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1
Notating—Accompanying—Conducting:
Intabulation Usage in the Levoča Manuscripts
Jeffery Kite-Powell
1. Introduction
The purpose of this article is to take up Cleveland Johnson's plea found at the conclusion
of his chapter on "The Purpose and Use of Intabulations" in his book Vocal Compositions in
German Organ Tablatures 1550–1650.1The request reads as follows: "Finally, a plea is due for
the dozens of tablature sources catalogued in this work. Each volume is a fascinating microcosm
of the immediate musical surroundings in which it was compiled and deserves a detailed study of
its own."2 In the course of this study references to the many points he discusses will be made and
new ideas will be presented, all of which will be illustrated by examples found in organ
manuscripts located in the Library of the German Evangelical Church in Levoča, Slovakia (SK-
Le). MSS 13990a, 13990b, and 13993 are catalogued in Johnson’s work; MSS 13991, 13992,
and 13994 are not.
Levoča is located in the northeastern part of Slovakia known in German as the Zips
region (Spiš in Slovak). Beginning in the fifteenth century Germans from central Europe—
Saxony, Thuringia, Silesia, Transylvania, among others—began migrating to the area, and by the
early seventeenth century, the Zips region had become a highly developed center of music and
© 2021 by Jeffery T. Kite-Powell
1
This article first appeared in the Proceedings of the Göteborg International Organ Academy 1994, edited by
Davidsson & Jullander and published by the University of Göteborg in 1995, pp. 99-129. It has undergone extensive
updates so that recent research could be made available and improvements incorporated. The digital format has
enabled an expansion that includes the addition of color markings in the facsimiles, as well as sound examples and
additional scores.
2
Johnson, Cleveland. Vocal Compositions in German Organ Tablatures 1550-1650: A Catalogue
and Commentary. New York: Garland Publishing, 1989, 146-147 and 123-147.
2
the fine arts with Levoča as the principal city. Marta Hulková describes this thusly:
The findings of research allow the conclusion that, besides Saxony and the territory of the
present-day Saxony-Anhalt where the majority of the printed sources came from, the
tablature books also reveal close connections and possible correspondences
[concordances] with the Silesian music-cultural environment. At the time, Silesia was a
crossroads for the exchange of cultural values for the German-speaking population of
Central Europe. Occasionally, contemporaneous musical repertoire handed down in
manuscripts was supplemented thanks to the migration of organists in Central Europe,
whether from Bohemia and Moravia, Transylvania, or from the Baltic towns belonging to
Prussia. From other musical centers of Europe, for instance Italy, a rich digest of works
was presented in the collective prints of the time. The scribes (organists) of the tablature
books preserved in Zips were attracted in this regard mainly by anthologies compiled by
A. Schadaeus (1611, 1612, 1613) and E. Bodenschatz (1603).3
The map in Figure 1: will acquaint the reader with the Zips (Spiš) region in northeastern
Slovakia.4 Shown are the distances to Levoča of the nearby cities that may have contributed
performers when large-scale works were performed.
3 There has been a great deal of research in the past two decades led by Marta Hulková and her disciples that has
unearthed details concerning the origins of the manuscripts, the composers and copyists, the cultural settings that
provided for large-scale performances in the local churches in Levoča and nearby cities, and more facts heretofore
unknown to the musicological community. See Hulková’s scholarly work, especially “Central European
Connections of Six Manuscript Organ Tablature Books of the Reformation Era from the Region of Zips (Szepes,
Spiš).” Studia Musicologica 56/1, 2015, 3–37, especially 34 and also 36-37 entitled ‘Selected studies and
monographs on the manuscript tablature books.’ Fn. 14 on p. 7 provides a listing of her disciples; see also Appendix
II in this article. Digital link accessed 31 March 2020: https://akjournals.com/view/journals/6/56/1/article-p3.xml.
See also Jena Kalinayová-Bartová’s important article: “Music by the Gabrielis in the Levoča and Bardejov
Collections.” Musica Iagellonica 1 (2017), 95-116. Accessed on 15 April 2020.
https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=719939.
4 Map of Spis (Zips), Slovakia; accessed 4 April 2020: http://www.spis.sk/mapy/r/r1932.html
3
Fig. 1: Zips (Spiš) region showing distances of cities with connections to Levoča
Figure 2: shows a current map of the principal cities that figure into the history of the six
Levoča tablature books.
4
Fig. 2: Google map of the important cities with Levoča tablature connections
The Lutheran oriented Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession became the
principal religion, and high-quality music, patterned on that of the German districts in the area,
came to be an important part of church life, largely supported by the area’s wealthy residents.
The following account attests to the high status of life at the time:
According to a contemporary chronicler from 25 February 1626, a troupe of eight
trumpeters, elegantly clad in red, rode into Levoča in front of a wagon carrying Katharina
von Brandenburg, second wife of Gabriel Bethlen, with their silver trumpets.5
Marta Hulková provides this assessment of provenance of the Levoča tablatures:
5 See Király, Péter. “Hoftrompeter in Ungarn im 16.-17. Jahrhundert.” Studia Musicologica
Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, T. 46, Fasc. 1/2, Städtisches und höfisches Musikleben in Ungarn und in den
Nachbarregionen im 16.-19. Jahrhundert (2005), 1-19. Akadémiai Kiadó Stable, p. 14, fn. 41:
Nach einem zeitgenössischen Chronisten wurde vor dem Wagen der am 25. Febr 1626 in Löcse
(dtsch) Leutschau, heute Levoča, SK) angekommenen Katharina von Brandenburg, zweite Ehefrau
des Gábor (Gabriel) Bethlen, “8 Trompeter gantz roth zierlich bekleidet mit silbernen Trompeten
vorher geritten.”
Available on JSTOR.
5
The question of the place of origin of musical manuscripts … in the local environment
has not been definitely solved yet. Based on contemporaneous notes and, at certain
instances, on ducti, we can deduce that these manuscripts might have belonged to church
communities in the territory of historical Hungary at the end of the 16th and in the first
half of the 17th century. Therefore, we assume that this [music] might have been
performed at this period in the local environment in Catholic (Franciscan) as well as
Evangelical churches.6
The Leutschau/Lőcse/Levoča Music Collection in SK-Le holds copies of the music
performed during this period, and several of the works in the collection were copied in the city of
L’ubica (Leibnitz in German), just 25 km from Levoča. The approximately 1100 compositions in
the six tablature books that make up the collection are written in new German organ tablature
(NGOT), the standard notational system employed by all organists of German-speaking
territories from the second half of the sixteenth century to 1720.7 A brief description of how to
interpret NGOT can be found in the Appendix. NGOT’s use was not restricted to organ music
alone, but to intabulations of large-scale polychoral works as well. In the case of the Levocă
tablatures the vast majority were intabulated directly from partbooks with no elaborations or
keyboard flourishes.8
6 Hulková, Marta. “The Reception of the Oeuvre of Composers Active at the Court of Rudolf II in Prague in the
Contemporaneous Musical Repertoire of Historical Upper Hungary.” Hudební věda, 2015, vol. 52, no. 2, 3–37, p.
141: Digital link accessed on 04 April 2020: https://kramerius.lib.cas.cz/view/uuid:36e1ee75-34f8-4a2e-8e90-
6aeb3ce1f1be?article=uuid:5c051f90-80f6-4e28-8104-1ff19a5819a2
7 Hulková, “Central European,” p. 6:
“ For the correct assessment of the significance of the six organ tablature books preserved in
Levoča and their Central European connections, it was necessary to carry out the identification of
the more than 1100 compositions they contain, many of which are anonymous.”
8 See Johnson, Vocal, p. 79:
“According to Marta Hulková who is inventorying and cataloging the entire musical holding in
Levoča, the original editions from which these compositions were intabulated are still in the
Library of the Protestant Rectory. In these intabulations instrumental parts were copied as well as
the vocal lines, providing a complete score for each piece. The intabulator clearly organized the
large-textured compositions into separate “choirs” of instruments and voices.”
fn. 18:
“Interview held in the Protestant Rectory of Levoča, CSSR on 6 July 1982. Hulková
explained that certain alterations in the Levoča exemplars of the vocal sources (which
6
Ascribing names to the six tablature books occurred in the 1950s:9
Tablature Books of Caspar and Johann Plotz
(shelf mark 13990a /1 A/ and 13990b /2 A/)
Tablature Books of Samuel Marckfelner I and II
(shelf mark 13991 /6 A/ and 13994 /5 A/)
Tablature Books of Ján Šimbracký I and II
(shelf mark 13992 /3 A/ and 13993 /4 A/)
On the basis of this study of four of the six manuscripts notated in new German letter
notation—namely, MSS 13990a, 13991, 13993, and 13994—it will be shown how an organist in
the Zips region of present-day northeastern Slovakia might have used the music contained in the
six tablature books now located in the Library of the Evangelical Church in Levoča, and that
there were several possible applications of their use, some of which are more clear-cut than
others.
