Nicholas Erneston Music Library

I. Overview

This book contains a cycle of passacagli going from F minor to E major, as well as several allemanda-corrente-sarabanda suites. This is Corbetta's last guitar book before he left Italy to pursue a career north of the Alps.

Title: Varii capricii per la ghittara spagnuola . . . ([Milan]: n.p., 1643).

Description:
80 pp., engraved
43 pieces (solo guitar); 1 piece (guitar and basso continuo); and a basso continuo treatise (5 pp.)
Foliation: none
Page Size -- I-Bc: 29.2 cm. (width) X 14.5 cm.; GB-Lbl: c28.3 cm. X 13.5 cm.; US-Wc 38 cm. X 13.8 cm.
Plate Size -- I-Bc: 25.3 cm. (width) X 10.5 cm.; GB-Lbl: 26 cm. X 10.5 cm; US-Wc 25.5 cm. X 10.3 cm.

II. Prefatory Material

p. (1) -- VARII CAPRICII PER LA GHITTARA SPAGNUOLA / DI FRANCESCO CORBETTA PAVESE / AL ALT.A SEREN.A / DI CARLO II. DUCA / DI MANTOA E MONFERRATO etc. // Blancus F. Mediolani. [engraved plate]; [in US-Wc exemplar: p. 1 contents equal GB-Lbl, but the text has been reset and takes up less of the page, with some different spellings [protettione > protezione]; but: ". . . così dilicato sono" is, in US-Wc, ". . . così dilicato suono" and again after "formeranno" [was this page too empty looking in the earlier [?] US-Wc exemplar, so they reset the type to fill it out more later?]

p. (2) -- blank [Two pages from the facsimile, the dedication "Serenissimo Signore dated 30 October 1643 and the poem "AL SERENISSIMO SIGNOR DUCA DI MANTOA", are missing from the I-Bc and US-Wc exemplars, but seem appropriate to this book and are present in the GB-Lbl exemplar.]

p. 3 -- [portrait:] "AL CIELO DEGLI ONORI ALTO, E IMMORTALE SI VOLA SOL DELA VIRTU CON L'ALE[?] / FRANCESCO CORBETTA PAVESE ACADEM.CO TRA GL'ERRANTI DI BRESCIA IL CAPRICCIOSO Di Etta d'Anni 28 / Cp[?]. Bianchi Fec. in Milano."

p. 4 -- Eccoli ó virtuoso il mio secondo Librò gia promesso ti nel'mio primo, qual'in esso vedrai, e sentirai altro modo perfetionato per Sonar questo Stromento, tanto da mé gradito. Ma averti che se tú non sai Principio nonne caverai niente poiche per i principianti diedi[?] fuori il mio primo non manchi dunque se desideri suonar bene questi miei deboli capricij Esser studioso, e patiente riel farli che sperone restarai a pieno satisfatto. Ho posto in queste sedeci Lettere anc[?]ho sedeci Pasachalli per ciascheduna Lettera con l'attacco duna Lettera in l'altra et avertiche delli numeri che vettrai sopra le righe, quali dinotano le corde, se li sarà la Botta apresso, la balterai piu dolce, é delicata, chesij possibile quando no[n] anderá picigata, e le lettere che averanno presso qual che numero con la Botta avanti farai la lettera é giungerai col deto che piu ti accomoda Sopra quel numero e poi la batterai. Hor à questo e il segno dello strascio [slur] questo del tremolo [.T.] e questo del tremolo sforzato o'accento come [vi?] voglia mdire[?] [#] qual credo comedico non essendo principiante, il saperai, li ho messo di piu per perfetionar meglio questo stromento il modo disuonar Sopra la parte un Basso Continuo con tutte le sue Consonanze piu Famigliari con una sinfonia, a 2; si che habbi particularcura che del tutte ne riescerai bene. [this page is typeset, not engraved in the US-Wc exemplar]

p. 5 -- Tavola dell'Opera [index]

p. 6 -- Alfabeto

 

[The chords Q, S, T, X, Y, and Z are not used. Other chords called for in the tablature:]

 

III. Notation

Tablature: Mixed tablature. Ornaments: .T. (tremolo) and # (vibrato); sometimes .T. fully marked with fret number: .T.4.

