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4. Reading Tablature Notation
- Indiana University Press
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8 4 R EADING TABL ATUR E NOTATION for centuries virtually all guitar music was written in tablature, not staff notation, and there are several reasons for this. Tablature takes a more direct approach in presenting the music. It doesn’t require the player to first interpret where the notes are on the fingerboard and what positions and fingerings to use; it shows you where the notes are and what positions and fingerings to use. The unique idioms called for in much of the best baroque guitar music cannot be presented with complete accuracy in staff notation —which is why many modern editors of baroque guitar music are obliged to present it with all of the features that distinguish it as baroque guitar music edited out, and why it is essential for any player truly interested in knowing how the music might originally have sounded to learn to read tablature. ITALIA N TABL ATUR E Italian and Spanish composers notated their guitar music in Italian number tablature and a special chord system known as alfabeto. In the Italian-style tablature illustrated in example 4.1 the five-line staff represents the five courses of the guitar. The top line represents the fifth course and the bottom line the first. Looking at a piece notated in Italian tablature is like looking at yourself and your guitar in a mirror that’s sitting on your music stand; the strings appear in upside down order. As shown in the example, the numbers on or between the lines represent the frets to be fingered: 0 = open string, 1 = first fret, 2 = second fret, 3 = third fret, etc. The tenth fret is sometimes represented by the Roman numeral x and the eleventh by ij. The example also includes an accurate representation of the tablature in staff notation as if transcribed for modern guitar. Rhythm signs are usually presented as ordinary free-standing mensural notes above the staff. As shown in example 4.2, they are placed over specific numbers to indicate their time value. when a rhythm sign first appears, its time value remains valid until a new sign appears; the same sign is not usually repeated if the next note or chord is of the same duration. As shown in the second bar of the tablature (and its transcription into staff notation ), the rhythm signs indicate only when the time value begins—not necessarily how long any individual voice should be held. The latter is left to the player. 9 Example 4.3 is a short, simple piece from Carlo Calvi’s book of 1646, which illustrates all of the tablature information given so far. Beneath the tablature is a transcription in modern guitar notation. It works well for this piece because Calvi’s tablature book is one of the few sources that seems to call for stringing C (with bourdons on both the fourth and fifth courses). Example 4.2. Rhythm signs in Italian tablature Example 4.1. Simple Italian tablature Example 4.3. Anonymous/Carlo Calvi (compiler), Canario, Intavolatura di chitarra, e chitarriglia (Bologna, 1646), 27 [54.211.203.45] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 03:40 GMT) THE BASICS 10 ALFABETO Beginning in the 1580s, a special tablature system was introduced that enabled composers to notate full chords without having to write out each individual note. found either alone or mixed in with regular tablature, this notation was known as alfabeto for one exceedingly obvious reason—the chords are represented by specific letters of the alphabet . Unlike our modern chord system, however, the alfabeto letters do not correspond to a modern description of functional harmony. Rather, they’re used purely as symbols, each letter signifying both a specific harmony and the position and inversion of that harmony on the fingerboard. for example, the alfabeto symbol A does not indicate an A major chord, but a G major chord in a particular position. This concept might seem a bit strange at first, but if the letters are simply memorized as the symbols they are, then reading alfabeto notation becomes quite easy and straightforward. A few similar chord systems also emerged during this period, including the Spanish cifras system, which used numbers and a few other symbols instead of letters. However, the Italian alfabeto system was the one most commonly used, even by Spanish composers , as well as some German and french. As the occurrence of these other systems, relative to that of alfabeto, is rare and found mostly in simple accompaniments, I...