It is beyond the scope of this discussion to provide details on the provenance of the
organists, cantors, copyists, and intabulators, nor the types and sizes of choirs, or the numbers
and kinds of instrumentalists available in many of the cities in this region during the first half of
the seventeenth century, but there is an abundance of recent research that does shed light on all
of these issues.10
are not found in duplicate editions elsewhere) correlated exactly with tablature.
and Hulková, “Central European,” p. 26:
. . . contemporaneous manuscripts of music might have served as sources for the tablature books,
cannot be claimed unequivocally. It I not exactly known where the musical prints were kept at the
time when the tablature books were prepared nor when they were placed in the Library of the
Evangelical Church in Leutschau.
9 Hulková, “Central European,” p. 7:
The manuscript organ tablature books preserved in the Leutschau Collection can be divided into
pairs according to their alleged scribe(s).
10 Research in the 1980s was advanced by Slovak musicologists Richard Rybarič, Frantšek Matús, and Marta
Hulková; portions of their work has been translated into German. By Hulková: her dissertation Levočská zbierka
hudobnín¸ Komensky Universität, Bratislava, 1986, and her two booklets “Von der Forschung der Musikgeschichte
in der Slovakei—Orgel-Tablaturbücher der Musikaliensammlung von Levoča,” in Ročník XVIII of Musaica
(Bratislava, Zborník Filosofickej a Pedgogickej Fakulty, Univerzity Komenského, 1985), pp. 57-79 and the one
7
2. Cantors and Organists, Composers and Dates
Cantors in German-speaking cities and towns had multifaceted duties similar to those of
their North German counterparts, where Protestantism had become the principal religion. Precise
instructions for conducting the liturgical service were laid out in great detail11—not just for the
cantors, but for organists as well.12 The cantors, for instance, directed the church and school
choirs and were also responsible for the music education of the children. The instruction for the
cited in the following footnote. By Rybarič there is Ján Šimbracký: Opera omnia 1 (Bratislava: Opus, 1982) and by
Matús, The Tabulaturbuch des Samuel Marckfelner (Bratislava: Opus, 1981). In addition to this author, American
musicologists Cleveland Johnson (cited in footnote 2), and Jerry Cain (Cain, Jerry. “The Anonymous Sacred
Concertos of Levoča Mus Ms 13993: an analysis and critical edition,” master’s thesis submitted to The Florida State
University, 1994.) provide insightful information on this collection in English..
11 Most churches had a prescribed Order of Worship or Liturgy—Kinchenordung in German. See Kite-Powell,
Jeffery. The Visby (Petri) Organ Tablature: Investigation and Critical Edition, vol.
14 in the séries Quellen-Kataloge zur Musikgeschichte. Wilhelmshaven: Heinrichshofen, 1979, p. 17:
The organist was assigned more duties in the liturgy by Aepin in that he was instructed to play for
the Introit, Responsory, Magnificat, Benedictus, German chorales and psalms and during the
Communion, at which time he was only supposed to repeat the verses the choir had sung. If time
allowed, he could conclude a chorale begun by the choir.
and p. 20, for the Hamburg order of worship:
And regarding music in the church . . . the reading, preaching, singing, and playing must in all
cases take place in a slow and solemn fashion. When fine, serious, motets and touching, stirring
psalms and chorales are not played, but pieces and songs which skip about frivolously in the choir
and on the organ with wonton leaps and whimsicalities and bizarre fugues as if one were going to
a dance, not only can no devotion follow, but, on the contrary, a disgust for the lovely and glorious
music must be introduced and implanted in the hearts of those present. Digital link to publication.
12 See, for example, Krüger, Liselotte. Die hamburgische Musikorganisation im XVII Jahrhundert. Baden-Baden:
Verlag Valentin Koerner, 1933, p. 11ff for cantors and p. 106ff for organists; see also Kite-Powell, The Visby, p.
20:
Another of the organist’s obligations was to take the place of the specially trained choir which
sang figural music on High Feast Days when it was engage at one of the other of the four principal
churches in Hamburg. It may be assumed that the organist either improvised a motet or some
other piece on a choral melody suitable for the occasion or played one that had been intabulated
and figurated from a tablature book. It is also possible that instrumentalists called
Ratsmusikanten, participated here as at other times during the church year. The job of the
Ratsmusikanten . . . was described as in de orgel blasen and involved the playing of all or some of
the voices of a composition with the organ.
The duties of the Hamburg organists and the development of music in the Hamburg churches
continued to increase until a high point was reached under the leadership of two of Hamburg’s
cantors, Thomas Selle and Christoph Berrhard, and under Matthias Weckmann, one of the most
important organists of the second half of the 17th century and founder of the Hamburg Collegium
Musicum (1660).
8
cantor in the Levocă School Regulations (Schulordnungen) are quite detailed:
The teaching of the subject [music] becomes the duty of the cantor, who will teach the
rules for the first few days of the week in such a way that he will present them
intelligently for the students to practice. The following days he will teach singing, so that
he can train the older and younger boys to modulate their voices equally. At the same
time, he must explain how to straighten and modulate the voice by narrowing the throat,
pulling down the mouth, and forming the vowels when singing. He [must] also draw
attention to the fact that not everyone [should] draw their breath simultaneously so that
there is a break in singing, but that they take turns breathing and holding out the voice
[part].13
There were professional choirs and instrumental groups,14 but their size and affordability
depended on the financial well-being of the cities.15 It should also be noted that the
13 Hulková, Marta. "Das Musikleben in Städten von Zips (Spiš) am Ende des 16. und im 17. Jahrhundert." In
Zborník Filozofickej a Pedagogickej fakulty Univerzity Komenského Musaica, Ro_nik XXI (1988), p. 87:
Die Zentralpersonen, die Organisatoren des Musikgeschehens—wie auch in anderen Städten—
waren auch hier die Kantoren und die Organisten, die von der Stadtkasse bezahlt wurden. . . . Ein
fester Bestandteil des Interpretationsapparates hat der Studentenchor, den ein Kantor leitete,
gebildet, der sich auch um die Musikerziehung in der Stadtschule gekümmert hat. Ausführlicher
Uber die Pflichten eines Kantors gegenüber der Schule erfahren wir aus den Schulordnungen. [in
footnote 11]
Fn 11:
In Levoča-Schulgesetz (1589) in dem Kapitel ‘über das Singen’ wird geschrieben: "Der Unterricht
des Gegenstandes wird zur Pflicht des Kantors, der, die ersten Tage der Woche die Regeln so
unterrichten wird, dass er sie verständig für Praxis der Schuler bearbeitet. Folgende Tage wird
er den Gesang unterrichten, damit er die Jungen und Jünglinge auf geschulte und
gleichmodulierte Stimme gewöhnt. Gelichzeitig erklärt er, wie man die Gleichrichtung und
Modulation der Stimme die Kehle verengen muss, den Mund herabziehen und die Selbstlaute beim
Singen zu formieren soll, weiter macht er darauf aufmerksam, damit nicht alle gleich Atem
schöpfen und so im Singen zu keinem Hiat kommt, sondern dass sie abwechselnd einatmen und die
Stimme festhalten.”
https://www.dropbox.com/s/u2oy5fbdve2goh3/Hulkov%C3%A1--Das%20Musikleben.PDF?dl=0 ,
14 See Kite-Powell, The Visby, p. 20, for an example from Hamburg.
For more information concerning the participation of instruments in the church service and a
contract with the Ratsmusikanten dated 1592 see Leichsenring, Hugo Hamburgische
Kirchenmusik im Reformationszeitalter (1922) in Hamburger Beiträge zur Musikgeschichte, Bd.
20, edited by Jeffery Kite-Powell, 1982, pp. 72-74; See also Krüger, Die hamburghische, pp. 118-
120.
15Hulková. "Das Musikleben,” p. 89,
Die Zahl der weiteren Musiker—die Choralisten und Instrumentalisten—auf den
Musikproduktinnen in der Kirche bewegte sich nach den finanziellen Möglichkeiten der einzelnen
Städte.
9
responsibilities for music of any sort was quite different at royal courts from church settings.
The court Kapellmeister, whether Michael Praetorius, Heinrich Schütz, Gustaf Düben, or even
Joseph Haydn, had immense flexibility to organize music productions as needed or required.
Many organists are known and were generally of local origin and training. Indeed, there
was a longstanding tradition in Levoča of providing scholarship assistance to the most promising
organ students.16 There is a considerable amount of information on the organs in the region—
including size, disposition, number of keyboards, makers, dates, and cost of construction. The
organ in St. James church of Levoča from the early 1630s, for instance, had 1652 pipes, twenty-
five registers, six bellows, four windchests, two manuals and pedal, and until the middle of the
nineteenth century counted as the largest organ in all of Hungary.17
Dates found in the tablature books of the Levocă collection show entries ranging
throughout most of the seventeenth century, a time when turbulent occurrences were common,
and from p. 88:
Neben finanziellen Möglichkeiten der Stadtkasse haben reiche Stadtbürger überdies in Interesse
einer Qualitätserhöhung der Musikproduktionen in der St. Jacob Kirche noch Geld beigetragen.
and Kalinayová-Bartová, “Music by the,” p. 95.
