Nicholas Erneston Music Library

I. Overview

This book contains a cycle of passacagli that moves through all twenty-four major and minor keys by the circle of fifths, as well as several dance suites. Bartolotti's work represent some of the best and most complex guitar music written up to that time, in tablatures quite possibly engraved by the composer himself. His second book, Bartolotti c1655, continues his fine work.

Title: Libro primo di chitarra spagnola . . . ([Florence]: s.n., 1640).

Description:
82 pp., engraved (by Bartolotti himself?)
50 pieces
Foliation: none
Page Size -- I-Bc: 23.4 cm. (width) X 10.3 cm.; F-Pn: c22.3 cm. X 9.7 cm.; GB-Lbl: c23.3 cm. X 10.7 cm.
Plate Size -- I-Bc: 20 cm. (width) X 8 cm.; F-Pn: 19.8 cm. X 7.9 cm. [p. 2]; GB-Lbl: 19.6 cm. X c8.1 cm. [p. 12]

II. Prefatory Material

f. 1r -- LIBRO P[RIM]O DI CHITARRA SPAGNOLA / Di Angiol' Michele Bartolotti Bolognese, Dedicato / All'Ill.mo & Ecc.mo Duca Salviati . . . [title page]

f. 1v -- blank

f. 2r -- Ill.mo et Ece.mo Sig.r P[ad]rone . . . [dedication to the Duca Salviati signed:] Di Fiorenza, 9 Agosto. 1640. . . .

f. 2v -- A LETTORI . . . [strokes, numbers, 2 finger strokes, trill, sforzato, slur]

f. 3r -- [analysis of contents: 24 passacagli, 1 Follie, 1 Ciaccone, 6 Allemande, 12 Corrente, 6 Sarabande; alfabeto:]

 

Lettere tagliate:

 

[Other chords used in the tablature:]

 

 

III. Notation

Tablature: Mixed tablature; ornaments include % (tremolo) and # (vibrato). Trills on the line indicate that particular string; trills off the staff are played on the nearest string (in chords, slurs, etc. where there is no room for sign). Right-hand fingering indicated by dots. A full stroke is contrasted with im stroke by being placed below the staff.

Range (highest fret used on each course):

Instrument: 5-course guitar

IV. Indices

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

Index of Pieces (all solo guitar):

Notes:

1. Each passacagli modulates to the next. They are listed here as individual pieces. 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:

BARTOLOTTI, Angiol Michele [composer]
LIBRO P[RIM]O DI CHITARRA SPAGNOLA Di Angiol' Michele Bartolotti Bolognese . . . / f. 1r [t.p.]

[dedication signed:] . . . Di Fiorenza, 9 Agosto 1640. Humiliss.mo Servo. Angiol'Michele Bartolotti / f. 2r

SALVIATI, Duca [patron]
All'Ill.mo, & Ecc.mo Sig.r Duca Salviati / f. 1r [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).

BUC (The British Union Catalog), Edith B. Schnapper. The British Union-Catalogue of Early Music Printed before the Year 1801: A Record of the Holdings of Over One Hundred Libraries throughout the British Isles. London: Butterworths, 1957.

Eisenhardt, Lex. "Dissonance and Battuto, A Hidden Practice in the Performance of Seventeenth-Century Guitar Music?" Lute Society Journal (UK) XLVII (2007): 38-54.

Hall, Monica. "Angiol Michele Bartolotti's Lettere Tagliate." Lute Society Journal (UK) XLVII (2007): 81-97.

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

Pinnell, Richard T. "The Role of Francesco Corbetta (1615-1681) in the History of Music for the Baroque Guitar: Including a Transcription of His Complete Works." (diss., UCLA, 1976).

Répertoire international des sources musicales: Einzeldrucke vor 1800. RISM A/I [B 1147 and [BB 1147

Robinson, John H. "A Description of MS II.C.23 (the Medici Lute Manuscript) in the Dolmetsch Library and a Summary of Modern Studies." Lute Society of America Quarterly XLIV:3 (Fall 2009): 15-25.

Tyler, James, and Paul Sparks. The Guitar and Its Music: From the Renaissance to the Classical Era (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002): 69, 88, 177-178, 181.

VI. Exemplars

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

Condition: Plate mark varies from dark to light; thick pages with some stains at edges but very legible.

Binding: Dark white leather [original?] as in others in F-Pn; 4 green ties (all but 2 cut off); wrinkled and soiled but no major damage.

Manuscript additions:
Cover -- faded ink: "[Angiol] Michele Bartolotti Chitarra Spagnola 1640 Firenze / Del Sig. Gio. Batta [Battista?] B[. . .?]"
Inside cover -- ink: "pagata £.160 --"; white tape: "EX LIBRIS HENRY PRUNIERES" partially covered with red stamp: "BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE MUSIQUE" white tape, with crown/shield again with red stamp: "BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE MUSIQUE"

f. 1r -- pencil: "Rès. Vmf. 30"
f. 1v -- red stamp: "BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE MUSIQUE" [and f. 3r and p. 17]; red stamp: "B.N.MUS.DON 79-291 (149)"

1 blank folio at end [added??]

Inside back cover -- white tape "BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE Désinfection "

 

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

Condition: Thick pages in good condition; some light spots in plate but legible; gold- edged pages .

Binding: White leather with gold trim [original?]; very worn, folded and stained.

Manuscript additions:
1 added folio at front [or original?]
+f. 1r -- ink: "[Dit?] Giulio Medij [?]"

f. 1r -- black stamp: "MEDPALAT/BIBL.CAES" [from Florence?]; pencil: "k.8.i.2"; pencil, crossed out: "a24"
f. 1v -- red stamp: "BRITISH MUSEUM"

[some notes filled in p. 13, etc.]

p. (77) -- red stamp: "BRITISH MUSEUM 8 JU 80" [1880]

1 blank folio at end [original?]

 

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

Condition: Very dark plate mark, some smudges; page edges worn but few tears; some mildew/water stains on borders.

Binding: White paper on heavy cardboard; cover very ragged with large hole in top center. Outer layer of paper coming off and very wrinkled.

Manuscript additions:
Cover -- ink: "V245" "Bartolotti Angiol Michele / Libro 1? di Chitarra Spagnuola / Fiorenza 1640"
Spine -- ink: "Bertalotti [sic] / Lib. di / Chitarra / Spagnola"

1 added folio added at front
f. 1r -- ink, top left: "Y[V??]245"; black stamp, bottom: "ARCHIVIO MUSICALE . . . LICEO . . ." [partially off page]
f. 2r -- black stamp: "ARCHIVIO MUSICALE NEL LICEO DI BOLOGNA"

p. 1 -- stave 4, measures 4-5, beats 2-3: 4 notes seem hand written or touched up; bt. 1: 1 note and slur hand written?

p. 76 -- black stamp: "LICEO MUSICALE G.B. MARTINI BIBLIOTECA [BOLOGNA]" [partially off page]

1 added folio added at back