOLA DELLE SONATE CONTENUTE IN QUESTO LIBRO . . .

p. [49] -- SONATE NUOVE DI MANDOLA, CON UNA GHIRLANDA DI VARIE VILLANELLE RACCOLTE, Accompagnate con le Lettere DELLA CHITARRA.

III. Notation

Tablature: Alfabeto only without measure lines, meter

Instrument: 5-course guitar

IV. Indices

Index of Pieces (solo guitar):

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

Index of Genres (solo guitar only):

The following chart summarizes the 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 "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:

BERTOCCHI, Michelangelo [bookseller]
. . . Si vendono da Michelangelo Bertocchi Libraro alla Pace. / p. (1) [t.p.]
[Dedication signed:] . . . Di V.S. Molto Illustre Humiliss. e devotiss. servo, Michelangelo Bertocchi. / p. (4)

CANTARELLI, Gasparo [composer of the mandola piece?]
Balletto allegro per la Mandola, del Sig. D. Gasparo, Cantarelli Bolognese / p. (50)

LUCENTI, Girolamo [dedicatee]
. . . Dedicata al Molt'Illustre Signore il Signor Cavalier GIROLAMO LUCENTI. / p. (1) [t.p.]

MONETA, Paolo [printer]
. . . In Roma, Per Paolo Moneta. MDCLXXVII. / p. (1) [t.p.]

RICCI, Giovanni Pietro [composer]
SCUOLA D'INTAVOLATURA . . . DA GIO. PIETRO RICCI. / p. (1) [t.p.]

V. Bibliography

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

________. "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).

________. "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).

Hall, Monica. "Dissonance in the Guitar Music of Francesco Corbetta." Lute Society Journal (UK) XLVII (2007): 55-80.

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. 702

Tyler, James, and Paul Sparks. The Guitar and Its Music: From the Renaissance to the Classical Era (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002): 87.

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

Condition: Very thin, fragile pages with jagged and folded edges and tears; but legible.

Binding: Dark brown hard cover (in wrapper; probably recent).

Manuscript additions:
Inside front cover -- 3 duck stamp with red stamp: "BIB. NAT. "; top right, pencil: "28400"

1 added folio at front
"B.N. MUS. DON 79-291 (183)"

p. (1) -- bottom left, pencil: "Rès. Vmf. 35"; red "BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE MUSIQUE" [and pp. 17,47,and 49]

1 added folio at back
+ f. 2v -- pencil: "coll. [??]" [illegible?]; ". . . Désinfection 1979 No2920"

GB-Lbl = Great Britain: London, The British Library (visited in 1992)

Condition: Very dark pages; thin, worn and fragile; p. 63 bottom right corner torn.

Binding: In wrapper labeled "Only to be issued in exceptional need"; black material binding with red label and gold letters: "RICCI / CHITARIGLIA. &c. / 1667 [sic]"; binding

Manuscript additions:
"a5"

1 added folio at front
"K4a5"; pencil, crossed out: "a41"

p. 1 -- red stamp: "BRITISH MUSEUM"

[difficult to read spots:]
p. 27 -- line 3, chord 1?: L? I?
p. 32 -- l. 1: O3? >> G3
p. 43 -- l. 5, ch. 4: G?C? [prob. C?]
p. 44 -- l. 4 GBG?

p. 48 -- red stamp: "2 JY [18]50"

1 added folio at back