. . . the Spiš (Zips) . . . regions . . . belonged to the most economically developed areas of Royal
Hungary. These regions were dominated by a German-speaking population concentrated in towns
where music productions were organized under the patronage of local municipal patricians.
16 Hulková. “Das Musikleben,” p. 88:
Ebenfalls, J. Minoris, ein Gebürtiger aus Levoča, in Jahren 1607-1620 Rektor der Schule,
gründetet aus eigenen Mitteln eine Nadation [sic][Ausstatung/endowment?] von 100 Goldenen,
die auch fürs Bedecken des Orgelspielunterrichtes dienen sollte.
see also Hulková, “Central European,” p. 8.
It is not clear, where the organists active in Zips . . . received their education in music. . . In the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the standard of musical education in the towns of Zips . . .
was high. This is evidenced by the firm position of music as a subject in school curricula
preserved in Zips, as well as by extant compendia of music.
17Gergelyi, Omar and Karol Wurm, Historické organi na Slovensku (Historical organs in
Slovakia), Bratislava: Opus, 1982, pp. 40-43; and Hulková, “Das Musikleben,” p. 88:
A. Turzo hinterließ in seinem Testament aus dem Jahr 1581 einen Geldbetrag, der zur
Unterstützung des Kantors und Organisten mit seinem Gehilfen bestimmt war.
10
including the Thirty Years’ War, the fall of the Kingdom of Hungary, and the dissolution of the
Hapsburg Empire. From a review of the contents of these tablatures and the many precise dates
found in some of them, composers can be identified, and the origins of the music and how up to
date it was can be established. There is music from as far away as Hamburg by father and son
Hieronymus and Jacob Praetorius, and from Rostock by Daniel Friderici; likewise, music
composed by such notables as Michael Praetorius (Wolfenbüttel), Melchior Vulpius (Weimar),
Johann Hermann Schein (Leipzig), Samuel Scheidt (Halle), Heinrich Schütz (Dresden), and
Giovanni Gabrieli (Venice) is also found. Numerous other composers, many indigenous to the
Zips region, and several of unknown origin are also represented in the collection.18
All figures regarding dates are found in MS 13993. In his master’s thesis, Jerry Cain
offered the following observations on the astrological symbols found in the manuscript that
represent each day of the week.19 For example, the symbols for the days of the week in
figures 4-10 are, respectively: Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Tuesday, Sunday, Wednesday, and
Monday.
18 For inventory lists of the various tablature books, see Hulková, “Central European,” p. 25, fn. 83.
19 All figures and descriptions are taken from Cain, Jerry. “The Anonymous Sacred Concertos of Levoča Mus Ms
13993: an analysis and critical edition,” master’s thesis submitted to The Florida State University, 1994., pp. 12-15.
Thanks to my friend and former colleague, Prof. Charles Brewer, for sharing his thoughts on some of the
abbreviations found in these dates.
11
Fig. 3: Astrological symbols for the days of the week20
These works were all written in the town of Leibicÿ (modern-day L'ubica) except Fig. 5,
which likely originated there as well. The unusual sign——following the year in
Figures 5, 6, and 10 indicates Finis or finished, and a few examples have special notes, e.g., Fig.
11—ad candela lumen (by candlelight); Fig. 10—the 19th Sunday after Trinitas; Fig. 10—
Feliciter finÿt (happily finished) and opus Dividicum / Schÿtzy (Davidic work [from Schütz’s
Psalm of David].
Fig 4.: Leibicÿ 31 July [Thursday] / 1642, systems 2r/3v
20 Grun, Paul Arnold. Schlüssel zu alten und neuen Abkürzungen: Wörterbuch lateinischer und deutscher
Abkürzungen des späten Mittelalters und der Neuzeit . . . Lüneburg: C.A. Starke Verlag, 1966, pp. 303-304.
12
Fig. 5: Leibicÿ ipsis Cal. August [Friday] /1642, systems 4r, 3
Fig. 6: 2 August [Saturday] / 1642, systems 6r, 4
Fig. 7: Leibicÿ 17 Novembris [Tuesday] / 1643 h. 9. ad candela lumen, systems 77v, 6
Fig. 8: Leibicÿ / Dominica 19 p. [post] Trinitas [Sunday] / 1642, systems 23r, 6
13
Fig. 9: Leibicÿ / 25 Marty [Wednesday] / 1643, systems 40r, 2
Fig. 10: Leibicÿ / Feliciter finÿt [Monday] / 1643, J.S.O.L. / system 34r21
Altogether there are about fifty dates in the manuscript.
3. The Aspect of Tablature Notation
Only a very small percentage of the works contained in the tablatures under study here
constitutes works originally written for organ, the overwhelming majority being intabulations of
vocal compositions. Many of the pieces require sizeable choral and instrumental forces, while
others call for small three- and four-part choral ensembles. It is precisely this great variety of
forms and styles of notation that raises the question: how were the pieces in these manuscripts
used? In her work Die Überlieferung der deutschen Orgel- und Klaviermusik, Lydia Schierning
offers these thoughts:
All manuscripts can be said to be collections of compositions that have been put together
according to their practical use. In addition, one or the other tablature was also used as a
21 It would be a logical assumption that J.S.O.L is the abbreviation for “Ján Šimbracký Organist Leibicÿ,” but he
was never the organist in L’ubica, but rather in Spišské Podhradie (Kirchdorf). E-mail communication from Marta
Hulková on 24 May 2020. See also Hulková, “Central European,” p. 25, fn. 82
So far only his [the scribe’s] initials are known. The archive materials that could document and
specify the identity of the organist of Leibitz, active in the 1630s and 1640s, are not available.
14
teaching book, but all manuscripts primarily serve as repertoire collections. The
difference in their content lies in the numerous, unequal areas of responsibilities of the
organists.22
Schierning’s proposition that the manuscripts served as "repertory collections” suggests that the
tablatures were meant to function as scores that preserved all the parts of each composition for
future performances or for future generations of organists—or even for posterity.
In order to obtain the perspective necessary to address this question properly, the
transitional state in which German-trained organists found themselves with regard to notation
during the first half of the seventeenth century must first be considered. As outlined in the
Appendix, it had long been the custom, inherited from the preceding century, for organists to use
letter notation with rhythmic signs placed over the letters—a system that extended well into the
early decades of the seventeenth century, and, as is commonly known, was even used by J.S.
Bach on several occasions when he ran out of staff lines while composing pieces in his
Orgelbüchlein.23 Using staff lines, it should be noted, requires considerably more space than
22 Schierning, Lydia. Die Überlieferung der deutschen Orgel- und Klaviermusik aus der 1. Hälfte des 17.
Jahrhunderts. In the series Schriften des Landesinstituts für Musikforschung, Kiel, XII. Kassel: Bärenreiter Verlag,
1961, p. 114:
Von allen diesen Hss. Kann gesagt werden, daß die Sammlungen von Kompositionen sind, die
jeweils nach dem praktischen Gebrauch der Benutzer zusammengestellt wurden. Daneben wurde
die eine oder andere Tabulatur auch als Unterrichtsbuch verwandt, doch dienen alle HSS in erster
Linie als Repertoire-Sammlungen. Der inhaltliche Unterschied liegt in den zahlreiche, ungleichen
Aufgabengebiet der Organisten.
23 Works in this collection that use tablature notation include:
• “Nun komm der Heiden Heyland“ (BWV 599)
• “Der Tag, der ist so freudenreich” (BWV 605)
• “Wir Christenleut (see Figure 3 in Appendix)
• “Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin” (BWV 616)
• “Herr Gott, nun schleuß den Himmel auf” (BWV 617)
• “Christus, der uns selig macht” (BWV 620a
• “Wir danken dir, Herr Jesu Christ, daß du für uns gestorben bist” (BWV 623)
• “Hilf, Gott, daß mir’s gelinge” (BWV 624); the pedal is in tablature letters, the manuals in staff
15
simply using letters. Already by 1624, Samuel Scheidt (1587–1653) was making inroads into
modernizing the German system of notation in his Tabulatura Nova (1624) by recommending
the use of notes instead of letters.24 This new system was slow to catch on, and even when it
finally did become the norm, the young organ student was still expected to be able to read letter
notation, as expressed in this satirical quotation from Friederich Niedt's treatise of 1700, entitled
The Musical Guide (Die Musicalische Handleitung):
. . . I had first to learn the letters of the German Tabulatur with the crow's feet written
above and beside them—purporting to indicate time—as well as the keys on the Clavier.
But before I had but partially grasped this instruction, a few years had already passed.
Meanwhile, I thought to myself, "Oh, had I but known that the organist's art is so
difficult, I would have lost all desire for it."25
Another reference to the use of tablature notation comes from the third volume of
Michael Praetorius's Syntagma Musicum of 1619, where he responds to Agostino Agazzari's
admonition that an organist must have a good grasp of score notation.26 He counters:
However, since most German organists are accustomed to German letter notation (which
is not only easy and convenient for them to play from, but also to compose with), it
would be very difficult for them to become familiar with staff notation. My advice to
them would be to transcribe the compositions completely into their normal letter
tablature at first and determine from that how it conforms with the thoroughbass, and
whether they could get accustomed to such a thoroughbass through hard work and
notation.