Range (highest fret used on each course):

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. Each passacaglia but the last modulates to the key of the next one. Return to text

Index of Genres (solo guitar only):

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:

BIANCHI, G. [engraver]
G. Bianchi Fec. in Milano / p. 3

CARLO II
VARII CAPRICII PER LA GHITTARA SPAGNUOLA DI FRANCESCO CORBETTA PAVESE . . . AL ALT.A SEREN.A DI CARLO II. DUCA DI MANTOA E MONFERRATO etc. / p. (1) [t.p.]

[poem dedicated to:] AL SERENISSIMO SIGNOR DUCA DI MANTOA . . . / p. ?

CORBETTA, Francesco (Pavese) [composer]
VARII CAPRICII PER LA GHITTARA SPAGNUOLA DI FRANCESCO CORBETTA PAVESE . . . / p. (1)

[around portrait:] AL CIELO DEGLI ONORI ALTO, E IMMORTALE SI VOLA SOL DELA VIRTU CON L'ALE[?] FRANCESCO CORBETTA PAVESE ACADEM.CO TRA GL'ERRANTI DI BRESCIA IL CAPRICCIOSO Di Etta d'Anni 28 / p. 3

[dedication signed:] Milano il dì 30. Ottobre 1643 . . . Francesco Corbetta. / p. ?

MEDIOLANI [?], Blancus [engraver??]
Blancus F. Mediolani / 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).

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

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

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

________. "Reviews: E:Mbn. Ms. M811--Libro de Diferentes Cifras de Gitara escogidas de los mejores autores (1705), study and edition by Francisco Alonso Valdivia Sevilla (Madrid: Sociedad de la Vihuela, 2008)." Lute Society Journal (UK) XLVII (2007): 117-118.

________. Baroque Guitar Stringing: A Survey of the Evidence. Lute Society Booklets, No. 9. (Guildford: Lute Society, 2003, rev. 2008).

________. "Was Foscarini also Weird? Baroque Guitar Tablature for the Perplexed." Lute Society Journal (UK) XLIX (2009): 49-69.

________. "Francesco Corbetta: A Biography." Lute Society Journal (UK) LIII (2013): 18-48.

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).

________. "Alternate Sources for the Printed Guitar Music of Francesco Corbetta (1615-1681)." Journal of the Lute Society of America IX (1976): 62-85.

________. Francesco Corbetta and the Baroque Guitar: With a Transcription of His Works (Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1980).

Répertoire international des sources musicales: Einzeldrucke vor 1800. RISM A/I [C 3651

Tyler, James, and Paul Sparks. The Guitar and Its Music: From the Renaissance to the Classical Era (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002): 67, 88.

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

VI. Exemplars

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

Condition: Very worn plates with much bleeding (much practical use?); page edges worn and dirty; very light in places.

Binding: Recent dark maroon hard-cover with gold trim; spine: "CORBETTA. VARII CAPRICII PER LA CHITTARA SPAGNUOLA"

Manuscript additions:
Spine -- brown tape: "k10" and "[a]4"
4 added folios at front

p. (1) -- pencil: "k10a4"; pencil, marked out: "c.48.b.1. k.1.i.15"; brownish ink below shield: "Di Gasparo Gherardini"
p. (2) -- ink: "Libro stupendiss.mo per suonar la Chittarra"; red stamp: "BRITISH MUSEUM"
[p. 3 -- horns (!) added to angels -- same ink, 2 on each one]
p. 4 -- top left [original comment above paragraph crossed out]; ink, after end of paragraph: "bene bene bene bene bene bene beniss.mo" [??]
p. 5 -- bottom right in index: "Del marc.se P[G]asparo Gherardini"

p. 40 -- stave 1, measure 4, and on the and of beat 2: 3rd/0 > 2
p. 43 -- ink, st. 4: [tablature fragment added: see NB]
p. 54 -- [. . .? . . Dal Livb??] illegible
p. 67 -- at end, ink: "La favorita"
p. 81 -- end, st. 2 "Di G.G."; st. 3-4, added by hand: "Cor.e Accord.Fr.e"
p. (82) -- ink: "Di Gasparo Gherardino Veronese Sig.r mio Oss.mo"; red stamp: "BRITISH MUSEUM 11 JY [18]77"
4 folios added at end

