Martin Zimny: Introduction to Tablature for Early Music (Feb 22nd) Questions / Suggestions
Hey guys, in order to get you up and running for our Variation Challenge on Santiago de Murcia's "Marizápalos", we will take a closer look at all kinds of historical tablatures, decipher how to read them and what we can learn from them from a performer's point of view! 
We'll go full Indiana Jones on some Milan, it'll be awesome!
Find the start time in your time zone by clicking the photo or following this event link:
https://app.tonebase.co/guitar/live/player/martin-zimny-introduction-to-tablature
We are going to be using this thread to gather suggestions and questions!
- What questions do you have on this topic?
- Any particular area you would like me to focus on?
Forum questions will be answered first!
Today we will dive into the mysteries of early music notation! In preparation for the Variation Challenge with Santiago de Murcia's "Marizápalos", we will take a closer look into different kinds of tablature! What do the letters mean in French Tablature, what's up with the dots in Spanish Tablature and what is wrong with German Tablature? We will dive briefly into music by Weiss, Milan, Dowland and Neusidler and look at the pros and cons of different notation forms!
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Hi Martin,
I am a little puzzled by this choice because I can only find recordings of baroque guitar. Is this piece meant to be played on the classical guitar? I am not familiar with it.
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Debbie Santiago de Murcia is a composer from the 17th century, so all his works are written for baroque guitar! While we will look in this workshop at a lot of different kinds of Early Music Tablatures by Luis Milan, Robert Dowland, Johann Jakob Kapsberger, Hans Neusidler and Silvius Leopold Weiss, our upcoming Variation Challenge for next week will tackle the piece "Marizápalos" by Santiago de Murcia and how to adapt this kind of music for a modern guitar, comparing a modern transcription with the facsimile!
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martin hi Martin, I play Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque pieces so I realize they were not written for the modern day classical guitar. What I find strange is that I cannot find any classical guitarists playing this piece. Does that mean we will be the first ones making a rendition for classical guitar?
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Debbie There is probably a very high chance, yes (I haven't found anyone playing this piece either, Mircea recommended me to tackle this together with you, otherwise I wouldn't have stumbled upon this piece as well)!
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martin well that is very exciting!
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Debbie here is a link to a fine recording of this piece.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WI3bZqT7J3I
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Olli thanks Olli. I came across this one but I don’t think it sounds like a classical guitar. Maybe a baroque guitar or a vihuela.
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Debbie Hi Debbie like you I can't find any recordings on a modern guitar. I've done a little research (that is I've looked on Wikipedia) and the marizapalos was a dance and the music was used by many composers as a basis for variations. Gaspar Sanz wrote some and there are recordings of this on YouTube played on a modern guitar. This challenge is going to be really interesting I think.
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Derek I think it will be really cool if our group is the first one to make recordings of this piece on the modern classical guitar. We can inundate YouTube with our versions
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Olli Thanks for that link, I found a nice rendition bei Paul O'Dette as well! In today's Livestream we will explore all kinds of tablature, tomorrow we dive head first into the Murcia-Challenge
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I would say there's a reason it's not often (ever?) played by classical guitarists - and that is because music for the baroque guitar does not translate very well to the modern instrument. Music for the six-course renaissance lute (and also the vihuela) is far better suited to today's guitar. That, I think, is why you will often see Dowland or Francesco included in the programs of contemporary concert guitarists, but rarely Sanz or Murcia. (And Bartolotti or Granata almost never!)
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David Krupka yet we have many CG recordings of Robert de Visee , who also wrote for the baroque guitar, with many similar rasgueado effects and embellishments that don't sound the same on modern guitar.
http://www.rafaelandia.com/en/fiche_CDvisee.html
Im looking forward to the Murcia challenge
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joosje There is so much to find in the facsimile! Today we go full Indiana-Jones in all different kinds of manuscripts, tomorrow we will specifically tackle Marizápalos!
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I am so much looking forward to this. Renaissance music is beautiful. I am a bit worried about the rasgueados... one of my weak spots ...
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Emma thankfully those rasgueados in renaissance music are very different from flamenco rasgueado, where we aim to bring out each individual attack!
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Emma I agree. I really don't know how best to handle the strumming sections of the piece. I'd love to hear the opening chords played on a modern guitar by someone who can do it well.
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