24A system long in use in Italy, referred to as partitura, in which each voice had its own staff.
25Niedt, Friederich. The Musical Guide: 1700/10. Translated by Pamela Poulin and Irmgard
Taylor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989., p. 13.
26 Praetorius, Michael, Syntagmatis Musici Michaelis Praetorii C. Tomus Tertius, 1619, p. 126 (incorrectly
numbered 146). Digital facsimile available at:
https://stimmbuecher.digitale-sammlungen.de/view?id=bsb00103225
An Online Transliteration and critical edition of this text by Christophe Guillotel-Northmann, can be found in
Thesarurus Musicarum Germanicarum, 2015.
http://tmg.huma-num.fr/xtf/view?docId=tei/Praetorius%201619/Praetorius%201619.xml;chunk.id=div_2
Kite-Powell translation: Praetorius, Michael. Syntagma musicum III. Termini musici. Wolfenbüttel, 1619.
Translated and edited by Jeffery T. Kite-Powell. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004, p. 135. Note the
distinction between “score” and “tablature” notation here.
16
practice.27
Even as late as 1643, Johann Andreas Herbst refers to German letter notation in his
treatise Musica Poetica, suggesting that this method of composing organ music still had its
place:
The third modus, way, and manner to compose is with letters according to the usage of
the organist, in which the notes are recognizably designated and written with their own
clavibus and letters; and this third way has been the most customary from ancient times
and is at present still not to be disdained or discarded, as it has its special advantage.28
But in revisiting Niedt, some sixty years later, the following remark reveals that this
manner of notation is indeed disdained:
I also realize that a person who knows a little bit about notes and is then led immediately
to the thorough-bass will grasp it sooner than those who have played for years according
to the German Tabulatur. By contrast, the person who has learned to play things written
in Tabulatur will not be able to play even half a line of thorough-bass.29
Further on he says that organists who read only tablature notation are "paper organists," even
though they may have been playing for a long time.30 And finally, he talks about how admirable
the old Germans were for devising the tablature method of notating, but at the same time
suggests that the primary reason the Italians won all the grand prizes before the Germans is
because they never used tablature notation. It is a great deal easier to play from notes than from
tablature, he believes, so why not give up the old, clumsy method, in favor of one that is easy
and more accurate.31
27Praetorius, Syntagma Musicum, vol. 3, p. 126 (incorrectly numbered 146). Kite-Powell, translation p. 135. This
passage, as well as several others, is also found in Johnson, pp. 124-134, in the original German.
28Kite-Powell. The Visby, p. 64.
29Niedt, The Musical Guide, p. 14.
30Niedt, The Musical Guide, p. 23.
31Niedt, The Musical Guide, p. 24.
17
Theresa de Goede-Klinkhame emphasizes:
During the period preceding that in which organ players began to play thorough bass, it
had been customary for the accompanist of vocal polyphonic compositions to compress
the different parts of the piece onto staves (intavolatura) or to convert them into an organ
tablature. In this way the parts of the composition were duplicated in the accompaniment.
Since by the end of the 16th century compositions had become increasingly complex, and
the number of parts greater, organ players turned to playing from the bass line only.
These basses were unfigured, with at most some sharps and flats added to indicate
whether the third needed to be major or minor.32
4. The Aspect of Accompanying
One of the most important attributes an organist should possess is the ability to
accompany from a bass line.
Indeed, one suspects the better musicians of the sixteenth century were able to
accompany from a bass line long before Viadana coined the term basso continuo
in 1602. They would simply apply their knowledge of counterpoint and the standard
harmonic progressions of the day, much as was done with the unfigured bass parts of
the seventeenth century.33
de Goede-Klinkhame weights in again here with this important perspective:
Thanks to their knowledge of counterpoint, organ players were able
to judge which harmonies they had to play from the way the bass progressed.…
From these [Prefaces of printed organ collections] it becomes apparent that not
all composers were equally enthusiastic about the new invention. In fact,
right up to the second decade of the 17th century there were composers
who preferred to have their pieces accompanied from an intavolatura,
which they themselves sometimes provided. Others were not against
"playing from the bass" per se, but declined to have their basses published
32 de Goede-Klinkhamer, Thdr5se. "Del suonare sopra il basso: Concerning the Realization of
Early Seventeenth-Century Italian Unfigured Basses,” in Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Muziekfheorie (November
1996), 80-115, p. 83. Digital link accessed on 15 June 2020:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4b71dw5y2fhg7ec/Thdr5se%20de%20Goede-Klinkhamer--
Del%20suonare%20sopra%20il%20basso%20Concerning.pdf?dl=0.
33Ashworth, Jack and Paul O'Dette. "Proto-continuo: Overview and Practical Applications," in A
Performer's Guide to Renaissance Music, 2nd edn., edited by Jeffery Kite-Powell. Bloomington, IN: Indiana
University Press, 2007, 225-237. For another discussion of how to deal with unfigured continuo realization see
Bonte, Stephen. The Sonatas of Giovanni Legrenzi, op. 2 (1655). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984.
Harvard Publications in Music 14.
18
with figures, because (as Piccioni says in his Preface):
. . . this causes confusion with the organ players who do
not know them, while the knowledgeable organ player
does not need them. Organ players who are not experienced
in playing from the thorough bass [basso seguito] had better
make an intavolatura.34
Even as late as the beginning of the next century, Niedt refers to this “unfigured” bass in
Chapter 7 of the above-mentioned treatise: “If nothing is written above the thorough-bass, then
only the consonances, namely the third, fifth, and octave are struck.”35 He discusses the radix
unitrisona (three sounding as one) harmony which comes in three forms: radix simplex, harmony
consisting of just three notes; radix aucta, the same as the former type, but with doubled octave;
and radix diffusa, a spreading out of the three notes into different octaves.
Looking back to the early years of the seventeenth century, Viadana provided his readers
with twelve rules in his Cento concerti ecclesiastici to assist them in performing his concertos.36
Rules six and ten are particularly enlightening to this discussion:
6. No tablature [keyboard score] has been made for these concertos, not in order to
escape the trouble, but to make them easier for the organist to play, since, as a matter of
fact, not everyone would play from a tablature [keyboard score] at sight, and the majority
would play from the partitura [open score] as being less trouble; I hope that the organists
will be able to make the said tablature [keyboard score] at their own convenience, which,
to tell the truth, is much better.
10. If anyone should want to sing my concertos without organ or clavier, the effect will
never be good; on the contrary, for the most part, dissonances will be heard.
With respect to exactly what the accompanist should play, some theorists suggest that
34 de Goede-Klinkhame, “Realization of Early, p. 83 quoting Giovanni Piccioni, Concerti ecclestiastici ft 1-8 voci
con il suo Basso seguito (Venice, 1610), cited by Kinkeldey, pp. 224-225.
35 Niedt, The Musical Guide, p. 34.
36 Viadana, Lodovico da. Cento concerti ecclesiastici (Venice, 1602). Translated by Oliver Strunk in Sources
Readings in Music History. New York: W.W. Norton, 1950, p. 422.
19
there is plenty of flexibility. Agazzari writes that “there is no need for the player to play the parts
as written if he aims to accompany singing and not to play the work as written.”37 Johann Staden,
an organist in Nuremberg familiar with the older styles as well as the new style, writes in the
appendix of his Harmoniæ Sacræ of 1616 that “the score need not always be played faithfully.
Its purpose is to make clear to the organist which kinds of voices the work uses, so that his
accompanying chords can be adapted to them properly.”38 And Praetorius, who wrote
extensively on the concept of basso continuo,39 suggests that “it is not necessary for the organist
to play strictly what the vocalists sing, but to play notes that are consonant with the
foundation.”40
In the following chapters, the discussion turns to the issues of basso continuo and figured
bass using examples from the Levoča tablatures.
5. The Aspect of Basso continuo
Several examples from the Levoča intabulations show how composers dealt with the
issue of basso continuo.
Figure 11 depicts an anonymous composition from MS 13994.
37Agazzari, Agostino. Del sonare sopra il basso (Siena, 1607). Translated by Oliver Strunk in Source Readings in
Music History. New York: W.W. Norton, (1950), p. 431.
38Kite-Powell, The Visby, p. 46.
39 Praetorius. Syntagma Musicum, vol. 3, Chapter 6, pp. 144[124] ff; Kite-Powell, translation, pp. 133ff, as well as
several additional references to thorough bass/basso continuo in the index (Kite-Powell, p. 264).
40Praetorius. Syntagma Musicum, vol. 3, p. 143; Kite-Powell, translation, p. 149.
