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Baroque Guitar Article
Baroque Guitar Article
Baroque Guitar Article
Titmuss
Posted by Guest July 23, 2015
This is a guest post by guitarist & luthier Clive Titmuss
A big thank you to Clive for this great overview of the Baroque guitar, previously
published on Classical Guitar Canada. Make sure to visit his website to see more of
his work and recordings. All photos of guitars are by Clive Titmuss that he built
himself.
I Introduction:
Clive Titmuss
If you look in any anthology of music for the guitar from the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, you will usually find that much of the music is for keyboard or
lute. Guitarists love to play the music of Bach, Scarlatti, Handel, Rameau, Weiss and
others—none of whom actually wrote guitar music. Other than a few frequently
played pieces by De Visee, Corbetta and Sanz, the vast repertoire of the baroque
guitar is undiscovered territory for most players.
The reasons, aside from a difference of tuning (more on this below), is that the
modern guitar has quite different musical properties. The modern guitar is a
baritone/tenor, but the baroque guitar is an alto instrument, about the body size of a
viola. The rich tenor register of the guitar, which gives it so much of its distinct
character, is not so evident on the baroque guitar. The strumming and ornamental
effects that are common on the early instrument don’t make much sense on the
modern one. A full-guitar strum is emphatic and powerful, whereas on the baroque
instrument, it is lighter and more percussive. The sustaining qualities of the modern
guitar are a bit too much for the thin-textured and ornamented music, clouding the
articulation of the rhythm.
Most of the eighteenth century composers whose work is mainly known in the
nineteenth century, such as Sor, Aguado, Giuliani, Carcassi and many others, were
trained in Italian pedagogical traditions in the 18th Century, and would have learned
this alphabet as students. The chord forms underlie their music in a fundamental
and organic way. Every student of the guitar should know a little of the alphabet,
because it provides a window into the deep structure of the guitar’s language. Here
is Carlo Calvi’s alphabet page and a few simple pieces. It is amazing how well this
simple system works and it is the door into a world of baroque guitar masterpieces.
This music was often played without a pick, using only the index finger up (for weak
beats) and down (for strong), and this alphabeto technique was still in use two
centuries later. Most music is still played on the guitar with this basic style
unchanged.
Calvis alfabeto chart
Calvi Folia and Spanoleta in alpahbeto notation
Millioni 1627
Foscarini 1629, 1640, 1647 (the last book mostly abandons the alphabeto, in favour
of tablature)
Corbetta (in Italian mixed tablature, tablature with alphabeto chords) 1639 (emphasis
on the passacaglia), 1643 (early suites of dances), 1648
Calvi 1646 (alphabeto and tablature in separate sections, well-written simple pieces,
often used today for instruction)
Granata (including music for “guitar-theorbo” and ensemble music) 1646, 1650,
1651, 1659, 1674, 1680 (complex and interesting chromatic style influenced by
Frescobaldi, protracted use of re-entrant effects)
Pellegrini 1650 (short pieces and Toccatas, influence of the lute and Venetian choral
music)
Bottazari 1663 (suite forms, many new tunings, fondness for parallel thirds)
Roncalli 1692 (sonatas with succession of dances organized according to key in lute
style, orchestrated by Ottorino Resphigi in Ancient Airs and Dances orchestral suites)
Roncalli Gavotta
Spain
Amat 1586 (the earliest music for five-course guitar, many re-prints)
Sanz 1674, 1697 (instructional treatise, most solo pieces dispense with alphabeto,
extensive campanelas, the last print contains many passacalles)
Ribayaz 1677(treatise, re-prints of Sanz, much information)
De Sotos 1764
France
Mersenne 1636 (encyclopaedic treatise with examples)
Carré 1672
Corbette (same as Corbetta, above, publishing and working in France, taught many
French musicians, spread the guitar to court circles) 1670, 1674
De Visée 1682, 1686 (as well as the prints, there is a substantial body of MS music
for guitar, theorbo and lute)
Campion 1705 (printed and MS music, rococo style, long fugues, altered tunings)
Le Cocq 1729
Campion Allemande in B-flat tuning
Bohemia
Losy (Count Logy von Losinthal, original pieces or transcriptions of lute music in MS,
influence of De Visée and the French lute school)
England
Matteis 1690 (continuo treatise, a few compositions, Italian influence, music in the
style of Purcell)
Germany/Denmark
Nathaniel Diesel (MS of ensemble and solo pieces, 1736-1744, high baroque style)
Corbetta’s career tracks the development of the books and the music in the middle
generations of the 17th Century. His 1643 Milan book, Varii Capricii per la Ghittara
Spagnuola, begins with a Toccata; then there are sixteen two-page Passachali, each
on concluding with a modulation to the key of the next; then three suites composed
of three dances; a two-page set of Follia variations; five pages of figured bass
accompaniment intabulations which show the rules of chord progression realized on
the guitar; the book concludes with two elaborated Sinfonias with continuo bass lines
showing application of Corbetta’s guidelines. The book places its emphasis on the
Passacaglia, then a few suites, followed by instructional treatise. This plan is echoed
by many Iberian and Italian books, including those of Sanz, Guerau, Pellegrini, and
Foscarini.
