I have attached my C minor mandocello tablature arrangement of the D minor Fantasie of Sylvius Leopold Weiss (1719).
I have attached my C minor mandocello tablature arrangement of the D minor Fantasie of Sylvius Leopold Weiss (1719).
Last edited by Harmon Gladding; Sep-03-2021 at 11:24pm. Reason: Add tags
Do you have this in notation? I know there are programs that will transcribe, I don't have one. I guess I should learn tab even though I read and prefer notation. Thank you for giving us MC players more stuff to play!
jim
I found the original score (for guitar); looks like you did some careful and thoughtful editing. Curious about your thoughts on transposing music from other instruments to the mandocello. There is a bit of controversy on this with some of my classical mandocello colleagues.
It's the fantasia many of us will remember from Julian Bream's recording (available on Youtube, along with many other guitar versions, including Segovia's).
Guitarists play it in E minor, going back (I think) to a transcription made way back by Deric Kennard for Schott. But isn't the original key C minor? That's how Ruggiero Chiesa presents it in his complete (400-page) "literal" transcription into guitar notation of the Weiss British Museum ms., published by Zerboni.
Chiesa's Weiss book is a great document, but not easy to use. Personally I'd rather see pieces with three octaves of range written on two staves with two clefs. But in any case I suppose people who don't play the 13-course Baroque lute end up making their own personal versions of these pieces. Thanks for posting yours!
Not to mention the innumerable and excellent recordings on baroque lute! I have recordings by Michel Cardin, Yasunori Imamura, Jose Miguel, Moreno, Nigel North, David Rhodes, and Hopkinson Smith on lute and Julian Bream (of course), Andres Segovia (he plays a major third in an early arpeggio where a minor third belongs, and that rubs me way wrong), and Göran Söllscher (11-string) guitar . . . but that's a tiny fraction of what's out there. Here's a well-known interpreter now:
Yes, the original is in the so-called "London" manuscript (GB-Lbl30387: 67v, WeissSW 9* [the asterisk is important in this catalog], Smith 83), is in C minor, but written around an instrument tuned to an open D-minor chord with sub-bass diapasons in scale steps beneath (as you've alluded, Bruce).
Thanks, Eugene. I've seen Nigel North, Hopkinson Smith, and Toyohiko Satoh live, but have never before heard this Fantasia on lute. (Satoh played the Bach Chaconne, though).
But I did see Narciso Yepes play it on his 10-string guitar, and was delighted how smoothly it goes with all those open basses.
And I thoroughly agree about the Segovia recording, including that wrong note near the outset.
[(edit) But checking that spot again, I see the text has a raised leading tone that Segovia leaves unaltered (d nat. for d# in E minor).]
Last edited by Bruce Clausen; Sep-06-2021 at 9:29pm.
What a wonderful piece of music. Thank you for introducing me. I can’t wait to play your arrangement.
Fascinating discussion. Thank you for all of your replies. For notation scores, I go to imslp.org. I forget if anything besides the D minor is available there. Learning tablature takes time. I think my life's motto can be, "One note at a time". Having a recording to listen to is helpful. With Audacity's free software, any recorded music can be changed in pitch and/or tempo. I find this piece not easy at all.
Revised, improved tablature:
Revised tablature with standard notation included:
Harmon, I appreciate the combination of tab and notation, but pages 2-3 appear on a single wide page. Possible to make them separate pages? (Is this called looking the gift horse in the mouth? Something one shouldn't do ... ) Thanks.
See revised tablature at end of this thread, plus a combined tablature and standard notation.
Further refinements to the Weiss Fantasie tablature. I have filled the open chords for fuller sound and smoother playing.
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