Nicholas Erneston Music Library

I. Overview

Bartolotti's second and final tablature is one of the most complex and well-written books in the entire Baroque guitar repertoire. It is thought to have been engraved by the composer himself; accounting for its awkward appearance but also for the accuracy and nuance of its notation. Selections from any of these suites would be excellent in concert and some of the pieces work well on the modern guitar.

Title: Secondo libro di chitarra. (Rome: n.p, c. 1655).

Description:
(5+) 105 pp., engraved [by Bartolotti?]
142 pieces
Foliation: none
Page Size -- GB-Lbl: c25 cm. (width) X 18.5 cm.
Engraved Plate Size -- GB-Lbl: 19.5 cm. X 13.4 cm.

II. Prefatory Material

f. 1r -- SECONDO LIBRO di Chitarra di Angelo Michele Bartolotti di Bologna, dedicato ALLA REAL' MAESTA DELLA REGINA DI SVETIA. Romae Superior: permissu [2 cherubs holding shield with crown and sheaf, Vasa family emblem]

f. 1v -- blank

f. 2r -- [portrait; no text]

f. 2v -- [alfabeto in Italian and French tablature:]

f. 3r -- Al Lettore: E molto tempo, che all'instanze di non poche persone, dovevo dare alle stampe questo mio secondo Libro di Sonate sopra la Chitarra: Mà per alcuni impedimenti, non ho potuto prima di hora sodisfare al desiderio di quelli, che mi richiedevano, e dal mio di servirli. Quantunque questo mio modo di sonare, sia stato da alcuni biasimato per difficile, spero però nondimeno che ciascuno in questo sia per trovare maggior facilità, che non si credeva, se osserverà tutti li segni, che son qui sotto espressi pur che non sia principiante, per il quale mi dichiaro non haver fatta la presenta fatica, mà ben' si per chi è già inoltrato in questa professione. In primis non mi servo di tutte le lettere, però bisogna farle nelli tasti, che vi dimostrerà li numeri, che saranno sopra le lettere, li colpi in sù, e in giù, sono note di musica, se si trovano sul'quinto rigo, si batti tutte le corde altrimenti non si batte, se non dove arriva li colpi, come vi dimostra l'esempio qui sotto, perche si battono presto, et adagio, secondo il valor delle note, e quando le note non toccano le

[tablature examples of arpeggio, up and downstrokes on less than five courses, lettere tagliate, letters with numbers, tenuto, trilli, mordenti, slurs appoggiature, harmonic/melodic interval division line . . .]

Lettere tagliate:

[This chord is never actually used in the tablature.]

Lettere con numeri sopra:

[The M+ chord is not used in the tablature.]

Additional chords used:

 

III. Notation

Tablature: Alfabeto and Italian tablature with measure lines, meter signs, and rhythm signs:

Note the exact placement of the rhythm signs on the course used to start a strum; rhythm signs above the staff are for plucked notes.

Range (highest fret used on each course):

Left-hand ornaments used: ' (trill), + (mordent), ^ (appoggiatura); % (arpeggio)

Instrument: 5-course guitar

IV. Indices

There are several suites in a variety of different tonalities.

Index of Pieces (all for solo guitar):

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, Angelo Michele [composer]
SECONDO LIBRO di Chitarra di Angelo Michele Bartolotti di Bologna, dedicato ALLA REAL' MAESTA DELLA REGINA DI SVETIA. Romae Superior: permissu / f. 1r

[QUEEN CHRISTINA of Sweden]
REGINA DI SVETIA SECONDO LIBRO di Chitarra di Angelo Michele Bartolotti di Bologna, dedicato ALLA REAL' MAESTA DELLA REGINA DI SVETIA. Romae Superior: permissu / f. 1r

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).

Eisenhardt, Lex. "Bourdons as Usual." Lute Society Journal (UK) XLVII (2007): 1-37.

________. "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.

________. "A Few More Observations on Baroque Guitar Stringing." Lute Society Journal (UK) XLVIII (2008): 71-75.

Répertoire international des sources musicales: Einzeldrucke vor 1800. RISM A/I [B 1148

Tyler, James, and Paul Sparks. The Guitar and Its Music: From the Renaissance to the Classical Era (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002): 70, 89.

VI. Exemplars

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

Condition: stained in borders (water?); very light plate but legible; plates much darker towards end of the book

Binding: recent red leather binding with gold letters on spine: "ANGELO MICHELE BARTOLOTTI / 2DO LIBRO DI CHITARRA ROMA"

Manuscript additions:
Spine -- brown tape: "k5" and "a10"
Inside front cover -- pencil: "=/ 120"; pencil: "AR 1724 M."

2 added folios at front
+f. 2v -- pencil: "k.5.a.10"

[ff. numbered 1-55 in pencil throughout]

f. 2v -- red stamp: "BRITISH MUSEUM 18/34 OCT" [and pp. 1, 9, 11, 25, 29, 41, 43, 53, 55, 63, 65, 81, (105)]
misnumbered pages:

original 26 29 27 28 30 31 33 32 34 should be: 26 [27] [28] [29] 30 31 [32] [33] 34

A copy is available in microfilm and in facsimile from Minkoff, 1984 (ISBN: 2826607499).