Almost every early book begins with the alphabet chart. The passacaglia, and its
cousin the ciacona is not a melodic, but a harmonic formula, and it provided guitar
composers with an opportunity to orchestrate simple dance structures. Corbetta,
Sanz, De Visée and others frequently added falsas, or deliberate wrong notes
(unprepared suspensions, acciacature) to their chords, so much so that an entire sub-
set of the alphabet was created, the alfabeto falso (see Calvi’s table) which adds
seconds, sevenths and even sixths to the chords. Usually these falsas are simply
open strings allowed to sound in more conventional positions to add harmonic
flavour. This willingness to experiment with dissonance is a inherent to the guitar’s
early history, and that legacy is readily apparent in most contemporary Latin guitar
music.
Gradually, the composers shifted from variation forms based on Italian chordal dance
harmony to two-section dances with a more developed instrumental style with
influences from violin and keyboard music. There was a slow move away from the
strummed style of the alphabeto, adopting a more full-voiced approach that
exploited the ease of notation and printing afforded by tablature. In print and
manuscript notation, tablature overcomes the problems of re-entrant and
experimental tunings. Like the lute, there were experiments with altered tunings
(scordatura), especially by Bottazari, Corbetta, De Visée and Campion, but unlike the
French lute practice of the middle 1600’s, these tunings never replaced the basic
one.
In moving away from the Italian chordal dance style, Corbetta set the example once
again with his two French tablature books of 1670 and 1674. They are composed
almost entirely of suites or suite movements: the 1670 book La Guitarre Royalle, is
mainly in the brisé lute style, while the 1674 book, also called La Guitarre Royalle,
returns to a rococo strummed (batterie) style. In the books of his Iberian
contemporaries, Sanz and Guerau, the passacaglia still dominates, with variation on
the Folias, J’acaras, Espanoleta and other simple tunes given similar compositional
treatment. The style of Sanz is connected to popular music, while Guerau, a church
composer, concentrates on contrapuntal variations. Both composers advocated the
plucked (punteado) style. The baroque guitar style as a whole never abandoned the
strumming attack which gives the music much of its character. The constant
vacillation of strummed and plucked is one of the principal charms of hearing the
music played on a period guitar.
Sanz devotes more than half of the book is to a thorough discussion of the tuning,
playing technique, ornamentation and matters relating to the guitar. Though it is of
great interest as a historical document for those who wish to revive his playing style,
today’s players may wish that he had dedicated his book to a larger volume of
music. It is also notable that Sanz himself did the copper plate engraving, signing
most of the music pages in Latin with “Gaspar Sanz inventor, sculpsit” [Gaspar Sanz,
the composer, engraved this page]
Following the model established by the Italian guitar books, Sanz greatly expanded
the pedagogical elements of his work, setting a precedent for successful self-
instructional volumes by Aguado, Carcassi, Carulli and others. Sanz gave a complete
account of the still-viable alfabeto chord system, apparently believing in its value as
an instructional aid. Many of the germinal alfabeto formulas—Gallardo, Españoleta,
Folias, Jacaras, Paradetas, later appear in his work as fully composed variations in
Italian tablature without alphabeto. This is a departure from the Italian practice of
Roncalli, a contemporary, who continued to use the alphabeto in combination with
the tablature. Sanz’ examples for figured-bass accompaniment, which gives the
“rule of the octave”, form a valuable guide for modern players in the use of the guitar
for continuo.
Since interest in early fretted instruments has increased in the last thirty years, there
has been a lot of discussion about the tuning of the baroque guitar. For the
realization of the music of some composers, this feature of the instrument is of great
importance, and Sanz is one of these. Sanz’ music is heavily salted with campanelas,
but instead of distributing it throughout his pieces, he is fond of creating entire
passages and variations of the passacalle with it. He derides bourdones, the practice
of putting one or both of the fourth and fifth courses into a lower octave, as suitable
only for “noisy music”, by which we may infer “dance music” played in ensemble
rather than the solo music. His contemporary Guerau makes no apparent use
of campanelas.
