Author archives: Robert Vanderzweerde

In searching for music to arrange from the Medieval, Renaissance or Baroque eras, there is a plethora of pieces written for lute, vihuela, and guitar (both Renaissance and Baroque guitars). This music takes advantage and recognizes the characteristics and limitations of these stringed instruments, such as the sound starting to fade immediately after plucking a string.

Music written for the lute, vihuela and Baroque guitar require additional changes when arranging the music for modern ukulele, as these instruments have 5 or 6 strings while the ukulele has only 4 strings. The most straightforward to arrange is music written for Renaissance guitar as the string arrangements and tuning is much the same as the modern ukulele (read more details in this post).

However, there is a limited amount of surviving music written specifically for the Renaissance guitar, such as the nine surviving books published by Adrian Le Roy and Guillaume Morlaye in Paris in the 1550’s.  There are only two other surviving sources of such music, but they are included as a small selection of pieces in larger works written for vihuela. They are:

Tres libros de musica en cifras para vihuela (“Three books of music in numbers for vihuela”), which was published on December 7, 1546 in Seville by Spanish composer Alonso Mudarra (ca 1510 – 1580).  Only 6 of the pieces are written for the Renaisance guitar in the first book (Libro I).

Libro de música para vihuela intitulado Orphenica Lyra (“Book of music for vihuela ….”), which was published in 1554 in Seville, known briefly as Orphenica Lyra, with 182 pieces in six volumes by Spanish composer Miguel de Fuenllana (ca 1500 – 1579).  Only 7 of the pieces are written for the Renaissance guitar in the sixth book (Libro VI).

I am arranging these 13 pieces for the ukulele (as illustrated below) and they should be completed in February or March 2021.  I will be posting the arrangements so you can preview and enjoy these pieces as I complete them. To receive notifications of each posting, you should subscribe to the YouTube channel.

Music for guitar, vihuela and lute was written using tabulature in the Renaissance and Baroque eras (modern spelling tablature or TAB for short), however, it was not consistent. The conventions used by the French, Italians or Spanish differed, composers used hybrid methods and some ventured into alternate tunings (oh my!).

The illustrations used below are pieces for guitar or vihuela as both instruments were popular in the Renaissance.

French Tabulature

French tabulature was used in the publications from Le Roy and Morlaye from Paris in the 1550’s as shown …

To read this, the top line of the score represents the highest sounding or A string on the Renaissance guitar (or ukulele) and the bottom line corresponds to the lowest sounding or G string.  Letters are used to indicate which fret to use to play the note with “a” representing an open string, “b” is the first fret, “c” is the second fret, etc. This is somewhat confusing at first but it soon becomes second nature when reading the score.  The duration of the note is indicated by the stem above the score with one “tail” representing a quarter note (in “cut” time or 2/4 time), two “tails” an eighth note, etc. (and a dot indicating to hold the note for 50% longer).

This matches what we use for tabulation in modern scores, except that we use numbers instead of letters for the frets, as shown (this is the full modern score of the music illustrated above) …

Here’s another example of this style of tabulature (it’s the music for “Greensleeves”) …

Italian Tabulature

Italian tabulature was used by Spanish composers Mudarra, Fuenllana and others in the 16th century in music for the vihuela and Renaissance guitar as shown …

It almost looks like modern tabulation in that is uses numbers to represent the frets (zero for an open string, “1” for the first fret, “2” for the second fret, etc.) The only difference from modern tabulation is that it is “upside down” in that the bottom line on the score represents the highest sounding or A string on the Renaissance guitar (or ukulele) and the top line corresponds to the lowest sounding or G string.  For modern players, this takes some getting used to, especially if you switch between different scores. The duration of the notes are above the staff and look like our modern notes (whole notes, half notes, quarter notes), including dotted notes.

Here the first line of the same score using modern notation and tabulation …

Hybrids

While the Italian method was used for most Spanish composers at the time, Milan’s publication “El Maestro” in 1536 reversed the order of the lines (like French tabulature) but continued to use numbers for the frets and note durations (like Italian tabulature) as shown in this illustration of music for vihuela …

Alternate Tuning

There are alternate tunings available for the strings (e.g. tuning the lowest or fourth string down a whole tone from G to F on a Renaissance guitar or ukulele).  This is usually noted at the beginning of the piece.  In the original music, you may see a note such as “a chorde auallée” which means to use alternate tuning.  In modern music, it is either written out in detail or written in short form, such as ④ = F at the start of the piece.

Modern Tablature (TAB) and Notation

Modern tablature is a mix of French tabulature (i.e. ordering of the lines on the staff and using stems above or below the staff to represent the note length) and Italian tabulature (i.e. using numbers to represent the frets).

Often, when a piece has both notation and tablature or TAB, the note durations are omitted on the TAB lines. It is up to the player to read both lines simultaneously (i.e. the TAB lines for the string/frets and the notes lines for the duration). In the arrangements that I create, I include the note durations on the TAB lines to make it easier to read/play.

Of course, modern musical scores have key signatures for the notes but notice that the tablature or TAB lines in the same scores above do not show a key signature as it’s not needed when reading TAB. This makes it challenging to translate the original Renaissance tabulature back into modern musical notation as the key is not shown. In fact, the original music often moves modally between different keys or ends on a Picardy third (i.e. ending on a major chord while the rest of the piece is in a minor key, as you may notice in the “Almande” illustrated above).  The keys in the modern musical scores above are chosen for the ukulele, not for the modern classical guitar which is used in most of the transcriptions that are available.

