Nicholas Erneston Music Library

I. Overview

Colonna's fifth and final guitar tablature combines material from his first four books, in addition to newer pieces: 148 from Colonna 1620a, 10 from Colonna 1620b, 8 from Colonna 1623, and 11 from Colonna 1627. There are 14 new pieces found only in this book (see index).

Title: Intavolatura di chitarra spagnuola del primo, secondo, terzo, & quarto Libro. (Milan: Dionisio Gariboldi, 1637).

Description:
72 pp. in movable type
191 pieces
Foliation: (A)BCDEFGHI (4 ff. each)
Page Size -- I-Bc: 14.5 cm. (width) X 20.6 cm.; GB-Lbl: 14.3 cm. X 20 cm.

II. Prefatory Material

p. (1) -- INTAVOLATURA DI CHITARRA SPAGNUOLA Del primo, secondo, terzo, & quarto Libro . . .

p. (2) -- blank

p. (3) -- SONETTO / D'INCERTO / In lode / DELL'AUTTORE . . . [poem to Colonna]

p. (4) -- MADRIGALE / D'INCERTO . . . DEL MEDEMO . . . [2 poems]

p. 5 -- A'LETTORI . . . [rules for strokes, dots; triple time . . . rule for tuning three guitars: 1. tune grande; 2. mezana is "one tone" higher--the a on the 5th course of the grande = 3rd course of the mezana; 3. the piccola guitar is a P4 higher than mezana-- the a. 4th pic. = 3rd mez.; 4. alfabeto chords in agreement: I grande = A mezana = C piccola. This results in the following tunings, assuming bourdons on the fourth and fifth courses (Colonna does not mention the exact stringing):]

p. 6 -- Alfabeto chart:

 

 

[The S, T, Y and & chords are only used in the passacagli. Other chords used in the tablature:]

III. Notation

Tablature: Alfabeto and stroke signs are used, but meter and rhythmic signs occur inconsistently and there are no barlines. Triple meter pieces are marked "3" while no other meter sign is used.

Instrument: 5-course guitar

IV. Indices

Many of these pieces are from Colonna's first four books (see the last column). Title information in brackets [ ] is editorial; information in parentheses ( ) is from the table of contents.

Index of Pieces (solo guitar):

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 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:

COLONNA, Gio. Ambrosio [composer]
INTAVOLATURA . . . di Gio. Ambrosio Colonna / p. (1) [t.p. ]

. . . ò gran COLONNA, . . . / p. (3) [poem to]

GARIBOLDI, Dionisio [printer]
IN MILANO, Per Dionisio Gariboldi . . . / p. (1) [t.p. ]

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).

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.

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 A/I [C 3458

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

GB-Lbl = Great Britain: London, The British Library (visited in 1992)

Condition: some dark stains; pages patched (cut at some point?); marginalia goes off the page. Some bad bleeding on thinner pages (pp. 35-36, etc.)

Binding: recent dark marroon binding with gold trim; gold letters on spine: "COLONNA. INTAVOLATURA DI CHITARRA SPAGNUOLA MILANO. 1637."

Spine -- brown tape: "K8" and "[f]9"
2 added folios at front
+f. 2 -- thinner than +f. 1; original?
+f. 2r -- "Un libro de Ghittara alla spagnuola / [?]ode[s]o Sollide [Suuelib.?]" [??]
+f. 2v -- "K8 f 6 [marked out] 3 [xx] 9" [pencil]; "b16" [pencil; marked out]

f. 1r -- "b16" [pencil; marked out]; "K8 f 6 [marked out] 3 [xx] 9" [pencil]; "Sig. An[tonio?] Maria Mi[gliri?; j?] " [ink]; bottom: "Antonio Mar. Migli[ri?]" [ink]
f. 1v -- red stamp: "BRITISH MUSEUM"

p. 5 -- [illegible marginalia in ink]
p. 31 -- bottom: "Marcus Plinius Odescat[uy? or ij?] possidet Eund libros" [ink]
p. (72) -- red stamp: "BRITISH MUSEUM 5 JA 81" [1881]

2 added folios at end [first original?]
+f. 1r -- drawing of a flower [blue and brown pencil]
+f. 1v -- red stamp: "BRITISH MUSEUM 5 JA 81"

A copy is available in microfilm and a facsimile is available from Arnaldo Forni (1978).

 

I-Bc = Italy: Bologna, Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale G. B. Martini (visited in 1991-1992)

Condition: outer pages very mildewed; inner pages better. Edges good; no major damage

Binding: dark cardboard; taped on spine and at edges; worn but sturdy, possibly 17th century?

Manuscript additions:
Spine: "BIBLIOTECA NAZIONALE SALA DELLE QUATTROCENTINE" [white tape w/ purple ink]

Cover: "Y145 / Colonna Gio. Ambrosio / Intavolatura di Chitarra Spagnuola / Milan 1637 // Parte unica" [ink]
Spine: "145" [white tape]
Inside cover: "Ad usum Don Leonardi / Meyeri. Ao 1648." [ink]

p. (1) -- blue stamp: "BIBLIOTECA DEL LICEO MUSICALE DI BOLOGNA"
p. 16 (1st*) -- line 1: 3 strokes added; 3 upstrokes changed to F, E, and K [probably spurious]; line 3: Passacalli changed to Passacalio [?]

* [pp. 9-16 recur: . . . 15, 16, 9, 10 . . . 16, 17]

p. 14 (2nd) -- "sopra'L" > E [xx; title changed and scribbles added]
p. 22 -- "Folias" > "Folia" [xx]; l.1: I > F; l.2: P > R; upstroke > K; upstroke > E; upstroke > F; l.3: P > R [xxxxxx]
p. 23 -- title added: "Spagnolette diverse" [various markings in ink]

p. (72) -- black stamp: "LICEO MUSICALE G.B. MARTINI/ BIBLIOTECA/ BOLOGNA"