ALTERNATIVE NOTATIONAL FORMATS

Continuing our jaunt through various formats of publishing or presenting notated musical forms for consumption, here is a copy of Luzzasco Luzzaschi’s O dolcezze amarissime, as it was published in 1601. This is the closest thing we have seen yet to “score” format, though rhythmically, the parts do not line up precisely. Remember that this music was written for the concerto delle donne around 20 years or so before it was published, and that Alfonso d’Este loved to boast to his guests that the singers would reproduce the music precisely as it was written, and regularly followed along himself with the music. This is a format that is designed for a non-performer or listener to observe from a bird’s-eye perspective. The basic harmonies and melodic motion (with the exception of the detailed ornaments) are reproduced in the basso seguente part (“seguente” means “following”, because the accompaniment follows the vocal parts without having new material to add), so the keyboardist would not have needed to follow the vocal parts, as well.

Next, here you can see the entire text of Giulio Caccini’s Le nuove musiche, as it was published in 1602. The first section is his preface, with grand observations about the state of musical performance and singing pedagogy at the time, as well as his own detailed instructions about how to sing ornaments, and particularly to place them properly. Look through the first few sections and find the pieces where he annotates the music in order to show the singer what to do. You can also find a translation of the preface into English, here.

Lastly for today, here is a single page of Girolamo Frescobaldi’s keyboard music (the aptly named aria della Frescobalda). This page comes from a collection of music written in “tavolatura” or tablature for the keyboard. What that actually means is that the music is really only applicable for that single instrument. Instead of pitch notation, tablature typically shows the gestures that the instrumentalist should make. In lute tablature, for example, you see which fret should be used on each string (you can see some instructions and examples here, in this book of lute pieces published by the virtuoso Alessandro Piccinini from 1623; like Caccini he has instructions on how to play the instrument at the beginning of his print). In the Frescobaldi piece, you can see that the music jumps from 6 voices to 3, then to 4. This would be difficult to play in an ensemble. Unlike other instrumental music (think about the Petrucci prints we looked at a few weeks ago), there is little flexibility here in terms of instrumentation. It is written for keyboard performance and published as such.