Fingerings (i.e. which finger to use to play a note on the fretboard) are never shown in the tablature line in either original or modern scores. It is often up to you, the player, to work that out. Recommended fingerings are sometimes indicated but only shown on the notation lines in modern scores as a small number beside the note.

Finally, when reading the notes, there are sometimes instructions on which position to use (e.g. VII for seventh position or to play a barre chord on the seventh fret) or alternate strings (e.g. ② to indicate that the note should be played using the second string), neither of which is needed when reading tablature or TAB.

I invite you to experiment reading the various styles of tabulature or tablature/TAB. Enjoy!

If you love Renaissance guitar music, there are now five troves of 16th century music available to play on the ukulele, Renaissance guitar, etc.

Click on an item to view a larger image

Trove of Fantasies: A fantasia or fantasie is a musical composition with its roots in the art of improvisation. The term was first applied to music during the 16th century, at first to refer to the imaginative musical “idea” rather than to a particular compositional genre. Its form and style consequently ranges from the freely improvisatory to the strictly contrapuntal, and also encompasses more or less standard sectional forms (i.e. it sometimes but doesn’t always follow the “rules”). Read more. Listen.

Trove of Bransles: The name branle (or bransle) derives from the French verb branler (to shake, wave, sway, wag, wobble) and is a type of French dance popular from the early 16th century to the present. The term also refers to the music and the characteristic step of the dance. The branle was danced by a chain of dancers, usually in couples, with linked arms or holding hands. The dance alternated a number of larger sideways steps to the left (often four) with the same number of smaller steps to the right so that the chain moved gradually to the left. Read more. Listen.

Trove of Pavanes: The pavane is a slow processional dance common in Europe during the 16th century. The decorous sweep of the pavane suited the new more sober Spanish-influenced courtly manners of 16th century Italy. It appears in dance manuals in England, France, and Italy. It has a slow duple metre with two strains of eight, twelve, or sixteen bars each. The pavane’s popularity was from roughly 1530 to 1676. As a musical form, the pavane survived long after the dance itself was abandoned, and well into the Baroque period. Read more. Listen.

Trove of Gaillardes: The gaillarde or galliard was a form of Renaissance dance and music popular all over Europe in the 16th century. It is mentioned in dance manuals from England, France, Spain, Germany, and Italy. It is an athletic dance, characterised by leaps, jumps, hops and other similar figures in a series of choreographed patterns of steps. After the dance fell out of popular use and, in musical compositions, the galliard often filled the role of an after dance written in 3 or 6, which followed and mimicked another piece (sometimes a pavane) written in 2 or 4. Read more. Listen.

Trove of Chansons: Chansons are songs.  The earliest chansons were for two, three or four voices, with first three becoming the norm, expanding to four voices by the 16th century. The Parisian Chansons began in 1520 and were lighter and chordal with melodies in the upper most line. Sometimes, the singers were accompanied by instruments, often lutes. The general subject matter was courtly love. Read more. Listen.

Additional arrangements of Renaissance music are now available for you to download and enjoy over the holidays for free. Go to the website and click on “Free” to access the music, historical notes and recordings.

They range from a demi-basse dance, to conte clares, a prelude, a gaillarde and a series of chansons.

All the pieces are from the nine books published by Adrian Le Roy and Guillaume Morlaye in the mid-16th century and were specifically written for the Renaissance guitar, the direct ancestor of the ukulele (i.e. the same tuning).

I am making these arrangements available for free as I go through the nine books to arrange the remaining pieces into a series of books, called “Troves”, for dozens of Fantasies, Bransles, Pavanes, Gaillardes and Chansons (available in 2021).

As a classical music player (on guitar and ukulele) and with the help of my teachers, I select pieces that compliment each other and create a mini-suite or recital. The selected pieces are not necessarily connected to each other formally by the composer and do not have to be by the same composer either. They just need to work together with some commonality. For example, pairing etudes from Gerald Garcia with those of Leo Brouwer. If working from a book of studies, etudes, or short pieces usually by the same composer, then several of the pieces are selected to create my own suite or recital.

My teachers also help me select formal suites or sonatas that I work to learn completely. The guitar ensemble also selects pieces with multiple movements for performance or pieces by the same composer from a larger body of work.

I’ve put together three books that follow these principles. If there is interest, I can create more (just let me know what you’d like).

A Military Recital — While arranging Renaissance guitar music, I noticed several lengthy pieces with a military “theme”. They are either descriptive pieces depicting a particular battle or dance pieces incorporating military-type passages. I also included a transcription of a Baroque piece (originally written for harpsichord). Listen now.

A Spanish Recital — As a student of the guitar, I learned the Spanish Suite arranged by John Mills based on the music of Gaspar Sans.  Inspired by this concept, I researched and found a lot of music Gaspar Sans and selected ten pieces to create a recital for the ukulele. Listen now.

Sonata 24 by Weiss — I’ve played portions of this sonata on the guitar and was inspired to challenge myself and arrange the entire 8-movement sonata for ukulele. The original music is in the key of D-Minor and has been transposed to the key of G-Minor for the ukulele so as to preserve as many of the fingerings as possible.  Also, some passages have been simplified, including using different bass lines or notes, especially since the ukulele only has four strings and the pieces were originally written for the lute. Listen now.

The Medieval Ukulele is now available on Amazon and Kobo. Here are the explanations of the arrangements and links to the recordings so you can explore the music from the 5th to 15th centuries …

This blog is starting today (October 25, 2020) but there have been posts about Ancient Music for Ukulele since June 7, 2018. A selection of older posts will be re-posted on this blog page (back dated to the original post date). The remainder will be skipped but you can still view them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ancientmusic4ukulele