Nicholas Erneston Music Library

I. Overview

Of the 71 pieces in this book, 41 are new (including some with only slight alterations of earlier pieces), 25 are taken from Millioni 1627a, 2 from Millioni 1627b, and 3 from Millioni 1627c (see contents below). There is much additional material, pieces transcribed to different alfabeto letters, and a new system for tuning twelve guitars in concert. Two other editions of this source, Millioni 1635a and Millioni 1636, contain similar pieces.

Title: Corona del primo, secondo, e terzo libro d'intavolatura di chitarra spagnola. (Rome: Guglielmo Facciotti, 1631).

Description:
64 pp. in movable type
71 pieces
Foliation: none
Page Size:
I-Rv: 16.3 cm. (width) X 10.5 cm.
US-Wc: 16.5 cm (width) X 10.3 cm

II. Prefatory Material

p. [1]) CORONA DEL PRIMO, SECONDO, E TERZO LIBRO D'INTAVOLATURA DI CHITARRA SPAGNOLA DI PIETRO MILLIONI . . . In Roma, Appresso Guglielmo Facciotti. 1631. . . [title page]

p. [2]) [guitar with 8 frets, 5 courses and hand with fingers labelled]

p. 3) [verbal alfabeto: +,A, At, B, C, Ct]

p. 4) [verbal alfabeto: C5, D, Dt, E, F, G, H; no Et as in Millioni 1636]

p. 5) [verbal alfabeto: I, K, L, M, N, O, P]

p. 6) [verbal alfabeto: Q, R, S, T, V, X, Z, &]

p. 7) [false alfabeto: +f, Af, Bf, Cf, Df, Ef]

p. 8) [false alfabeto: Ff, Gf, Hf, If; note on tablature]

p. 9) [alfabeto in tablature; at bottom:] Chi volesse ancor'imparare à far le lettere per sonar' il Chitarrino, overo Chitarra Italiana per via di numeri, e linee, si servi delli medesimi numeri, e linee, lasciando però la quinta corda, & osservi la medesima regola.

pp. 10-11) [verbal alfabeto for "Chitarrino" or 4 course guitar; = above w/o 5th course]

[Alfabeto (with finger dots):]

 

 

Lettere false

 

[The Ff chord is not used. Other chords used in the tablature:]

 

p. 12) [= Millioni 1627a]

p. 13) [tuning for 4 and 5 course guitars]

p. 14) [chord corrispondence chart]

pp. 15-16) [tuning for 12 guitars]

III. Notation

Tablature: Alfabeto and stroke signs only; no meter or rhythm signs, or barlines.

Instrument: 5-course guitar

IV. Indices

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

Index of Pieces (all solo guitar):

Notes:

1. The passacagli are similar to those on pp. 17-18 of Millioni 1636, but are in a different order. 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:

FACCIOTTI, Guglielmo [printer]
In Roma, Appresso Guglielmo Facciotti. 1631 . . . / p. [1]

MILLIONI, Pietro [composer]
CORONA DEL PRIMO, SECONDO, E TERZO LIBRO D'INTAVOLATURA DI CHITARRA SPAGNOLA DI PIETRO MILLIONI . . . / 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).

________. "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).

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

Meucci, Renato. "Da 'chitarra italiana' a 'chitarrone': una nuova interpretazione." in Enrico Radesca di Foggia e il suo tempo: Atti del Convegno di studi Foggia, 7-8 Aprile 2000, Francesca Seller, ed. Strumenti della ricerca musicale collana della Società Italiana di Musicologia 5 (Lucca, Italy: Libreria Musicale Italiana, 2001), 37-57.

Répertoire international des sources musicales: Einzeldrucke vor 1800. RISM A/I [M 2836

Répertoire International des Sources Musicales. RISM B/VI/1: François Lesure, Écrits imprimés concernant la musique. Kassel: Bärenreiter-Verlag, 1971- .

Tyler, James, and Paul Sparks. The Guitar and Its Music: From the Renaissance to the Classical Era (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002): 56, 81, 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-Rv = Italy: Rome, Biblioteca Vallicelliana (visited in 1992)

Condition: some stains but crisp page edges and very legible; early pages: right-hand side folded back; much better alignment than Millioni 1636

Binding: bound in recent leather hard cover with three other books

Manuscript additions:
p. [1] -- top right: "(3" pencil and "Q VI.131" ink; black stamp: "BIBLIOTHECA VALLICELLANA"

p. [2] -- "S.Borr.Q.VI.113 (3)" pencil

p. 64 -- black stamp: "BIBLIOTHECA VALLICELLANA"

US-Wc = United States of America, Washington (D.C.), Library of Congress, Music Division (visited in 2010)

Condition: well worn but in place; page edges beginning to flake away and overall fairly dark, thin paper

Binding: In a fairly modern green box with "MILLIONI -- CORONA 1631" in gold on spine, with Library of Congress stamp; with tie; "MT 582 .M7 C7" on white stamp on front lower left of box; another internal box, opened at both ends.

Original text in white cardboard softbinding (not original?); on front in pencil: "197 170"; on inside front cover: "Registrato completo D.C. 31 carte"

MISSING pp. 63-64 (table of contents)

Manuscript additions:

title page: in pencil by "MILLIONI": "Milioni"

p. [2], pencil: "acc. 291240" "MT582 .M7 C7 197170 13"

p. 3, pencil: "H.B. 9 ?? 1929"

pp. 32-33: very dark stains on both pages; text still legible