Nicholas Erneston Music Library

I. Overview

One of the earliest and largest of the early battuto-style tablatures, this is the first of five books by Colonna. Much of the material in this book recurs in later works Colonna 1620b, Colonna 1623, Colonna 1627, and Colonna 1637. Because there are no barlines, rhythm or meter signs, this work is particularly difficult to read and is of mostly historical significance.

Title: Intavolatura di chitarra alla spagnuola. (Milan: heirs of Gio. Battista Colonna, 1619).

Description:
(8) + 64 pp. in movable type
163 pieces
Foliation: 4 ff. + ABCD 8 ff. each

II. Prefatory Material

f. 1r -- INTAVOLATURA DI CHITARRA Alla Spagnuola. Dove si contengono Passacalli, Follie, & altre Arie alla Spagnuola. Pass'emezi, Gagliarde, Corrente, & Arie diverse all'Italiana, con facilità passeggiate, & concertate per sonare à due, & trè Chitarre. Con una sonata in fine in Ecco detta la Beolca. Da Gio. Ambrosio Colonna novamente data in luce, & dedicata. . . . IN MILANO, Nella Stampa dell'her.di Gio. Battista Colonna, Con licenza de' Superiori. 1620. [title page]

f. 1v -- blank

f. 2r -- [dedication to Giulio Cesare Borromeo]

f. 2v -- [dedication signed:] Dalla Stampa alli 12. Decembre. 1619. Di V.S. Illustrissima Humilliss. & Devotiss. servit. Gio. Ambrosio Colonna.

f. 3r -- MADRIGALE D'INCERTO. Forse di Lethe il Fiume . . . [poem 1]

f. 3v -- MADRIGALE Del Signor ADRIANO DE LEGGI. Qualhor Colonna tocchi. [poem 2]

f. 4r -- Alli Lettori. Non havendo, per mezo della Stampa: . . . [Colonna states he has invented a new type of tablature, with full strokes above and below the line, the alfabeto, and rhythm signs. The dots are equal to those of normal dotted rhythms in standard notation. The Passacalli, Follie, Arie sopra le Follie, Spagnolette, Gagliarde and correnti are "in proportione", the rest at "uno stesso tempo" . . .]

f. 4v -- alfabeto. [numbers for shifted chords explained]:

 

 

 

[All chords are used, but the following are only used in the passacagli: S, T, Y, H5, M2, M5, N2, N5, and the chords on the symbols Con, &, *]

p. 59 -- Regola per incordare le Chitarre per sonare di concerto. . . . [Rules for tuning three guitars together (called "grande," "mezana," and "piccola." The fifth course of the grande guitar is tuned to the third of the mezana; the third of mezzana to the fourth of the piccola. This results in the following three tunings, using a hypothetical standard guitar pitch: G-c-f-a-d' (grande guitar), A-d-g-b-e' (mezzana guitar), and d-g-b-e'-a' (piccola guitar). In these tuning, the three guitars would all be playing the same chord on the following alfabeto letters (from grande to piccola): I, A, and C.]

Such instructions became fairly common for the early strummed repertoire and indicates that the playing of two or more guitars of different sizes in an ensemble was fairly common.

III. Notation

Tablature: Alfabeto and stroke signs only, without measure lines, meter or rhythm signs:

Instrument: 5-course guitar

IV. Indices

There is a wide variety of pieces in this first book, many of them are reprinted in later books by Colonna (see the last column).

Contents (all for solo guitar):

Note: no meter is given in this book, but where it can be assumed it is given in [ ].

Notes:

1. The 26 short, four-measure passacagli are in the following keys: G, C, D, Am, Dm, E, F, Bb, A, Bbm, Cm, Eb, Ab, Gm, Fm, F#, B, E, A, F#m, Bm, G, C, C#, Em, F. They are used to teach the various letters of the alfabeto, therefore several keys are given more than once and not all major and minor keys are used. Return to text

Index of Genres:

The following chart summarizes the 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:

BANFI, Cesare BALETTO. All'Illustre Signor mio osservandissimo Il Signor Cesare Banfi. / p. 56 [individual piece dedicated to]

BEOLCHO, Federico La Beolc(h)a. Al Molt'Illustre Signor mio osservandissimo il Signor Federico Beolcho. /p. 48 [individual piece dedicated to]

La Beolca. /p. 49 [title of piece]

