Lutebooks
Here is my collection free of lute and guitar tablatures, which other than the facsimiles, has been edited for performance. It is either computer typeset using Fronimo, or hand-copied in a tablature form which is diplomatic to the period.
The Big Bach Lutebook, BWV 995-1012, contains all of the three volumes of the individual Bach Lutebooks. They cover the thin-textured keyboard music which Bach wrote for a keyboard, (BWV 996-9), the complete Cello Suites (BWV 1007-12), and transcriptions of the complete solo violin works, (BWV 1000/1001- to1006/1006a). . BWV 995 (Pieces pour la Luth) and 1010 (cello suite in C minor) each have their own lute versions, which differ substantially. Note that I have added a transcription for the lute of a transcription by Bach of an oboe concerto by Alesandro Marcello, made as a gift to a friend.
See my exegisis about the historical development of the attribution of Bach’s “lute music” (and other things) here:
Classical Guitar Canada: A collection of contributed guest posts by Clive Titmuss
• Bach’s Lute Suites: This Myth is Busted – Part I & Part II
• The Vihuela: History and Style – Part One
• The Vihuela: History and Style – Part Two
• The Vihuela—Part Three: Confessions of a Vihuelista
• An overview of the six-course guitar
• Baroque Guitar for Smarties
These tablatures include interesting and little-known music or media: the new volume of Czech lute music (Dix, Jelinek, Kohut), a collated suite by Johann Anton Logy, and Six Sonatas paraphrased for the six-course guitar (playable on the modern classical guitar) in modern guitar tablature, with music by Soler, Rodriguez, Mateo Albeniz and Scarlatti’s K. 208.
The phrase “edited for performance” denotes certain conventions: it has not simply been re-intabulated or transcribed directly. I change things to make them clearer in performance, including such things as note placement, transposition of bass lines, doubling, fingering and leaving out reiterated notes and other things. It is my intention to make the music as idiomatic as possible. There is not much point in being a slave to the score. I make changes to the actual text without footnotes or other clutter.
You’ll find a little essay about this in flowery language in the foreword to Bouquet of Elizabethan Ballad Tunes, which details the approach I feel is more revealing and rewarding for the player and listener than that found in most academic editions. Many facsimiles suffer from poor editing at the source, a fact of life in early music. It is my aim to make this situation better, and to encourage others to do so. In my teaching life, I have found that students have an almost pathological fear of altering the written, and especially the printed, note. There is no historical precedent for this attitude; it is our own failing, a remnant of the nineteenth Century.
The most recent additions have been hand-copy editions of music by de Visée, Dufaut and Frescobaldi (a new transcription in Italian tablatue and tuning). Once again, things have been changed to suit the player, not simply copied from sources. Lately I’ve felt that hand-copying is more in line with the traditions of the music, much of it in manuscript. It gives the works a personal stamp and is a pleasure to produce and read. It puts ink on the fingers, as well as the page.
Early Music Studio has a Facebook page which covers our performing activities, with photos of the music being played in the real world, and you’ll find me there too. Please write to me in the contact window if you have any questions or comments. I have written to many people out there in vacuum land, and it’s a pleasure to be in touch with you.
– Clive 13/11/2014
NOTE: Click the title to access PDF download page.
Basics on the Baroque Lute
Basics on the Baroque Lute
Tuning d minor lute
Notes for Basics on the Baroque Lute
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Anthology of Easy to Intermediate Pieces for 11-course lute
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The Bach Lutebook I
Praeludio con la Suite da Gio. Bast. Bach aufs Lautenwerk BWV: 996
[Partita al Liuto] BWV: 997
Prelude pour la Luth ò Cembal, [Fuga, Allegro] BWV: 998
[Partita] (no instrument designated) BWV: 1006a
Suite pour la luth par J.S.Bach BWV: 995
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The Bach Lutebook II
Cello Suite I BWV: 1007
Cello Suite II BWV: 1008
Cello Suite III BWV: 1009
Cello Suite IV BWV: 1010
Cello Suite V – Suite pour la Luth par J. S. Bach BWV: 1011
Cello Suite VI (for violoncello piccolo) BWV: 1012
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The Bach Lutebook III
Violin Partita II arranged for 13-course lute BWV: 1004
Violin Sonata II BWV: 1003
Praeludium pour la lute BWV: 999
Fuga BWV: 1000/1001.2
Violin Partita I in B minor BWV: 1002
Sonata I in G minor BWV: 1001
Sonata III in C major BWV: 1005
Partita III in E major (transposed to F) BWV: 1006/1006a
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The Buxtehude Lutebook
Suite in D minor
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Passacaglia by Georg Muffat
Passsacaglia
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The Venegas de Henestrosa Vihuela (Guitar) Book
Five Pieces from Libro de Cifra Nueva (1557)
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The Weiss Lutebook
Ten Pieces by S. L. Weiss and Anonymous from the Warsaw MS
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The Louis Couperin Lutebook
Pieces for Harpsichord by Louis Couperin arranged for 11-course lute
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Mouton Lutebook
Pieces in B minor from the Prague MS KK80
Mouton, Charles MS II KK80 Prague
Mouton, Charles PIECES DE LUTH
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Six Harpsichord Sonatas paraphrased for 6-course guitar
Three Sonatas by Antonio Soler
Three Spanish Sonatas for Harpsichord
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Deuxième Ordre de Chambonnières
La Dunquerque, Courante Iris, Courante II, Sarabande de la Reyne
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Pieces in G for Five-Course Baroque Guitar
Pieces in G: Ouverture de la Grotte de Versailles (Lully), Sarabande, Gavottes, Muzette
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Austrian Lute Music of the 18th c.
Partie XXVI and XXXVII by Ferdinand Fichtel
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Austrian Lute Music II
Partie by Johann Georg Weichenberger
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The Big Bach Lutebook
The Big Bach Lutebook BWV: 995-1012
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Czech Lute Music: Manuscript Music from 18th Prague and Vienna
Suite, Parthia, Parthia, Sonata
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Sonata à Liuto Solo del Sigre. Kleinknecht
Sonata a Liuto Solo: Allegro Moderato; Andante; Tempo Giusto
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Partita in F major by Johann Anton Logy
Ouverture, Alllemande, Courrente, Menuette I & II, Gavotte, Bourre, Guige
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A Bouquet of Elizabethan Ballad Tunes
Four Elizabethan Ballad Tune Settings
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Music for Two Vihuelas (or lutes)
Music for Two Vihuelas (or lutes)
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NOTE: Click the title to access PDF download page.
