The Transcriber’s Art - Soundboard - Winter 2001
Richard Yates
     It is near the height of the Renaissance in Italy, 1611, where there is an unprecedented concentration of musical genius. Giovanni Gabrieli is the organist at St. Mark’s cathedral in Venice where he teaches Heinrich Schutz, while Girolamo Frescobaldi has the same position in Rome. Carlo Gesualdo is writing madrigals with astonishing harmonies in Naples, and Monteverdi’s landmark opera, Orfeo, has recently been produced. Fretted instruments have reached a peak of popularity and, although it has been a couple decades since the death of Vincenzo Galilei, there is a new generation of lutenist/composers such as Alesssandro Piccinini and Simone Molinaro on the scene. So, who was the best known and widely respected performer and composer for the lute in this historic hotbed of  fretboard creativity? Surprisingly, it was someone of whom most guitarists have never heard: Johann Hieronymus Kapsberger, also known by his Italianized first names: Giovanni Girolamo. Why his place in the musical pantheon has declined so far in the last 400 years is an interesting story. 

     He was born in Venice around the year 1580, of German parents. By his early 20's he had developed a powerful technique, had published the first-ever book of solo theorbo music, and was soon employed by the papal family in Rome where he stayed for most of his career. His musical output includes, in addition to lute and theorbo music, songs, operas, and motets. He was renowned as both performer and composer but the degree of his virtuosity was apparently matched by his ego and arrogance. A friend and musical theorist, who had earlier praised him, later was sharply disparaging. Although this attack apparently had little effect on Kapsberger’s popularity at the time, it is the spin that became incorporated into the music history books, and was simply repeated through the years until the last century. One lesson that transcribers can take from this is to be cautious in accepting the conventional wisdom about the worth of a composer’s music. There may be gold where everyone says that there is only dross. 	

The Music

     For this issue’s featured transcriptions I have selected three pieces from Kapsberger’s known works. Although six have been lost, today we have four books of his music for both lute and chitarrone. This latter instrument, also known as the theorbo, was similar to the lute but with a greatly extended neck - some instruments approached two meters in length - to accommodate unstopped bass strings which were about twice the length of the stopped courses. By 1600, shortly before Kapsberger was approaching his decades of fame, the chitarrone had become a favorite instrument in Italy for accompanying singers. Although its most common use was for accompaniment, there is a sizeable body of solo music written for it, the earliest and highest quality of which was by Kapsberger. 

     For this article I have assembled a toccata, originally for chitarrone, followed by a gagliarda and a corrente, originally for lute, into a short suite. Remember that it was only a couple of  decades later that the Baroque suite first appeared from Froberger and it seems likely that collections such as Kapsberger’s presage that development. His books are arranged so that pieces of the same type appear together. I think that it is no coincidence that in his lute book of 1611 the toccatas, a free form later to become the prelude, are followed by the gagliardas, and then the correntes - a similar order as in a suite. It may be that the intention was for the player to select from each of these types to construct an informal suite as I have done here. As with a suite, my purpose is to show you a variety of pieces, with a similar scope, by one composer. 

On the Edge

     As you play the transcriptions you may find them interesting from another historical perspective. Kapsberger’s compositions balance delicately between the Renaissance and Baroque styles. He embodied the Early Baroque spirit of adventure and exploration, and the Toccata here certainly seems straight Baroque - it could easily be passed off as by S.L. Weiss or even J.S. Bach. Yet the Gagliarda is pure Renaissance while the Corrente has elements of both. Playing through many Kapsberger pieces gives one a clear vision into the events of this remarkable period in the history of music. It was a time when the musical paradigm was in flux, a time of experimentation. Some of Kapsberger’s experiments strain and fall short of being convincing, but others succeed wonderfully. 

Toccata

     Among Kapsberger’s works, the toccatas show the boldest ventures into the new era. The one I have chosen, from the Libro Primo D’Intavolatura di Chitarone (Venice, 1604), is actually one of his more conservative. Unlike most of his others, it is in the form of a series of arpeggios, much like the lute preludes of S.L. Weiss. In the original manuscript the arpeggiation pattern is not indicated and so this is left to the performer to invent. The two recordings that I have heard each use a different pattern. Paul O’Dette plays a simple pima-pima-pima-pima for each chord while Hopkinson Smith uses the more complex pimi-aimi-paim-paim. The unusual tuning of the chitarrone and the ingenuity with which Kapsberger exploits it render both these patterns kaleidoscopic and even hypnotic. Most guitarists have some familiarity with Renaissance lute tuning which is (transposed for guitar) EAdf#be', with only the third string different from the guitar. The chitarrone is the same with an insidious twist - the top two courses are tuned down an octave making it (again transposed for the guitar’s range) EAdf#Be. You can see that, with a little rearranging to put them in ascending pitch order, the strings almost form a scale: EABdef#. As a result, what looks like an arpeggio in the tablature may actually be a cross-string scale. Another effect of the tuning, employed by Kapsberger in this toccata, is that many simple chord formations include unisons so that the arpeggiation pattern is obscured. Unfortunately, this cannot be easily carried over into a guitar transcription and so I have made octave transpositions in these places. A couple of fingering comments: Bar 6 can be awkward. As with many such arpeggios, not all fingers need move at the same time. Also, note that, by preparing in bar 5 as shown, the 3 and 4 fingers can remain in place for bar 6, leaving only the 1 and 2 fingers to move, one a time. Bar 31 has a long stretch. Again, preparation is the key, here with a two string partial barre so that only the 3 and 4 fingers must move. 

Gagliarda		

     The gagliarda (In England, ‘galliard’), originated in Italy in the 16th Century. It is a lively dance that intersperses 6/4 and 3/2 rhythms. In Kapsberger’s fourth gagliarda from his Libro Primo D’Intavolatura di Lauto (Rome, 1611) transcribed here, this scheme adds a piquant hemiola to the dance. The only changes that I have made are a few chord re-voicings to make them guitar friendly.

Corrente

     Although the gagliarda did not survive much into the Baroque period, the corrente did become one of the standard movements of the suite. The one transcribed here is charming, compact and refreshing. You may find that the lute fingering for scales, using thumb-index (pipi), works well for the sixteenth notes in the second half of the corrente. Bar 23 is a bit difficult but the indicated fingering will stabilize your left hand and facilitate the quick slurs.
 
     If you have discovered a forgotten or defamed composer worthy of resurrection, or even a well-known one whose music merits transcription for the guitar, please let me know so that we can share it with the readers of future issues of Soundboard. 

Richard Yates
840 Judson S.E.
Salem, OR 97302										
E-mail: yateslau@teleport.com
www.teleport.com/~yateslau