20
Fig. 11: Ms. 13994, fol.s 114v/115r
Two chorale tunes are cited in the last two systems: Nun bitten wir den heiligen Geist begins in
system 4 (yellow highlight) and continues across the page; Spiritus Sancti gratia (German, Des
heil’gen Geistes reiche Gnad) occupies both pages of system 5. Note that the composition, as
transcribed by the intabulator, has dropped from six parts in the previous three systems—a choral
setting on the chorale melody Nu frewdt euch ihr arm unnd reich,” 6 vo per 4tam—to just the top
and bottom parts in these two pieces—a clear indication that the organist was filling in the inner
parts.41
41 The coloring of the facsimiles in this study was provided by Chris Rathbun for whom many thanks are due.
21
By contrast, Figure 12 (also from MS 13994), a piece composed by Ján Šimbracký,
Ms 13994 composed by Ján Šimbracký
actually provides the organist with a basso generalis or general bass line, as highlighted in
yellow in the upper left-hand corner. From the way the basso continuo is placed on the page, it
can be surmised that it does not accompany the eleven voices in the tutti passages (in turquoise),
even though “à 10” is specified at the beginning of the piece. In the soli sections (in tan) nine
voices rest and two sing (but not always the same two), with basso continuo making twelve parts
in all. See systems 1 and 3, verso and recto.
22
In Figure 13 from MS 13993, Meine Harfe ist verwandelt in trawren à 8 by Matthias
Apelles, system 3 is divided into two parts with the blue arrow representing system 3a and the
violet arrow 3b.
Fig. 13: from Ms 13993: Meine Harfe ist verwandelt in trawren à 8 by Matthias Apelles
At the start of 3av is the indication “Sinfon[ia] à 3 violin[i]” (highlighted in yellow), which
suggests two violins and cello, with the organist presumably playing from the bottom line. This
three-part section continues through 3ar and concludes at the end of 3bv. The short concertato
section that follows (system 3br, highlighted in yellow) specifies the alto and tenor of the second
choir, but provides three voice parts in all (note that the text, not highlighted, runs across the top
where rests are provided for the cantus voice). This is followed by another short section marked
23
“Chorus” (system 4v, highlighted in yellow), which appears to be divided CCATB|ATTB and
which, for two short measures, is polychoral. System 4r returns to two-part writing (“à 2,”
highlighted in yellow)—presumably the alto and tenor again—but with the text now placed
between the second and third voices; the third voice is much more active than the previous bass
line. The meaning of the letters “rp.” and “lf.” at the end of system 4r (highlighted in yellow) is
unclear, although they may refer to a change in registration or manuals. This section continues
through systems 5v–r at which point the duet ends. The concept of “proto-continuo” is clearly
playing a role in this piece. The final tutti section of the piece continues on the next pages, as the
scribe wrote “Verte” or “turn” at the end of the system (highlighted in yellow).
Systems 1 and 2 of this facsimile show a “stacked” procedure of writing for divided
choirs as opposed to writing in “block” format; more about these two formatting approaches is
discussed below. The colors red and blue indicate alternating choirs, while turquoise shows them
singing together. At the end of this section (system 2r) the composer or intabulator inscribed the
place and date of the composition: “Leibitz” (modern-day L'ubica, roughly 25 km from
Levoča—see Fig. 1), “anno April [Wednesday] 1642” (highlighted in yellow).
6. The Use of the Figured Bass
Thus far in these facsimiles there has been a preference for writing out the complete
parts—a practice that holds true for all of the Levoča manuscripts under study here—rather than
reducing the parts to a figured bass. This is all the more remarkable when one consults the
partbooks found in the Levoča collection that served as the basis for many of these
24
intabulations;42 one partbook is actually marked "General Bass," as is the case with the Psalmen
Davids, op. 2, by Heinrich Schütz. It is interesting to note that even on the rare occasions when
parts are reduced, as in the facsimiles above where there is an accompanied solo line, or when
only the outer voices are used, the copyist or intabulator never once used any signs or symbols
commonly employed when writing thorough-bass lines.
An exception to this lack of symbols in a continuo part can be found in Ich danke dem
Herren von gamzem Herzen by Heinrich Schütz, MS 13993, fol. 14r, system 1. The A at the
fermata in the basso continuo is followed immediately by a sharp sign, indicating the raised
third, as seen in Figure 14. Note that in Figure 15, the E-major chord in fol. 13v, at the point in
which choir 2 drops out, has no sharp sign in the basso continuo, a rather perplexing
inconsistency.
Fig. 14: Schütz, Ms 13993, fol. 14r showing sharp sign in figured bass
42 Refer to footnote 8 above.
25
Fig. 15: g-sharps (in green) in choir, but no indication of a
raised sharp in Schütz’s basso continuo; Ms. 13993, fol. 13v
And in Figure 16, found on fol. 35v of MS 13993, taken from Schütz’s Machet die Tore weit
(SWV Anhang 8), there are these symbols: a sharp sign and the Latin symbol (a circle with a
right-slanting arrow) for “tertia” or third, both perhaps cautionary signs suggesting that the third
should not be lowered. Both seem superfluous for the F-major chord they accompany as seen in
Figure 17.43
43 Page 4, meas. 30 of the transcription, accessed on 15 May 2020, at:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/m3t5r7saq1trh31/Machet%20die%20tore%20schuetz.pdf?dl=0
26
Fig. 16: MS 13993 showing sharp signs and symbols
Fig. 17: Schütz—Machet die tore, p. 4, mm 25-30 showing F-major cadence
27
Several theorists of the time expressed their opinions concerning the use of figures in a
thoroughbass part. In 1607 Agostino Agazzari states:
As no definite rule can be given, the player must necessarily rely upon his ear and follow
the work and its progressions. But if you would have an easy way of avoiding these
obstacles and of playing the work exactly, take this advice and indicate with figures
above the notes of the bass, the consonances and dissonances used by the composer.45
Adding figures above the notes has more to do with convenience than method, as he says
that one can assemble a large number of pieces with very little trouble by using a figured bass; in
addition, the beginner is no longer bound to the score, something that is not only difficult to use,
but likely to promote error, due to the many parts that must be followed simultaneously—
especially when it is concerted music and one has little or no time to prepare.46
The third and last reason, he concludes, is alone sufficient ground to use the figured bass,
for if an organist were to make a score of all the works which are sung in the course of a year in
just one church in Rome where concerted music is performed, he would need to have a library
larger than that of a Doctor of Laws.47
Adriano Banchieri was rather uncomplimentary regarding the whole idea of
thoroughbass. In his Conclusioni nel suono dell'organo, published in Bologna in 1609, he writes:
Because it is easy to play from a Basso Continuo, many organists nowadays are highly
successful in concerted playing. But in their great vanity on account of their sureness in
playing with others, they give little thought to exerting themselves in improvisation and
playing from score, whereas it is in this very domain that many a good man has made
himself immortal. So that, in short, we shall soon have two classes of players: on the one
hand Organists, that is to say, such as practice good playing from score and
improvisation, and, on the other hand, Bassists who, overcome by sheer laziness, are
content with simply playing the Bass. I do not mean to say that playing from a Basso
45Agazzari, Del sonare, p. 426.
46Agazzari, Del sonare, p. 431.
47Agazzari, Del sonare, p. 431.
28
Continuo is not useful, and is not easy, but I do say that every Organist ought to seek to
play the Basso Continuo in accordance with sound rules.48
Responding to Agazzari's comment that some people might regard the organist who uses
numbers and symbols as clumsy and stupid, Praetorius writes:
To that I respond that without the use of these figures one is far more likely to think him
a fool, whose characteristics, among other things, include having to guess and stumble
around making thousands of mistakes. If the organist presumes to anticipate the
composer's intentions and thoughts he will come across as deranged and as a simpleton
worthy of ridicule.49
To be sure, the score50 of all parts was created in an earlier time, and one was supposed to
be able to play from it accurately as written, which was certainly done; whoever has a
good grasp of it and plays from it expediently can still use it as well as ever.… The
thoroughbass was invented so that one could immediately play along in a concerted
piece without such diffuseness and difficulty and thus produce a beautiful harmony.51
But it was recognized by some that the many dissonances that were heard were a result of
the thoroughbass simply being played artlessly, since anyone could apply the rules of
music in his own capricious manner. Consequently, it was vitally important to invent a
method by which one could play correctly, without mistakes, and conform as much as
possible to the composer's composition. There was no easier way to achieve this than
through the use of figures, by which any small boy only slightly familiar with the system
could play the piece so well and free of dissonances, as if he were playing from the
complete score.52
… the sharp and flat signs and the numbers 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, etc. denoting major and minor
thirds and sixths above the bass line must be carefully observed.… It is not necessary for
the organist to play the vocal parts as they are being sung, but to play concordances to the
48Banchieri, Adriano. Conclusioni nel suono dell'organo (Bologna, 1609). In Piero Weiss and
Richard Taruskin, Music in the Western World: A History in Documents. New York: Schirmer Books, 1984, p. 179.
49Praetorius. Syntagma Musicum, vol. 3, p. 129. Kite-Powell translation, p. 137.