BORROMEO, Giulio Cesare [book patron] . . . dedicata All'Ill.mo Sig. mio Sig. & Patrone Colendis.mo il Sig. Conte Giulio Cesare Borromeo . . . / f. 1r [dedication to]

All'Illust.mo Sig.re mio Sig.or & Padrone Colendis.mo il Sig. Giulio Cesare Borromeo Conte d'Arona, Signore, & Feudatario di Vogogna, Canobio, Intra, Omegna, Laveno, & Camayrago. / f. 2r [dedication to]

. . . Stauvi CESARE invitto. . . / f. 3r [poem]

COL(L)ONNA, Gio. Ambrosio [composer] INTAVOLATURA DI CHITARRA Alla Spagnuola . . . Da Gio. Ambrosio Colonna . . . / f. 1r [t.p. ]

[dedication signed:] Dalla Stampa alli 12. Decembre. 1619. Di V.S. Illustrissima Humilliss. & Devotiss. servit. Gio. Ambrosio Colonna. / f. 2v

. . . Dite, ó Colonna di virtú sostegno. . . / f. 3r [poem to]

Qualhor Colonna tocchi Le corde me gradite . . . / f. 3v [poem to]

Intavolatura di Chitarra alla Spagnola Gio. Ambrosio Collonna [sic] / p. 1

Intavolatura di Chitarra alla Spagnola Gio. Ambrosio Colonna / pp. 17, 33, and 49

COLONNA, Gio. Battista [printer] . . . IN MILANO, Nella Stampa dell'her. di Gio. Battista Colonna, . . . / f. 1r [t.p.]

GABRIELLI, Francesco Aria alla Piemontesa (-e) Cantata dal Virtuoso Signor Francesco Gabrielli detto Scapino. / p. 58 [individual piece dedicated to]

LEGGI, Adriano de [poet] MADRIGALE Del Signor ADRIANO DE LEGGI. . . . / f. 3v

MANZOLI, Giulio Cesare ARIA. All'Illustre Signor mio osservandissimo il Signor Giulio Cesare Manzoli. / p. 55 [individual piece dedicated to]

PONZONE, Alfiero Corrente detta la Ponzona. All'Illustre Signor mio osservandissimo il Signor Alfiero Ponzone. / p. 50 [individual piece dedicated to]

Corrente detta la Ponzona. / p. 51 [title of piece]

ROSSI, Christoforo Aria de Passacallo. Al Molto Magnifico, & Molto Reverendo Signor mio osservandissimo il Signor Christoforo Rossi, dignissimo Cantore in Santa Maria della Scala. / p. 54 [individual piece dedicated to]

TOSO, Gabrio Gagliarda detta la Tosa. All'Illustre Signor mio osservandissimo il Signor Gabrio Toso. / p. 52 [individual piece dedicated to]

V. Bibliography

Boye, Gary R. "Giovanni Battista Granata and the Development of Printed Guitar Music in Seventeenth-Century Italy" (diss., Duke University, 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).

BUC (The British Union Catalog), Edith B. Schnapper. The British Union-Catalogue of Early Music Printed before the Year 1801: A Record of the Holdings of Over One Hundred Libraries throughout the British Isles. London: Butterworths, 1957.

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

Hudson, Richard. "Chordal Aspects of the Italian Dance Style." Journal of the Lute Society of America III (1970): 35-52.

________. 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 A/I [C 3454

Tyler, James, and Paul Sparks. The Guitar and Its Music: From the Renaissance to the Classical Era (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002): 57-58, 86.

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: thick pages; no major damage, a few stains, etc. but very legible

Binding: red/blue marbled with maroon corners and spine (recent); gold letters on spine: "COLONNA INTAVOLATURA DI CHITARRA MILANO 1620 [sic] "

Manuscript additions:

Spine: "K8" and "c15" [on brown tape]
1 added folio at front
+ f. 1r -- "d7" [pencil; crossed out]
f. 1r [t.p. ] -- "d7/kff9" [pencil; crossed out] "k8.c.15" [pencil]
f. 1v -- red stamp: "BRITISH MUSEUM"
p. 35 -- l.7 2nd A: upstroke and downstroke blacked out
p. 50 -- l.3 downstroke below G blacked out
p. (60) -- red stamp: "BRITISH MUSEUM 5 JA 81" [1881]
1 added folio at back

A copy is available in microfilm.

[**An additional copy listed in RISM as being in I-Bc is actually the Secundo libro)