Attaingnant 1529: Description

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(f. 1r) Tres breve et familiere introduction pour entendre & apprendre par soy mesmes a jouer toutes chansons reduictes en la tabulature du Lutz, avec la maniere daccorder le dict Lutz.  Ensemble xxxix chansons dont la plus part dicelles sont en deux sortes, cest assavoir a deux parties & la musique.  Et a troys sans musique. Le tout acheve dimprimer le vi jour doctobre 1529.  Par Pierre Attaingnant demourant a Paris en la rue de la Harpe pres leglise saint Cosme.  Desquelles la table sensuyt.  [Index]

Avec privilege du Roy nostre sire pour troys ans, que nul ne pourra imprimer ou faire imprimer en ce royaulme la musique & jeu du lutz fors le dict Attaingnant. soubz les peines contenues es lettres du dict priviliege.

(f. 1v-2r) "Troy breve rigles pour estre tost & facillement introduict en la tabulature du lutz" 

The first rule involves the lettering of the frets in the tablature: the first fret is marked with a "b", the second with a "c", and etc. up to the eighth fret "i".  The ninth fret, on the soundboard of the lute, is marked with a "k".  Note that Attaingnant uses lower case letters here, but the tablature itself uses upper case.  He does not mention that an "a" indicates an open string.

The second rule explains how the staff lines represent the eleven strings or six courses of the lute.  The first large string ("la premiere grosse corde") and its companion (the high octave string) are indicated on a ledger line below the staff.  The other five courses are each given their own line of the five-line staff, ordered from the lowest sounding course on the lowest staff line, to the highest sounding single first string on the top line.  Unlike later French tablatures, Attaingnant places the letter directly on the line and not in the spaces and thus creates the need for a ledger line on the sixth course.  Finally, two or three letters placed one on top of another should be played together.

Rule three involves the rhythm signs above the tablature.  He lists five types of signs: "semibreve" ("|"), "minimes" (eighth note), "semimines" (sixteenth note),  "crochues" (thirty-second note), and "fredons" (sixty-fourth notes).  A dot will add one half the value of the note that precedes it.  Attaingnant continues with the breve (indicated with a symbol very similar to a firmata) and with a discussion of the various rests and their values.  

There are detailed instructions for tuning the lute on f. 2r, including a bit of tablature to show where octaves can occur, to double check the tuning.  The courses are numbered from the first (lowest pitched bass string and its octave) to the sixth (single string).  Attaingnant indicates that the three bass courses are octaves, the lowest two treble courses are in unison, and the high treble string is single.  This accords well with what is known of standard early sixteenth-century stringing practice.

French lute tablature with capital letters on a five-line staff.  The rhythm signs are repeated for each note.  Some of the pieces lack barlines or are inconsistently barred.

D:Bds-Tü

Adams, Courtney S.  "The Early Chanson Anthologies Published by Pierre Attaingnant (1528-1530)."  Journal of Musicology (Autumn 1987): 527.

Vaccaro, Jean Michel.  La musique de luth en France au XVIe siècle.  Paris: Éditions du Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1981. 

Tres breve et familiere introduction.  (Genève: Minkoff Reprint, 1988).  ISBN: 2826608886 

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