50Tabulatur = “intavolatura” in Strozzi’s Italian, which, to quote Arnold, “was not really a tablature at all. It was on
two staves in ordinary musical notation, the upper staff (for the right hand) consisting of five or six lines, while the
lower one had from five to eight. Unlike the German organ tablature . . . the Italian intavolature failed to show the
progression of individual parts.” Arnold, Frank Thomas. The Art of Accompaniment from a Thorough-bass as
Practised in the 17th and 18th Centuries (London, 1931), 14-15. Arnold’s discussion of Praetorius’s description of
the thoroughbass is found on pp. 93-100. For more on Strozzi’s publication see Praetorius, Syntagma Musicum,
vol. 3, p. 148[128], Kite-Powell, translation, p. 136 and footnote 61.
51Praetorius. Syntagma Musicum, vol. 3, p. 129[149]. Kite-Powell, translation, p. 137-138.
52Praetorius. Syntagma Musicum, vol. 3, p. 129[149]. Kite-Powell, translation, p. 138.
29
foundation independently.53
At this point, as seen in Figure 18, Praetorius provides the reader with a two-line example
of figured bass (blue highlighting), followed immediately by the resolution (green
highlighting).54
Fig. 18: Praetorius’s bass line showing figures for proper basso continuo execution (blue
highlight) followed by his bass line with the resolution of figures (green highlight)
53 Praetorius. Syntagma Musicum, vol. 3, p. 143[correct]. Kite-Powell, translation, p. 149.
54 Praetorius. Syntagma Musicum, vol. 3 p. 144 [correct]. Kite-Powell, translation, p. 150.
30
Under the example he writes:
Those who are not accustomed to note tablature can quite justifiably transcribe it into
German letter notation and deduce from this how the inner parts are to be employed.55
7. The Aspect of the Conductor’s Score
The theoretical discussions presented thus far demonstrate the various approaches an
organist might have taken with respect to the thoroughbass, and how the organists in the Zips
region of eastern Slovakia practiced the art of accompanying from German letter notation in the
Levoča intabulations. Another type of intabulation found in these manuscripts—which might be
described as conductors’ scores—will now be considered.
It may come as a surprise to some, but the idea of creating a score for a composition after
it was written did not seem important to composers prior to the seventeenth century. Whether in
manuscript or printed form, the music is either arranged in books according to their vocal range
(e.g., cantus partbook, altus partbook, etc.), or it was written in choirbook format in which each
voice part was placed in its own area of the open book with the cantus voice on the upper left
side of the page, the tenor voice below it, and the altus and bassus parts on the opposing page.56
55 Praetorius. Syntagma Musicum, vol. 3, p. 144 [correct]. Kite-Powell, translation, p. 149.
56 This tradition carries over from the Middle Ages and Renaissance periods where scores of complete vocal
compositions, whether sacred or secular, are extremely rare. Composers would use a cartelle or erasable tablet to
sketch all of the voice parts vertically in a quasi-score—as much as would fit on the tablet—and then transfer each
part to its partbook or place on the choirbook. They would then erase that portion of the “score” and continue with
the next, following the same procedure for the remainder of the composition.
31
Fig. 19: Opened choirbook
Praetorius recommends using the thoroughbass part as a score, as it not only indicates
which choirs or soloists are performing at any given moment but provides a running commentary
on the harmonic progressions and meter changes of the entire piece. He finds this especially
beneficial to the music director or other conductors for purposes of cuing the performers, and
suggests further that parts be copied out and distributed to the organists and lutenists of the
various choirs with their specific parts underlined in red.57 While such detail does not appear in
57 Praetorius, Syntagma musicum, vol. 3, p. 144[124]-145[125[; Kite-Powell translation, p. 134:
It is my humble opinion that the best and most effective use of the thoroughbass is as an artful
32
the Levocă tablature books, it is illustrative to observe the specificity in the following basso
generalis pages from Michael Praetorius’s Polyhymnia Caduciatrix, no. 17, Nun komm der
Heiden Heiland à 12 cum Symphonia & Ritornello, in Figure 20.
Fig. 20: Praetorius’s Polyhymnia Caduciatrix, #XVII with
symphonia and ritornello, for 6, 7, 10, 11, and 12 [parts] p. 1.
blue = the part name (Basso Generalis); red = meter changes; green = section of
composition (choir or instrumental); yellow = voice part (cantus, altus, tenor, bassus)
compendium of the parts; such a thoroughbass is copied out several times, particularly for
concertos or [multiple] choirs and is especially beneficial to the music director . . . and other
conductors . . .. It is then distributed among the organists and lutenists . . . of each choir, whose
part should be specifically designated or underlined in red ink; this is in order to save time, which
would otherwise be devoted to the copying of parts. And the director . . . can retain a copy for
himself to have the piece in its entirety before him. This will enable him to be aware of not only
of a change in the beat to triple meter or something else, but also to assist him in cueing in the
various choirs.
33
With the amount of detail Praetorius provides, the music director has everything he needs
to perform a large-scale work. Note that on the second page, Praetorius introduces a staff for the
tenor soloist, who is accompanied by four instrumentalists. Organists using the Levocă tablature
books did not have the luxury of such a basso generalis, however, and had to rely on the
intabulations that are no larger than 22.5 x 32.8 centimeters (roughly 8.5 x 13 inches), which
would easily fit on the note desk of a continuo organ.
The third and final part of the treatise Musica Nova, Newe Singekunst of 1626 by
Nicolaus Gengenbach is a compendium of foreign terms in common use at the time—first the
important Latin and Greek words, then those in Italian. He readily admits on page 127 that he
was assisted by Praetorius's Syntagma Musicum, vol. 3, and refers his readers there for further
instruction. He defines basso continuo as follows:
Basso continuo is a special, newly discovered part, which carries the fundamental line
through the entire piece for organists and lutenists, etc., so that they can skillfully play
along exactly as if the concerto or motet were copied out.
Likewise, it is quite convenient for choir directors when it is transcribed. Then one can
see, for one thing, when a proportion begins and ends in the middle of the piece.
Thereafter, when only one voice is accompanied by the organ, underneath is written:
solo voice, soprano solo, alto solo, etc. Likewise, when a ritornello or ripieno comes in.
In the same way, when the first, second, third, or fourth chorus, or when two of them sing
together, it is a fine compendium for the director, and a good novice, when it is
necessary to signal and assist one choir or another with entrances, etc.58
As uncommon as it may appear that someone was actually conducting these multi-choir
pieces, it is clear from these excerpts that both Praetorius and Gengenbach are speaking to music
58Gengenbach. Nikolaus. Musica Nova: Newe Singekunst. Leipzig: Rehefelds and Grossen,1620.
Reprint of the original edition of 1626 from exemplars of the City Library of Leipzig and the Herzog August
Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1980. Translated by Dale Allen Scott as Nikolaus Gengenbach’s
Musica Nova: Newe Singekunst: A Translation, Critical Edition, and Commentary. Ottawa, The Institute of
Mediæval Music, 1996., pp. 146-147 and 257-259.
34
directors. If these quotations are not proof enough, perhaps this well-known illustration seen in
Figure 21, taken from the title page of Praetorius's Theatrum Instrumentorum of 1620 (an
appendix to volume 2 of Syntagma Musicum), will be sufficiently convincing. Here, the primary
director is leading a group in the lower center, which includes the large organ. Assistant directors
are seen in the split balconies directing smaller groups including continuo organs, but clearly
coordinating their efforts with the main director.59 It cannot be ascertained with certainty whether
the principal director is using notated music from which to lead the ensemble, but it is quite clear
that his assistants are holding such music in their hands.
Fig. 21: Title page of Praetorius's Theatrum Instrumentorum, 1620
59Title page of De Organographia. .Praetorius, Michael. Syntagma musicum II: De Organographia. Wolfenbüttel:
Elias Holwein, 1619/20. Facsimile edition edited by Wilbiald Gurlitt, Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1978. Digital facsimile
available at: https://imslp.org/wiki/Syntagma_Musicum_(Praetorius,_Michael).
35
In discussing the placement of performing groups in Syntagma, vol. 3, Praetorius specifically
refers to keeping the beat by following the thoroughbass part: with the help of the thoroughbass,
the choirmaster, or whoever is responsible for keeping “the beat, must lead the group of
musicians in the choir and the trumpeters in the nave of the church.… All members must be able
to see him and follow his lead.”60
Twenty years later, André Maugars, a French viol player, wrote a letter from Rome
describing a service he witnessed at the Santa Maria sopra Minerva church. The following
excerpt from his letter provides conclusive evidence that conductors were not only a common
feature of performances at this time, but highly necessary:
This church is rather long and wide and there are two large elevated organs, one on each
side of the main altar, where they had also placed two choirs. Along the nave there were
eight other choirs, four on one side and four on the other, raised on platforms eight or
nine feet high, an equal distance from one another and all facing one another. With each
choir there was a portative organ, as is the custom. The leading conductor beat [sic] the
measure for the main choir, accompanied by the best voices. With each of the others
there was a man who did nothing but keep his eyes on the leading conductor, to conform
his own beat to the leader's; in this way all the chorus [sic] sang in the same time,
without dragging.61
At about the same time Niedt is denigrating the use of German letter notation, its use is
mentioned in Andreas Werckmeister's Musicalische Paradoxal-Discourse, published
posthumously in 1707; nonetheless Cleve Johnson asserts that Werckmeister (1645–1706) was
only reporting a practice that had fallen into disuse, inasmuch as he consistently used the past
tense. Werckmeister says:
I have known several directors who copied their scores into German Tabulatur and sang
and directed from them. I can also testify from my own experience that the eminent
60Praetorius. Syntagma Musicum, vol. 3, p. 170. Kite-Powell, translation, p. 173 and footnote 131.