Five course guitar tunings
Sanz Pavanas transcribed with correct pitches campanelas section restored
Corbetta Caprice de Chacone p.2
The cultivated guitar style of Robert De Visée is virtually indistinguishable from his
lute and theorbo music, except for the absence of low bass lines. Like his lute
contemporaries, Mouton and Gaultier, he occasionally incorporated the rondeau form
of the chaconne and passacaille into his other dance forms. Some of his pieces (La
Muzette, et al.) have concordances for all three instruments. In most cases it is
impossible to tell which were composed first, and arranged later. He also made
arrangements of pieces by Lully (Les Harlequins, an opera-ballet
intermezzo, Ouverture de la Grotte de Versailles) and Couperin (Les Sylvains, a piece
for harpsichord) for guitar/theorbo/lute.
His compositional style is from a later generation than Corbetta, and though he came
from Spain, he adopted and executed the idiom of late French 17th Century music
with complete fluency. His two books for the guitar are composed in the mould of
Jean-Baptiste Lully, the supervisor of the Sun King’s music, the composer of ballet
and operas which were expressly intended for his court’s enjoyment at Versailles. In
both of his guitar books, he presented several of the suites in two-clef arrangement
with figured bass for use with a melodic instrument or the harpsichord. These
arrangements make excellent material for the guitarist (and violin, flute or oboe
player) to explore improvisation of a figured-bass accompaniment.
De Visee Passacaille in D minor p.2
De Visée thus makes clear his method: the composition of a two-voice framework
with the addition of details idiomatic to the lute, guitar or theorbo. This property
makes his work distinct from the work of most of the other guitar composers, who are
more often followers of their fingers. His carefully structured melodies are
articulated by skilled harmonization, creative use of diminished chords and refined
ornamentation. Vaudry de Saizenay, Louis XIV’s naval intendant, collected and
copied De Visée’s theorbo and lute music, along with the music of other important
composers, in a large manuscript, showing how he penetrated to the highest levels of
the French court.
The guitar’s shape, size, stringing and decoration altered dramatically during the
course of the 17th and early 18th Centuries. The beautifully proportioned Choco guitar
is barely larger than a tenor ukulele, with a simple barring scheme and very light
construction, dating from about 1600. It may have begun life as a four-course guitar,
later altered. Venetian guitars in Italy, such as those made by Sellas, often have
vaulted backs in imitation of the lute, and are elaborately ornamented, one reason
for their preservation. During the later 1700’s the Voboam family, kept the slender
shape and flat backs, but elongated the neck and incorporated more elaborated
barring, and the use of exotic materials, such as rosewood, ebony, ivory and
snakewood. (My copy, seen here, uses ivory reclaimed from piano keys.) These
instruments are surprisingly resonant and rewarding to play.
Guitar after anonymous Spanish model c. 1690 by Clive Titmuss
At the end of the 1700’s, Spanish makers began to experiment with simple fan
barring schemes, making their instruments deeper and with larger bodies. This
anonymous instrument (my copy seen here) used figures of the family escutcheon,
lions, birds and plants inlayed into the top. This direction toward larger guitars, once
established in Madrid and Cadiz, continued until the five-course instruments were
replaced by six-course guitars around 1750. Another type of guitar, the chitarra
battente, borrowed the violin’s tailpiece and cranked-up bridge, adding metal strings
and later, metal frets. These guitars were played outdoors with a pick and alfabeto-
style, and were not really intended for solo music.
Try learning the Italian alphabet chord system from Calvi’s chart (above, also
reprinted in Sanz, Pellegrini, or Corbetta’s 1639 book.) This also, is easy, play the
chord, say the letter. Try a few simple pieces—Folias, Españoleta, etc., most of these
are familiar to every student. Strum the chords with your index finger. Keep a
copied chord chart on your music desk until you know the most important ones.
Most pieces need only four or five letters of the alphabet.
Then try some more challenging material, Corbetta, Sanz, Foscarini, Roncalli. To play
De Visée from the original is even easier, just replace your d string. An excellent
correctly transcribed modern edition of this composer’s complete guitar works is
available, edited by Robert Strizich. The music is more challenging to read from pitch
notation, but it allows the player to make her own decisions. Once you have become
more familiar with the baroque guitar idiom, I challenge you to learn to improvise a
figured bass accompaniment, covered in the principal sources, and to learn to
improvise ornamentation and passages in their style. This too, is just a matter of
applying what you have read, heard, and learned from the composers’ books.
Translations of forewords and other pedagogical material from these books are
available on the web.