Nicholas Erneston Music Library

I. Overview

This is an expanded version of Millioni/Monte 1637, with 16 additional pieces and 18 songs with text and alfabeto only. Surprisingly, all of the additional solo guitar pieces are taken from Milanuzzi 1623, pp. 45-48 and 52-54, in their same order (see index). Unlike Milioni/Monte's earlier books, some of the new pieces for solo guitar use meter signatures "C" and "3"), but not barlines as in Milanuzzi's book.

Title: Vero e facil modo d'imparare a sonare, et accordare da se medesimo la chitarra spagnuola . . . (Venice: Francesco Vieceri, 1644).

Description:
64 pp. in movable type
48 pieces (also, 18 songs with text and chords only)
Foliation: ABCD (8 ff. each)
Page Size -- I-Bc: 14.5 cm. (width) X 9.3 cm.

II. Prefatory Material

p. (1) -- VERO / E FACIL MODO D'IMPARARE / A SONARE, ET ACCORDARE DA SE MEDESIMO / La Chitarra Spagnuola, non solo con l'Alfabeto, & accordatura / ordinarij, ma anco con un'altro Alfabeto, & accordatura / straordinarij, nuovamente inventati. / DA PIETRO MILIONI, ET LODOVICO MONTE COMPAGNI. / Con una Regola per imparare il modo d'accordare sei Chitarre, per po/terle sonare insieme in concerto, ciaschuna per differente chiave. / IN VENETIA, Presso Francesco Vieceri MDCXXXXIIII. [title page; guitar reversed from Millioni/Monte 1647; seems more like an arch-backed guitar--better detail than 'Millioni/Monte 1647: 8 pegs, 7 strings]

pp. 2-10 -- contents = Millioni/Monte 1637

[Alfabeto:]

[The K, P, Q, R, V, and X chords are not used.]

[Alfabeto Straordinario: works with same pieces as normal alfabeto, but with A-c#-f#-c-e' tuning:]

 

p. 32 -- ALFABETTO ET INTAVOLATURA / Per la Chitarra alla Spagnuola [additional alfabeto for C and D fascicles]:

[Verbal Alfabeto (with fingerings):]

[The +, K, N, Q, S, T, V, X, Y, Z, &, Con, and Ron chords are not used in this section (pp. 33-48).]

III. Notation

Tablature: Alfabeto and stroke signs only; no rhythm signs or barlines. Meter signs are used only on pp. 33-48. Repeat signs are a hand symbol and the end is marked "fine."

Instrument: 5-course guitar

IV. Indices

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

Index of Pieces (solo guitar):

Notes:

1. The titles of these last three pieces are contained in the index to Milanuzzi 1623 and appear to be identical to the ones found in this book. Return to text

Index of Pieces (songs with text and guitar accompaniment--no melody):

 

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 (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:

MILIONI, Pietro
VERO E FACIL MODO D'IMPARARE A SONARE . . . DA PIETRO MILIONI, ET LODOVICO MONTE COMPAGNI. . . / p. (1)

MONTE, Lodovico
VERO E FACIL MODO D'IMPARARE A SONARE . . . DA PIETRO MILIONI, ET LODOVICO MONTE COMPAGNI. . . / p. (1)

VIECERI, Francesco [printer]
IN VENETIA, Presso Francesco Vieceri / 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).

Boye, Gary R. "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).

Boye, Gary R. "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).

Répertoire international des sources musicales: Einzeldrucke vor 1800. RISM B/VI/2 p. 585

Tyler, James, and Paul Sparks. The Guitar and Its Music: From the Renaissance to the Classical Era (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002): 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-Bc = Italy: Bologna, Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale G. B. Martini (visited in 1991-1992)

Condition: Ragged page edges but little damage; very legible.

Binding: Marbled like Millioni 1627a but with larger spots; fairly worn; no decoration on spine.

Manuscript additions:
Cover -- White tape: "AA 347"; pink tape: "AA" and spine [partially missing and obscured] "-ioni / -nte C"; blue tape: "347" and spine "347"
Inside Cover -- "5309" ink; one blank page added at front
Spine -- "-rra Spagn." [partly missing]; blue tape: "348"

added f. r -- "5(3)09"
p. (1) -- black stamp: "ARCHIVIO MUSICALE NEL LICEO DI BOLOGNA"
p. 64 -- black stamp: "LICEO MUSICALE G.B. MARTINI BIBLIOTECA BOLOGNA"

 

US-BEm = United States: Berkeley, California, University of California, Music Library (visited in 2015)

Condition: original pages are extremely thin and fragile, with large sections missing; pages have been reinforced with a stronger modern paper to form complete pages; upper right hand corner of all pages MISSING; ends at p. 16--the rest is MISSING

Binding: old calfskin; 1 blank folio added at front

Manuscript additions:

white sticker on cover with black ink: "tMT582 M55 1644" typed: "CASE" and black ink: "X"
inside front cover, pencil: "III 28"

f. A1v, pencil: [pencil tests, indistinguishable aside from a letter "a"]