Valdambrini 1647

Valdambrini, Ferdinando

Libro secondo d'intavolatura di chitarra a cinque ordini (1647)

I. Overview

Valdambrini's second and final tablature, closely related to the first (and bound with it in the only surviving copy). The style emphasizes the use of slurs and melody notes on top of chords, somewhat similar to that of Foscarini. The re-entrant tuning is clearly called for in the preface and in the music itself. A cycle of passacagli in the minor keys begins the book, followed by 12 capone--a rare genre of which little is known.

Title: Libro secondo d'intavolatura di chitarra a cinque ordini. (Rome: n.p., 1647).

Description:
40 pp., engraved (recto/verso)
27 pieces
Foliation: none
Page Size -- I-Rsc: 21.2 cm. (width) X 30 cm.
Engraved Plate Size -- I-Rsc: c18 cm. X 24.4 cm.

II. Prefatory Material

p. (1) -- LIBRO SECONDO D'INTAVOLATURA DI CHITARRA A CINQUE ORDINI. DI FERDINANDO VALDAMBRINI ROMANO . . . Roma con licenza de Sup. 1647 [title page]

p. (2) -- [blank]

p. 3 -- Avertimenti: [basic instructions; there is no alfabeto chart, but the following is assumed:]

+ABCDEFGHIKLMNOPS&
223000231013131314
202020233231111313
000222123230310131
031313013224413142
030201011013343121

[Other chords used in the tablature:]

C3C4G2G3G5H2H3H5H7K2K3K5K7M2M3M4M5M7
--4572357235723457
--4574579457923457
3?4?3464579457945679
4?5?23545793468567810
3?4?2352357235745679

 

N2N3N4N5N7N9P2P3P5S2S5S7
4567911457257
234579457257
234579235479
2345792355810
56781012235368

p. 4 -- L'arpeggiare e questo essempio . . . [Examples for the arpeggios, strokes, individual notes, ornaments and slurs.]

III. Notation

Tablature: Alfabeto and Italian tablature with measure lines, meter signs (triple only), and rhythm signs. Many of the chords have single numbers on the first course attached to them, as in the following example (p. 7) from a section of the fourth toccata:

Range (highest fret used on each course):

5th course11th fret
4th course9th fret
3rd course9th fret
2nd course10th fret
1st course12th fret

Left-hand ornaments used: arpeggio (%), slurs, trillo (..)

Instrument: 5-course guitar

IV. Indices

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

Index of Pieces (all solo guitar):

PageTitleKeyMeter
p. 5Passacaglia PrimoNote 1c3/[4]
p. 8Passacaglia Secondog3/[4]
p. 11Passacaglia Terzod3/[4]
p. 14Passacaglia Quartoa3/[4]
p. 17Passacaglia Quintoe3/[4]
p. 20Passacaglia Sestoc#3/[4]
p. 20Passacaglia Settimog#3/[4]
p. 21Passacaglia Ottavoeb3/[4]
p. 21Passacaglia Nonobb3/[4]
p. 22Passacaglia Decimof3/[4]
p. 22Passacaglia undecimof#3/[4]
p. 23Passacaglia Duodecimob3/[4]
p. 23Capona PrimaB3/[4]
p. 23Capona SecondaE3/[4]
p. 23Capona terzaA3/[4]
p. 24Capona QuartaD3/[4]
p. 26Capona QuintaG3/[4]
p. 28CiacconaG3/[4]
p. 28CiacconaC3/[4]
p. 31Capona SestaC3/[4]
p. 32Capona SettimaF3/[4]
p. 33CiacconaF3/[4]
p. 33Capona OttavaBb3/[4]
p. 35Capona NonaEb3/[4]
p. 35Capona DecimaAb3/[4]
p. 35Capona UndecimaEb3/[4]
p. 36Capona duodecimaF#3/[4]
pp. 37-41[basso continuo treatise]--

Notes:

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

Genres:totalmajorminormeter
Passacaglia120123/[4]
miscellaneous dances (Capona)121203/[4]
Chaconne (Ciaccona)3303/[4]
Totals:27151227 in 3/[4]

 

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.

A major1 A minor1*
B flat major1 B flat minor1*
B major1 B minor1*
C major2 C minor1*
C sharp major0 C sharp minor1*
D major1 D minor1*
E flat major2 E flat minor1*
E major1 E minor1*
F major2 F minor1*
F sharp major1 F sharp minor1*
G major2 G minor1*
A flat major1 A flat minor1*

 

Index of Names:

VALDAMBRINI, Ferdinando [composer]
LIBRO SECONDO D'INTAVOLATURA DI CHITARRA A CINQUE ORDINI DI FERDINANDO VALDAMBRINI ROMANO . . . p.(1) [title page]

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).

Répertoire international des sources musicales: Einzeldrucke vor 1800. RISM A/I [V 30

Tyler, James, and Paul Sparks. The Guitar and Its Music: From the Renaissance to the Classical Era (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002): 72-74, 88.

VI. Exemplars

I-Rsc = Italy: Roma, Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia, Biblioteca Musicale Governativa (visited in 1992)

Condition: as in 1646 with very bad tear in inner margin obscuring some music; on newer backing and rebound as before; some very blurred, spotted pages

Binding: recent blue/pink/grey marbled with white spine; bound with Valdambrini 1646

Manuscript additions:
p. (1) -- lines redone by hand; esp. "Roma con licenza de Sup. 1647"
p. (2) -- last word, after F:"oglio 4"

corrigenda in ink [by hand, brownish ink]:

p. 5 -- st. 3, last m.: 1/2 note with flag added as 3rd sign; st. 9,m. 5: downstroke added under 2-0-0-0-3 chord
p. 6 -- st. 7, m. 4: 7/1st > 6/1st
p. 7 -- st. 6, m. 2: 1/16 and 1/8 notes added (hollow)
p. 13 -- st. 6, m. 4, last bt.: slur from 0/2nd to 3
p. 16 -- st. 4, mm. 4-5, bt. 3: 1/8 note added followed by 1/2 note; 4/1st added
p. 18 -- st. 5, m. 3, & of 1: slur under 3 1/2nd; st. 7, m. 5, bt. 3: 3/2nd > 0/2nd
p. 26 -- st. 1, m. 1: 0/1st added; p. (30) -- > "20" [highlighted incorrectly?]
p. 32 -- st. 7, m. 4, last note: 3/1st added; st. 9, end: slash added
p. 33 -- st. 2, m. 6, bt. 1: 0/3rd > 2/3rd; st. 6, m. 7: 1/4 and 1/8 notes added [hollow]
p. 34 -- st. 9, m. 3, bt. 1: 3/2nd > 4/2nd; bt. 3: 2?/3rd > 3/3rd; m. 4, bt. 1: downstroke added
p. 35 -- st. 3, mm. 2-5: rhythm added; st. 6, m. 6, bt. 2: 5?/2nd > 6/2nd; st. 7, m. 5, bt. 1: downstroke added

p. 40 -- purple stamp: [ANNULLATO]
3 added folios at end

A copy is available in microfilm.


© Copyright Gary R. Boye 1995–2024

© Copyright Gary R. Boye 1995–2022

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