61 In MacClintock, Carol. Readings in the History of Performance, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1982,
p. 118.
36
Heinrich Grimm [1592/3–1637] directed from German Tabulatur or letters.62
A little further on he continues:
And whether or not a singer or director understands the keyboard, he can still get the
harmony and manner of singing in his head by using the letters. If he does not know the
clefs and how they sound together, he will never be able to sing well using the staff
lines.63
8. Performance Settings and Conditions
It is not always certain who was responsible for rehearsing and leading performances of
large-scale works—it may have been the cantor or the Kapellmeister, a person who in most cases
held the post of organist before being promoted, or it may in fact have been the organist. In any
case, the enterprising leader who was responsible for directing these works and who preferred
more concrete information than a thoroughbass part provided, would often transcribe each piece
from the partbooks, in proper succession, into German tablature notation, so that he would be
able to see at a glance which choir or combination of choirs—including instrumental choirs—
was to be performing at any given time, and thus armed, assist them with their entrances and
exits.
The situation at St. James church in Levoča may have been similar to that in other
German-speaking cities where the cantor was responsible for the principal churches, but was able
to provide choral music (as opposed to simple hymn singing) at only one church per Sunday. The
primary difference is that the cities in the Zips region were very modest in size and may have
needed to enhance their performance forces by asking for assistance from churches in the
62Andreas Werckmeister. Musicalische Paradoxal Discourse (Quedlinburg, 1707), in Johnson, p. 126. It should be
noted that Grimm’s dates closely coincide with dates found in the Levoča tablatures.
63Johnson. Vocal, p. 127.
37
surrounding area, such as Kesmark/Käsmark (Kežmarok), Leibitz (L’ubica),
Kirchdrauf/Kirchdorf (Spišské Podhradie), Neundorf/Neudorf (Spišská Nová Ves), and possibly
even Deutschendorf (Poprad)—most no further distant than 25 kilometers from Levoča, and
therefore less than a half day’s walk (refer to the maps in Figs. 1 & 2) . It seems altogether likely
that even if those independent churches had no need for additional singers or instrumentalists
from these neighboring towns, they would want to share their music with those congregations.
It should be pointed out that the six collections of intabulations located at the Protestant
Rectory did not all originate in Levoča, but were collected at the end of the nineteenth century
and deposited there for safe keeping.64 Ján Šimbracký, cited above, was, for instance, active in
nearby Kirchdrauf (modern-day Spišské Podhradie). Organists known to have been active in
Levoča include Johann and Caspar Plotz (father and son) and Samuel Marckfelner.
9. The Polychoral Scores
The next group of facsimiles depicts a variety of large-scale polychoral intabulations that
could possibly have served as conductors’ scores.
Figure 22, Dixit Dominus Domino meo by Hieronymus Praetorius, comes from MS
13990a and is written for twelve voices divided into three choirs of four parts each. The fact that
it is textless does not necessarily mean that it was performed purely instrumentally, but it is
64 See Hulková. Das Musikleben, p. 89:
Nur soviel ist bekannt, daß am Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts, ein gewisser L. Weszter . . . begann die
erwähnte Bibliothek zu katalogisieren und hat gleichzeitig auch eine große Sammeltätigkeit auf
der ganzen Zips entfaltet.
Kalinayová-Bartová, “Music by the,” p. 96: It was assembled in the Levoča Lutheran church in the nineteenth
century.
38
certainly conceivable that it could have been. Notice how the choirs enter and exit—choir 1 in
red, choir 2 in blue, choir 3 in purple—and how and when they perform together—highlighted in
turquoise—and then try to imagine playing from this "score."
Fig. 22: Dixit Dominus Domino meo by Hieronymus Praetorius
Attempting to play these tall columns of chords in any kind of literal fashion on the organ
is obviously quite out of the question. As a rehearsal score, this layout, while not always
completely legible, provides the director with a great deal more specificity than an organist's
thoroughbass line, and, just from a visual standpoint, this overview enables him to assist the
choirs with their entrances and exits more effectively. For a transcription through the first tutti of
39
system 2v, see Example 1.65
Ex.1: Dixit Dominus Domini meo by Hieronymus Praetorius, mm. 1-4
Audio example recorded by Alamire · His Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts ·
David Skinner and uploaded to YouTube on 31 May 2019; accessed on 10 June 2020.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnDdsuBRudQ.
65 Transcribed by Frederick K. Gable in Hieronymus Praetorius: Polychoral Motets, in Recent Researches in Music
of the Renaissance, vol. 19. Madison, WI; A-R Editions, 1974, pp. 21-25.
40
Ex.1 (cont.): Dixit Dominus Domini meo by Hieronymus Praetorius, mm. 5-14
41
Ex.1 (cont.): Dixit Dominus Domini meo by Hieronymus Praetorius, mm. 15-19
42
Ex.1 (cont.): Dixit Dominus Domini meo by Hieronymus Praetorius, mm. 20-24
43
Ex.1 (cont.): Dixit Dominus Domini meo by Hieronymus Praetorius, mm. 25-28
44
Figure 23, an Officium or Missa Brevis for sixteen voices by the as- yet-unidentified
composer "A.S.O.C.," is taken from MS 13994 and demonstrates even more conclusively that
the user would have had to be the conductor. The four clearly separate choirs of four voice parts
each (ch. 1—red; ch. 2—blue; ch. 3—purple; ch. 4—green; tutti—turquoise) would most likely
have been placed in different locations in the church, possibly even on elevated platforms. Any
one of the choirs might have been instrumental or perhaps a mixture of instruments and voices,
and each would have had its own continuo instrument. The text would have been distributed to
the parts being sung and adapted to the notes and rhythms by the singers. Naturally, the
homorhythmic sections would have been performed similarly by all voices.
Fig. 23: An anonymous Officium or Missa Brevis for sixteen voices
45
Figure 24 (with an analogous color scheme) comes from MS 13993 and is a setting of
Psalm 128, Wohl dem, der den Herren fürchtet, SWV 44, by Heinrich Schütz. The date
(highlighted in yellow) is given as “Leibicÿ / 12 Novembris [Thursday]1643.” The setting
consists of as many as eighteen separate parts. The organ intabulation does not indicate any
instruments. Though the piece is not as clearly divided into choirs as the previous two
illustrations, there are occasions (see system 1r) in which only four voices are singing. In system
2v the clear layout of the score might have aided the director in bringing in the singers in these
staggered entrances (after the first tutti). Note that the text is found only when three of the four
choirs are each singing by themselves—see yellow highlight in system 1v–r—except for the
word “siehe” in the lowest voice after the first chord in system 1v. It is hard to imagine how an
organist could have played from a part such as this. The partbooks call for one violin, four
cornetts, three trombones, solo cantus and bassus, and continuo, plus two four-part choirs, as
shown in Example 2.
46
Fig. 24: Heinrich Schütz: Psalm 128, “Wohl dem, der den Herren fürchtet”
Text under choir 3, sys. 1v: “umb dein Haus herumb”
Text under choir 1, sys. 1v: “deine Kinder wie die Ölzweige umb deinen Tisch her”
Text under choir 2, sys. 1r: “also wird gesegnet der Mann der den Herren fürchtet”
47
Ex. 2: Original clefs and instrument designations for Schütz’s Psalm 128
48
Example 3, a transcription taken from the partbooks, is of system 1 of fol. 31v to the tutti
entrance of 31r.66 It should be noted that the vertical order of the choirs in the transcription is not
the same as in the tablature, with the two 5-part instrumental choirs (red and purple in the
facsimile) given first, then the two 4-part vocal choirs (blue and green) taking up the lower eight
staves, followed by the basso generalis.
66 YouTube performance provided by Naxos of America: Schütz: Psalms of David ℗ 2013 Carus. Dresden
Chamber Choir and Dresden Baroque Orchestra, Conductor: Hans-Christoph Rademann. Released on 29 October
2013 and accessed on 15 November 2019. Excerpt from counter # 142-233)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPqgA1wj8P8
49
Ex. 3: Transcription of Schütz‘s Psalm 128, “Wohl dem, der
den Herren fürchtet, system 1 of fol. 31v to the tutti entrance of 31r
50
Ex. 3 (cont.): Transcription of Schütz’s Psalm 128, “Wohl dem, der
den Herren fürchtet, system 1 of fol. 31v to the tutti entrance of 31r
51
Ex. 3: Transcription of Schütz’s Psalm 128, “Wohl dem, der
den Herren fürchtet, system 1 of fol. 31v to the tutti entrance of 31r
52
Ex. 3: Transcription of Schütz’s Psalm 128, “Wohl dem, der
den Herren fürchtet, system 1 of fol. 31v to the tutti entrance of 31r
53
10. Rare Instructions in Organ Tablatures
Directions concerning dynamics, manual usage (i.e., registration), and indications of
alternating choir and organ passages (alternatimpraxis) are rare in organ works in the
seventeenth century—especially in intabulations—and none has been found in the manuscripts
under study here. The following three facsimiles present examples of each of these topics.
