Nicholas Erneston Music Library

I. Overview

This is the last edition of the book and most resembles Millioni/Monte . As in all of these later editions, the stroke alignment is so poor that the book can hardly be used.

Title: Vero e facil modo d'imparare a sonare, et accordare da se medesimo la chitarra spagnuola . . . (Venetia: Domenico Lovisa, 1737).

Description:
48 pp. [+ song section] in movable type
51+ pieces [+18 songs]
Foliation: ABC (8 ff. each)
Page Size -- F-Pn: 14.2 cm. (width) X 9.4 cm.

II. Prefatory Material

p. (1) -- VERO / E FACIL MODO D'IMPARARE / A SONARE, ET ACCORDARE DA SE MEDESIMO / La Chitarra Spagnuola, . . . IN VENETIA, MDCCXXXVII. Per Domenico Lovisa à Rialto. Con Licenza de'Superiori. [title page; equals Millioni/Monte 1652, but with a roughly-drawn guitar pointing to the left; guitar has 5 strings, 4+ pegs, 5 frets]

pp. (2)-18 -- [equals Millioni/Monte 1673a, except on p. 6 where the + chord is missing.]

[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. (49) -- NOVISSIME CANZONETTE MUSICALI DE DIVERSI AUTTORI . . . IN VENETIA, MDCCXXXVII. Per Domenico Lovisa à Rialto. . . Con Licenza de'Superiori. [section of songs with text only; no melody or alfabeto chords]

III. Notation

Tablature:Alfabeto and stroke signs only; no meter or rhythm signs, or barlines. Horrible stroke alignment, quite far from the horizontal line. Repeat signs are a flower symbol and the end is marked "fine.". Songs on pp. 50-62: with text only and no alfabeto.

Instrument: 5-course guitar

IV. Indices

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

Index of Pieces:

Notes:
1. This piece should have come after the Ballo del Monte Verde on p. 21. Return to text

Index of Pieces (songs with text only--no melody or alfabeto chords):

Notes:
2. The previous page (50) is blank. 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:

LOVISA, Domenico [printer]
. . . IN VENETIA, MDCCXXXVII. Per Domenico Lovisa à Rialto. . . "/ p. (1)

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 MILLIONI, ET LODOVICO MONTE COMPAGNI. . . / 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. 586

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

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

VI. Exemplars

F-Pc > F:Pn = France: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, épartement de la Musique (visited in 1992)

Condition: Very thin, rag-like paper; ragged edges.

Binding: Recent hard-cover with multi-colored design and red spine with gold: ". . . [tape-]ARRA SPAGNUOLA" and at bottom: "B.DU C/DE/MUSIQUE" [covered by tape]

[Inside front cover -- p. 95 of Milioni entry in German pasted on; signed "Berlin 17/12.87 Wilh. Tappert"]

3 added folios at front
"Rés 821-822" pencil

p. (1) -- "Rés 821" pencil
p. (2) -- green stamp: "CONSERVATOIRE DE MUSIQUE BIBLIOTHEQUE: [ink:] 23009"
"Rés. 822" pencil

p. 16 [of songbook] -- green stamp: "CONSERVATOIRE DE MUSIQUE BIBLIOTHEQUE: [ink:] 23009"

3 added folios at back