Author archives: Robert Vanderzweerde

When music written for vihuela or lute is arranged for ukulele, there is some loss in the bass as the vihuela/lute has 6 strings while the ukulele (or Renaissance guitar) only has 4 strings. I do have to figure out the harmonies/chords to try to preserve what the composer intended but with a smaller range of notes.

Is anyone interested in arrangements that preserve the 6 string configurations? In other words, I would be arranging the music for vihuela, lute, or guitar with an F# tuning for the third string. Mel Bay has already done this with all 40 Fantasias in Milan’s “El Maestro” where all the music is transcribed/arranged for 6-string instruments. There are others who do this as well for individual pieces, but you have to hunt for them.

I’ve started arranging the the music by Miguel de Fuenllana (ca 1500-79) in his publication Orphenica Lyra (1554), especially the pieces written by the composer. There are 188 pieces in the six volume set of which 62 are written by Fuenllana with 52 fantasias, 8 tientos and 2 duos. The rest are arrangements or transcriptions by other Spanish, Flemish and Italian Renaissance composers of hymns, masses, motets, villancicos, outrages, madrigals, dirges, romances and sonnets.

Update January 12, 2022 – Wow, the fantasies by Miguel de Fuenllana (ca 1500 – 1579) in “Orphenica Lyra” are challenging. They are pieces of “great solidity and complexity, with dense counterpoints”. Many of them are marked as “dificil” and only a few are “facil”. My arrangements may be just one of many possible interpretations. No wonder they’re not heard too often.

Update March 7, 2022 – Now finished, four books of vihuela music written by Miguel de Fuenllana. The works in Orphenica Lyra (1554) are challenging with even the “facil” (easy) pieces requiring advanced performance capabilities. The music is dense and difficult to interpret so my arrangements for ukulele may be only one of many possibilities. The books are available for sale and recordings are available on YouTube.

Okay, I’m almost ready to re-start working on ancient music after a hot summer of travel within Canada. It’s still quite pleasant in the mountains this September so I’m enjoying the outdoors as much as possible before the cold weather settles in. In the meantime, here are my thoughts on composers/music to arrange first (see photo), including detailed work on the Canon by Pachelbel for both duet and solo ukuleles based on a request from a follower. If you have any favourite music/composers from the Medieval, Renaissance or early Baroque, please let me know.

Update October 13, 2021 — the book Pachelbel’s Canon on Ukulele(s) is now available.  Update October 23, 2021 — the book Narváez Favorites on the Ukulele (Book 4) is now available.  Update November 27, 2021 — — the books Milan Favorites on the Ukulele (Books 5 and 6) are now available.

Choices, choices, choices. Who to arrange next?  From left to right:

• Intabolatura de lauto (in 4 volumes) by Francesco da Milano (ca 1497 – 1543)
• Tres libros de musicaa en cifras para vihuela (in 3 volumes) by Alonso Mudarra (ca 1510 – 1580)
• Orphenica lyra, libro de musica para vihuela (in 6 volumes) by Miguel de Fuenllana (ca 1500 – 1579)

Do you have a favorite? I’ll likely start with Mudarra or Fuenllana. BUT, I’m taking the summer off to enjoy the outdoors. See you in September.

The works of Luys de Narváez (flourished 1526-49) in Del Delphin are beautifully illustrated and presented (the computer screen photo below show a scan of the cover). Printed in 1538, it is actually a set of six books (hence the full title of Los seys libros del delphin) of polyphonic music for the vihuela. Although Narváez was Spanish, he adapted the contemporary Italian style of lute music. He was highly regarded during his lifetime, particularly for his vihuela playing and ability to improvise. With the exception of two motets, no other works of Narváez survives.

The challenge of reading this music today is twofold, the tuning of the vihuela which has a third string which is tuned a half tone lower than a ukulele or guitar, and the Italian tabulature which is “upside down” to our modern tabulature (i.e. the lower line on the printed page corresponds to the highest sounding string on the vihuela).  Of course, the vihuela has 6 string courses so the bass notes on the lowest sounding strings need to be harmonically analyzed and rewritten/arranged to fit the 4-stringed ukulele. I would also arrange the music so that you do not have to re-tune the ukulele.

The works in Del Delphin include the first known variation sets. There are six diferencias, in the 4th to 6th volumes, most of them with 3 to 7 variations however one of the pieces has 22 variations.

PS. The small rocket ship is a figurine based on the Tintin books “Destination Moon” and “Explorers on the Moon”. The silver coffee spoon is a Dutch tradition and this spoon was given to me when I was just one year old and is expected to last my lifetime. The Canadian art on the mug is a salmon by artist Jamie Sterritt. And yes, I still us a mechanical metronome from when I first started learning classical guitar.

Update as of June 4, 2021 — Two books of arrangements of Narváez’s music are now complete and available (click on an image below to see an expanded view).

Update as of June 16, 2021 — Third book of arrangements, with lyrics, of Narváez’s music is now complete and available (click on an image below to see an expanded view).

The audio and/or video files posted on YouTube and SoundCloud are great for analyzing and practising but have several challenges and limitations, namely the sound generated by the software which is not close to sounding like a ukulele, the slow speeds chosen to allow you to practice by playing along which makes the music sound plodding in some cases, and the total lack of performance dynamics (tempo, volume, part differentiation, phrasing, strum versus block chords, etc).

Here are some references to recordings by world-class performers to help guide you.