 

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

Condition: Plate marks from dark to very light; some mildew on outer border; pp. 69 ff. rought cut at bottom.

Binding: Dark grey cardboard; page edges folded back and torn at corners; spine loose and partially missing at top.

Manuscript additions:
Cover -- upper left, ink: "Y.171" "Corbetta Francesco / Varii Capricci per la chitarra Spagnuola / Libro Secondo . . . Milano 16 . ."
Spine -- white tape over blue tape: "Y171"

[FACS. NOTE 1.33/ MF note 112]

p. (1) -- upper left, ink: "Y171"; blue stamp, top right and bottom: "BIBLIOTECA NEL LICEO MUSICALE DI
BOLOGNA" [and p. 3]
[p. (2) blank]
[p. 3 not as in facsimile: straight to portrait]

[some numbers in facsimile filled in by hand? Not I-Bc but 1643a from GB-Lbl? both?]

[p. 47 -- dotted quarter in facsimile dotted eighth originally (engraved, not by hand); possible corrigenda or highlighting in similar ink?]

p. 80 -- black stamp: "LICEO MUSICALE G.B. MARTINI BIBLIOTECA BOLOGNA"
p. 81 -- missing in I-Bc

 

US-Wc = United States: Washington, DC, Library of Congress, Music Division (visited in 2012)

Condition: page edges colored red (all 3 sides); dark plates but legible; sturdy paper with tears and normal wear; used but not abused . . .

Binding: Morocan leather with gold decoration [seems to be period]; with tie holes: 2 on fore-edge, one on top and bottom [no ties remain]

sticker on front: "M 126 C83"; sticker on spine [mostly missing:] "Corbetta . . ."

inside front cover: "MLHC [?]" plate; LC bookplate: "THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 1800" and "Class" "M 126 [pencil]" "Book" "C 83 case [pencil]"; older ink obscured by plate: ". . . Zan... in Mantua . . . 25" [?]

2 fly leaves, first covered in mylar with an acidic auction catalog inscription [type] in French

on 2nd fly leaf recto: bookplate of woman with guitar signed "A. Rivera [?] 1621" [modern]

2 blank fly leaves in back as well; inside back cover: pencil: "06[1?]" "/12 96" "n p / coll . . . [illegible]"

Manuscript additions:
f. 1r [title page engraving]: colored in red and blue; pencil: "363/7" and "LC" stamp with small holes in margin;
f. 1v, pencil "M 126 .C83 case" and "acc. 410706" and "243 236 . . . 17"

p. 8, st. 4, last m.: H3 > N3
p. 9, st. 2, m. 1, bt. 1: 1/4th added [?]; bt. 2: ?/3rd > 2/3rd
p. 11, st. 3, m. 2, bt. 1: 3/3rd added under 1/5th [or just very light??]
p. 14, st. 1, m. 4, last note: 2/3rd added; other numbers seem to be highlighted in original ink, from too light an imprint--not listed here

p. 75, bottom margin below engraving imprint: tablature fragment [appears to be 6-line tab for lute or maybe with an extra line guitar?; staff drawn in sloppily by hand; doesn't seem to line up with the piece above]
p. 78, more added tab, below st. 2, m. 2
p. 79, more added tab, below st. 2, m. 4 [seems to intabulate the 1/16th notes above, in guitar tab with an extra line]
p. 81, 3rd and 4th staves blank [verso completely blank, without staves]