Embellishments 10: Spotlight: Lute Music and Intabulations

Lute Music and Intabulations

The repertoire for lute is colorful and varied, with the music extending from original compositions to transcriptions. The literature is represented well among A-R’s publications, with a number of volumes in both the Renaissance and Baroque series devoted to it, along with a single edition of lute music in the series Collegium Musicum: Yale University. These publications include music for vihuela and extend to other related instruments.

Among these publications, Donna Cardamone Jackson’s edition of Canzoni villanesche and Villanelle is notable for its focus on two kinds of compositions. In addition to the models by other composers, Jackson includes in this edition various intabulations for lute, cittern, and keyboard. The importance of these intabulations emerges in the highly informative introduction to this volume.

Another unique Recent Researches volume is David Buch’s edition of Gaultier’s La Rhetorique des Dieux, which is published here in both transcription and facsimile. The facsimile itself is published as a supplement, and it contains both the tablature for the work as well as the original set of illustrations that accompanied it.

The publications of lute music and intabulations highlighted here call attention to a fascinating repertoire which encompasses various styles. From the Renaissance through the Baroque eras, and even across national boundaries, the music for lute and related instruments published in the Recent Researches series makes available unique publications of this literature in modern critical editions.♦

Recent Researches in the Music of the Renaissance

Esteban Daza
The Fantasias for Vihuela
Edited by John Griffiths
R 54

Orlando di Lasso and others
Canzoni villanesche and Villanelle
Edited by Donna Cardamone Jackson
R 82–83

Robert White
The Instrumental Music
Edited by Irwin Spector
R 12

Adrian Willaert and his circle
Canzone villanesche alla napolitana and villotte
Edited by Donna G. Cardamone
R 30

Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque Era

Thomas Ford
Lyra Viol Duets
Edited by Oleg V. Timofeyev
B 90

Denis Gaultier
La Rhetorique des Dieux
Edited by David J. Buch
B 62

OF RELATED INTEREST

Recent Researches in the Oral Traditions of Music

Celestial Airs of Antiquity: Music of the Seven-string Zither of China
Edited by Bell Yung
OT 5


“Orphée” by Denis Gaultier in facsimile (left) and in the typeset version (right) published in Denis Gaultier, La Rhetorique des Dieux, edited by David Buch, Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque Era, vol. 62. A facsimile of the entire La Rhetorique des Dieux is published as a supplement to B 62.