Ghelen 1554: Description

Thematic Index

(f. 1r) Dit is een zeer schoon Boecxken, om te leeren maken alderhande tabulatueren wten Discante. Daer duer men lichtelijck mach leeren spelen opt Clavecordium luyte ende Fluyte.

This is a Netherlandic (i.e., early Flemish) translation of the second half of Virdung 1511, probably completed around 1528 (see Bullard 1993). The translation begins on Virdung's f. D4v, omitting the original's woodcuts, formal discussion of instrument classes, and changing the dialogue from two learned friends to a more formal master/pupil relationship. Graf's woodcut of a seated lutenist has now been moved to the title page. As in Virdung 1511, the main outline concerns intabulation for the clavichord, lute, and recorder.

Changes unique to this edition include the use of French lute tablature, not German, making the lost original copy or edition one of the earliest examples of this notation. A new musical example has also been chosen: the Netherlandic song "Eeen vrolijck wesen" in three parts. Only the lower two voices are intabulated. In Vorsterman 1529, the melody is given in mensural notation in the section on the recorder, although not in the later edition by Ghelen. It appears that a lute/recorder duet is intended, although this is not indicated in the treatise, with the recorder playing from the original vocal part.

With the shift to French tablature, all of the diagrams explaining German notation in Virdung are omitted. A new method of tuning is explained, using unisons and octaves instead of fourths and thirds, which is based on tuning the highest string as high as possible and the other strings to this pitch accordingly. Ghelen or his translator also explains the use of fingering dots for upstrokes (although they are not used in the tablature) and the playing of two or more notes simultaneously with the thumb and finger(s). Frets are made with two gut strings placed next to each other.

French tablature indicates the frets by letters (a through h), with "a" standing for the open string, "b" the first fret, etc. Each note on each course is discussed, as in Virdung, but no mention is made of unison doublings. The intabulated song is still quite simple compared to Italian lute music of the 1520s and earlier, but the new editor has attempted to fill out the lute part with simple embellishment, especially in the tenor (upper) voice.

There is one copy of this Netherlandic translation of Virdung's treatise in F:Pn.

Bibliography (1980+): see Virdung 1511

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