Online Group-Tuition Programmes

Academy Programmes

Beginning - 12 Oct 2024

Unlocking music of the past: an introduction to historical tablatures

Description

For musical instruments, past and present, music written in tablature shows musicians where to place their fingers, rather than which notes to play. This course will introduce you to historical tablatures, opening up new sources of music for you to explore while enhancing your understanding and performance of repertory from Scottish, Spanish, and Welsh traditions. Begin with an introduction to lute tablature in Scotland through the Balcarres Lute Book, focusing on the piece 'Port Gordon'. In these sessions, you will learn to read and transcribe the tablature for this representative Scottish port — a style of piece associated with the Gaelic harping tradition. Next, enter the world of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spain through Iberian harp tablature, which shows not only the strings to be played but also the fingerings and the division of the texture between the two hands. These sessions will teach you to read, transcribe, and perform music by Spanish composers Antonio de Cabezon and Don Diego Fernandez de Huete. Round out the course with an introduction to the late medieval Welsh harp tradition of cerdd dant, through the enigmatic and unique harp tablature preserved in the manuscript of Robert ap Huw. In these sessions, you will learn how to read and play from the tablature as you explore Gosteg yr Halen, a piece purported 'to have been played before the knights of King Arthur when the salt cellar was put on the table.' 

All types of harps welcome!

Course Duration

6 Sessions

Level

Post-beginner+

Class Time

3:45–5:00 pm Irish time

Tutor(s)

Price

€130.00

Saturday | 3:45–5:00 pm Irish time

12 Oct

Session 1

Introduction to lute tablature: music from the Balcarres lute book (1 of 2)

In this, and the next, course session, you will learn how to read and transcribe from Renaissance lute tablature as a way to access historical harp music from Scottish lute manuscripts such as the Balcarres Lute Book. We will transcribe 'Port Gordon' from the Balcarres lute book — it is a beautiful tune that is representative of the typical port form and flavour, and in its 'lute form' provides interesting challenges and questions to harpists making their own realisations. You will be introduced to the cultural relevance of professional and amateur lute players in Renaissance Scotland to the music of Gaelic harpers.

[Dr Tamzin Elliott]

26 Oct

Session 2

Introduction to lute tablature: music from the Balcarres lute book (1 of 2)

[Dr Tamzin Elliott]

02 Nov

Session 3

Introduction to Spanish Harp Tablature (1 of 2)

From the 16th century to the middle of the 18th century, music for harp in Spain was written in tablature. This form of notating the music is particularly important to historical harp performers since it shows not only the strings to be struck but also the fingerings and how to divide the texture between the two hands. In this respect it is unique. These two course sessions will teach you how to read and play directly from the tablature. Starting from Don Diego Fernandez de Huete's collections, we will go backwards and finish with the compositions of the harpist and organist at the Spanish royal court, Antonio de Cabezon.

[Mara Galassi]

09 Nov

Session 4

Introduction to Spanish Harp Tablature (2 of 2)

[Mara Galassi]

16 Nov

Session 5

The Robert ap Huw manuscript tablature (1 of 2)

The Robert ap Huw manuscript contains the earliest music for harp, cerdd dant, originally composed by bardic harp players in North Wales in the 14th–15th centuries, and taught orally for several hundred years. In the sixteenth century it was notated in a unique tablature, and was later copied by Robert ap Huw in the early seventeenth century. We will learn how to read the tablature, as we explore Gosteg yr Halen, or the Gosteg of the Salt, said 'to have been played before the knights of King Arthur when the salt cellar was put on the table.'

[Bill Taylor]

23 Nov

Session 6

The Robert ap Huw manuscript tablature (2 of 2)

[Bill Taylor]

What to Expect

In this course, students will

  • be introduced to and learn to read and transcribe from Renaissance lute tablature
  • explore historical harp repertory in a Scottish lute manuscript
  • be introduced to and learn to read and transcribe from historical Spanish harp tablature
  • be taught two pieces of Spanish harp music from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
  • be introduced to and learn to read from the late medieval Welsh harp tablature of the seventeenth-century Robert ap Huw manuscript
  • explore cerdd dant, late medieval Welsh harp music, and learn to play a piece from the Robert ap Huw manuscript

Technical Requirements

  • A laptop, desktop or tablet computer; we do not recommend using a phone to participate
  • Speakers or headphones
  • Access to a printer for downloadable course materials
  • Access to the Zoom platform; further information to help you get set up for participating over Zoom will be sent after you have registered

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