Here are some recordings of Renaissance music by vihuela and lute performers that have inspired my arrangements:

Here are some recordings of Baroque music by lute and other performers that have inspired my arrangements:

For your information, I own every CD in the Naxos Guitar Collection (most of them produced by Norbert Kraft) and Naxos Laureate Series for Guitar. Of course, I have recorded music from Segovia (who I saw in concert in Washington DC in 1980), Yepes and others, as well as recordings by every one of my teachers/leaders (Beauvais, Mahon, Maier, Visscher, Arnold, Bradley) at the Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto), the Mount Royal Conservatory of Music (Calgary) and the Asylum for Art (Calgary).

Here’s what my workspace looks like while I’m arranging music (in this photo, a villancico by Luys Milan from 1536). I try to work from the original folio as shown (El Maestro is 200 pages long). I also try the fingering on my ukulele (not in the photo as it’s hung around my neck) and adjust the arrangement or put in some fingering tips. Yes, I have an old fashioned mechanical metronome which I’ve used for decades. It takes from 1 to 4 hours per page of music, depending on the complexity. I’m happy to answer any questions you may have about this process … the software you see is MuseScore.

PS. The small rocket ship is a figurine based on the Tintin books “Destination Moon” and “Explorers on the Moon”. The silver coffee spoon with my initial R on it is a Dutch tradition and this spoon was given to me when I was just one year old and is expected to last my lifetime.

Update as of May 8, 2021 — Four books of arrangements of Milan’s music are now complete and available (click on an image to see an expanded view) …

There is literally a ton of music by Renaissance composers for the guitar, vihuela, lute and other stringed instruments (e.g. cittern and bandora).

So far, I’ve arranged most of the guitar music (Renaissance guitar that is) of:

• Adrian Le Roy (ca 1520 – 1598)
• Guilluame Morlaye (ca 1510 – 1558)
• Gregoire Brayssing (flourished 1547 – 1560)
• Simon Gorlier (flourished 1550 – 1584)
• Jacques Arcadelt (ca 1507 – 1568)
• Alonso Mudarra (ca 1510 – 1580)
• Miguel de Fuenllana (ca 1500 – 1579)

The music of these composers are in surviving printed music books which have been scanned and are available online. Images of the book covers and samples of the original music are included in the books of arrangements for ukulele that I have prepared (the arrangements are based on the original tabulature rather then guitar arrangements by others to avoid transcription issues).

While exploring other composers to arrange for ukulele, I am researching mainly vihuela and lute music.  The Renaissance guitar had only a short period of popularity in the 16th century and it was overtaken by the Baroque guitar which was larger and had an extra string for a broader range of music and richer sound and resonance (which was then supplanted by the Romantic guitar and then by the modern classical guitar). The lute and vihuela have more strings (6 or more) and are tuned differently (e.g. G tuning on the vihuela with the third string tuned to F#, or later with Dm tuning for lutes in the Baroque era).  The ukulele arrangements need to have adjusted bass notes, harmonics and key signatures in order to accommodate the 4-stringed ukulele with C tuning.  Alternatively, a capo can be used to adjust the key signature.  For example, if you strum the open strings on a ukulele, you are playing a C6 chord.  If you strum the top four strings on a modern classical guitar, you are playing a G6 chord which becomes a C6 chord if you put a capo on the 5th fret.

So far, I have researched composers and/or original folios for the following Renaissance composers (see images of some of the book covers at the end of this post):

• Luis de Narváez (ca 1490 – 1547) – published book in six volumes for vihuela
• Francesco da Milano (ca 1494 – 1543) — four published books for vihuela
• Luys Milan (ca 1500 – 1562) — published book for vihuela (El Masetro)
• Miguel de Fuenllana (ca 1500 – 1579) — published book in six volumes for vihuela (with 9 guitar pieces)
• Alonso Mudarra (ca 1510 – 1580) — published book in three volumes for vihuela (with 7 guitar pieces)
• John Johnson (ca 1545 – 1594) — various lute books (e.g. Mathew Holmes)
• Anthony Holborne (flourished 1584 – 1602) — various books for  lute, cittern, etc.
• Thomas Robinson (flourished 1589 – 1609) — various lesson books for lute, cittern, bandora, etc.

There are literally hundreds of pieces of music that can be arranged for ukulele.  However, I do not plan to tackle them all and would like feedback on where to concentrate effort.  For example, the six pavans by Milan are quite famous and I have already arranged two of them for solo ukulele and all six of them for ukulele quartet.  Please comment on this post to let me know your thoughts.  Much appreciated!

The six guitar pieces by Alonso Mudarra (ca 1510 – 1580) are now arranged and ready for you to view (go to the YouTube channel  to see them).

One of the fantasies is in non-standard tuning labelled “viego” or old tuning where the lowest string is tuned down a whole tone. The remaining pieces are in standard tuning labelled “nuevo” or new tuning. All the original pieces are in Italian tabulature ((which is upside down to our modern tab) and, while I’m getting used to reading it, I still have to turn the original folio upside down and read it backwards to proofread the arrangements. After working with original folios by various composers for over three years, I’m also “seeing the music” in the tabulature (i.e. separate voices and melodic lines), especially in pieces with some structure like the Pavana and Romanesca by Mudarra. Enjoy!

The nine guitar pieces by Miguel de Fuenllana (ca 1500 – 1579) are now arranged and ready for you to view (go to the YouTube channel  to see them).

Here is a sample of the original music (one of the Fantasies). Remember that this is Italian tabulature (i.e. read it upside down) …