Early Music America Fall 2012 - (Page 30)

Reconstructing Spanish Songs This system is efﬁcient in terms of notating harmony, but it is confusing in that the exact rhythm in which one is supposed to strum is not always clear and must depend on the player being familiar with the piece. As the guitar gained in popularity in Italy, alfabeto was sometimes added by music publishers to songbooks laid out in the standard melody-bass format, the chord symbols set above the sung melody line (Ex. 2). The guitarist could then strum the chords in a rhythm compatible with the rhythm of the melody. Ex. 2 cated. Not much to go on for the modern performer! These songs must have been well-enough known to the guitarist that a notated melody was not needed, the alfabeto acting as a memory or harmonic guide as in some collections of folk songs today. One surviving book offers an intriguing glimpse into the world of popular Spanish guitar song: the Método mui facilissimo para aprender y tañer la guitarra a lo español by Luis de Briçeño, published in Paris by Pierre Ballard in 1626 (facsimile edition by Minkoff Reprint, 1972). Briçeño includes many beautiful and fascinating texts, including some that, surviving for centuries, have been collected by folklorists in modern times. As interesting as his songs are, the limited information in his book makes performing them quite a challenge; he gives no melodies or precise rhythmic indications, the confusing typography of his French printer betrays an unfamiliarity with the Spanish language, and there seem to be many errors in the notation. His book provides harmonies in the form of guitar chords, placed rather pre- Many manuscripts display even less information on the page, consisting only of lyrics with the alfabeto symbols written above the appropriate syllables—no melody, and no strumming rhythm indi- cisely above the lyrics, but his system differs from those in Spanish and Italian guitar books in using numbers instead of letters to indicate the chord shapes of the left hand, perhaps not to confuse French lutenists used to reading letters in their tablature (he provides a table in French tablature showing which of his symbols applies to which chord). Instead of vertical strokes above the guitar chords, he places whole notes and half notes, occasionally dotted, in the manner of lute tablature, which would seem to indicate rhythmic values. But as rhythms they make no sense, and previous attempts to transcribe his songs have been problematic. By comparing his system to the Italian and Spanish ones, it becomes clear that these are not rhythmic values but rather serve to indicate the strumming pattern of the right hand, as June Yakeley convincingly argued (“New Sources of Spanish Music for the Five-Course Guitar,” in Revista de Musicología, XIX, 1996). In Briçeño’s notation, whole notes indicate down-strokes and half notes up-strokes. Some of his songs are unique to his book, and we may never know to what melody they were sung. But by comparing some of his popular songs to examples from other sources, one can derive plausible and satisfactory performing versions of these delightful, charming texts. Ex. 3. Luiz de Briçeño, “La Çaravanda Español,” Metodo mui facilissimo… (Paris, 1626); facsimile edition by Minkoff Reprint (Geneva, 1972). Go for it, Zarabanda, for love calls you to it. The Zarabanda is caught up in love with a lawyer, and the knavish lover kisses and embraces her a thousand times. But the roguish girl gives him Holland [cambric] shirts. Go for it, Zarabanda! The wanton Zarabanda dances in a marvelous way; the whole village follows her inside and out. She dies with envy, he goes about so handsomely. Go for it, Zarabanda! Zarabanda More familiar to us in its later elegant guise, the zarabanda (French sarabande) began as one of the most notorious dance-songs of the late Renaissance, most likely imported from the New World. One rather conservative Spanish moralist described it in 1609: Among the other inventions, there has appeared in these years a dance-song, which is so lewd in its words, so ugly in its movements, that it is enough to set ablaze even the most virtuous person. It is commonly called zarabanda… Juan de Mariana, Tratado contra los juegos públicos (1609), trans. by Maurice Esses, Dance and Instrumental Diferencias (New York, 1992) Briçeño gives two examples of the zarabanda; one has the same opening line as a zarabanda text found in a manuscript in Madrid dated 1589: “La Zarabanda está presa” (Ex. 3). 30 Fall 2012 Early Music America

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Early Music America Fall 2012

Editor’s Note
EMA Competition
Sound Bytes
Musings: Listening Forward
Profile: A Classical Playlist on Your Cable Television
Recording Reviews
Reconstructing Spanish Songs from the Time of Cervantes
Janet See: Traversist on Two Continents
Musical Mosaic Explores “Perspectives of Interspersing Peoples”
Book Reviews
Ad Index
In Conclusion: Conducting Early Music

Early Music America Fall 2012