Figure 25 depicts a portion of a work by Giovanni Valentini entitled Echo à 3, which
clearly shows where the soft and loud echoes take place.67
Fig. 25: Valentini, Echo à 3 showing forte / pian markings
Figure 26, An Wasserflüssen Babylon, is an example of a work by Johann Pachelbel,
copied by J.S. Bach’s long-time, live-in student, Johann Marin Schubart at some point during the
years 1707–1717.68 Shown here is one of several places where a shift from the Rückpositiv
67 Source: Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Mus.ms. 4485, fols. 13v/14r. Audio example uploaded to YouTube
by ACRONYM Live: Giovanni Valentini -- Echo a 3 in g, accessed on 17 June 2020. (echo begins at counter # 103)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATyhl6TRr3U
68 Maul, Michael and Peter Wollny, eds. Weimarer Orgeltabulatur. Die frühesten
54
(upper system, top line) to the Oberwerck (middle of the lower system, also top line) occurs.
Fig. 26: Pachelbel/Bach: An Wasserflüssen Babylon indicating manual shifts
Figure 27 provides an example in which the practice of the organ alternating versets with
the choir is made demonstrably clear.69 The upper system of the example on the text Qui tollis
pecatta mundi, which is not sung but played on the organ, is noted by the scribe in red. The
lower system has the text Quoniam tu solus Sanctus, which was to be sung by the choir (or
celebrant), and it is clearly labeled by the scribe “Chorus,” in red.
Notenhandschriften Johann Sebastian Bachs sowie Abschriften seines Schülers Johann Martin Schubart. In
Documenta musicologica II/39. Kassel; Bärenreiter Verlag, 2007., p. XXIV:
By thus equating the scribe of Fascicles III & IV with Anonymous Weimar I, and in view of the
additional chronological and biographical clues obtained from these findings, the evidence that the
scribe was Johann Martin Schubart verges on certainty.
69 Source: Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. 38 Stücke für Tasteninstrument in deutscher Orgeltabulatur; PPN:
PPN671074040. Digital address accessed on 17 May 2020:
http://resolver.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/SBB000066CC00000000
55
Fig. 27: An example of Alternatimpraxis
In Syntagma Musicum, vol. 3, Praetorius gives insight into how the organist might adjust
his registration and manual usage when accompanying solo singers and choirs:
If all voices … periodically join in together in such a concerto in which a few solo voices
have previously sung alone, the organist should indeed use both manual and pedal
keyboards simultaneously, but refrain from pulling additional stops, as the delicate and
soft tones of the singers would otherwise be completely overwhelmed by the considerable
sound of the many organ stops which would cause it to be heard more prominently than
the singers.
However, some composers such as Agostino Agazzari and Bastiano Miseroca hold the opinion
that the organ should engage more stops when the full ensemble enters. This can be
accomplished more conveniently if two manuals are available. One manual could have a very
soft registration and the other a louder one so that in such changes one switches to the other
keyboard. For few voices one can use the soft register, but when many more voices join in, the
louder or doubled one can be used together with full chords. However, with few voices, chords
can be reduced in size and fewer stops used so that the two or three solo voices are not drowned
out by the numerous chord tones and loud organ pipes.70
70Praetorius. Syntagma Musicum, vol. 3, p. 138-139. Kite-Powell, translation, p. 145. Praetorius refers to Viadana’s
12 rules for basso continuo on pp. 143-145.
56
11. “Blocked” and “Stacked” Format
The purpose of the final set of facsimiles is to demonstrate the rather unusual way
organists occasionally intabulated compositions for divided choirs. In all cases red and blue
highlighting differentiates choir 1 and choir 2; turquoise shows them singing together. The
typical procedure as shown in the second system of the anonymous work in Figure 28—Singet
dem Herrn ein newes Liedt from MS 13991—was to indicate graphically how the choirs were to
be divided, and when they were to perform together. In this intabulation when only one choir is
active, the other choir's space is filled with rests, thus making it perfectly clear which choir is
singing. While this is typical, it is not always the case, as some copyists, perhaps in haste, only
place rests in the top voice, while other scribes simply leave the entire space blank. This type of
"block" notation not only enables the organist to assist the choirs with their entrances and exits
but provides him with what might be looked upon as a diagram or chart depicting manual and
registration usage. With this "block" format he can assign registrations of differing timbres to
each manual and choir and use a larger sound for the tutti passages, as described in the Praetorius
quotation above.
57
Fig. 28: Singet dem Herrn ein newes Liedt from Ms. 13991
58
Figure 29, Giovanni Gabrieli's Virtüte magna operatüs est coram in twelve parts from
MS 13990a, is a clear example of what can be called "stacked" notation, meaning the
amalgamated parts are lined up (i.e, stacked) vertically by pitch, with the two choirs
interleaved.71 By using this format, the organist was able to retain the integrity of the entire piece
by placing the voice parts one below the next, from the highest to the lowest, but with rests
inserted for the tacet choir. The ability to differentiate one choir from the other, however, is
reduced to such an extent that the above-mentioned nuances would probably have been
unattainable.
Fig. 29: G. Gabrieli's Virtüte magna operatüs est coram in 12 parts from Ms. 13990a
71 For a modern edition or go to:
http://www1.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Virtute_magna_operatus_est_a_12_(Giovanni_Gabrieli)
59
Divining the intabulator’s intent from the twenty-first century perspective is, of course,
impossible, so attempting to explain his approach to copying parts from as many as ten to fifteen
partbooks—whether into separate choirs, as in Figure 25, or with the two choirs interleaved, as in
Figure 26—would be pure speculation.
Figure 30 shows Samuel Scheidt's Angelus ad pastores ait (SSWV 77) from MS 13993.
Ján Šimbracký, the organist or possibly the intabulator, chose the "stacked" format to intabulate
this eight-part work, but he omitted the rests when one or the other choir is silent.
Fig. 30: Samuel Scheidt's Angelus ad pastores ait (SSWV77) from Ms. 13993
60
Example 4, is a score of a portion of this work (omitting the opening sinfonia for
instrumental ensemble, which is not included in the intabulation).73
Ex. 4: Angelus ad pastores, mm 19-33 with green
line showing the end of sys. 1v in facsimile
This audio recording—"Angelus ad pastores ait,” performed by St. Martin's Chamber Choir on
the album A Marian Christmas II—was provided to YouTube by The Orchard Enterprises. It
was released on 07 October 2007 and accessed on 15 Nov 2019.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgr8kUSCZvY
73Excerpt taken from IMSLP, #450381: https://imslp.org/wiki/Angelus_ad Pastores,_SSWV_77_(Scheidt,_Samuel).
61
Ex. 4 (cont.): Angelus ad pastores, mm 34-55
62
Ex. 4 (cont.): Angelus ad pastores, mm 56-75
The blue line indicates the beginning of the imitation between
choirs 1 and 2 in system 2v after the tutti section.
63
In Figure 31, from MS 13994, the title of the piece beginning in system 3, Also hatt Godt
die welt geliebt, (highlighted in yellow) indicates that the piece is for eight voices, but in
actuality it appears to be a work for four voices in which the soprano and bass (in red) alternate
with the alto and tenor (in blue) and these duets are interspersed with occasional tutti passages
(in turquoise).
Fig. 31: Anonymous—Also hatt Godt die welt geliebt Ms. 13994, fols. 9v & 10r, sys. 3
64
The final illustration, shown in Figure 32, is taken from MS 13994. Et in terra pax
hominibus bone voluntatis is excerpted from the Officium super Casta novenauum in eight parts.
Even though written in "stacked" format, the clarity of the parts on the page is such that one
could conceivably detect the demarcations of the divided choirs, even while playing, and thus
incorporate the desired registral and timbral subtleties.
Fig. 32: Anonymous—Et in terra pax hominibus bone voluntatis from Ms. 13994
65
Two transcriptions give this piece in modern score notation. Example 5 represents the
"stacked" approach to notation. Rests have been eliminated to reduce clutter on the page, but all
doublings have been retained. Seen in this light, it is doubtful that this composition would be
recognized as a work intended for divided choirs.
Ex. 5: Transcription of the anonymous Et in terra pax hominibus in “stacked” format.
Audio Example 1 demonstrates that if the music were played in this fashion,
it would not be possible to differentiate one choir from the other.
66
Example 6 is a transcription of the same piece using the "block" format notation. It is
plainly obvious that the divided choir approach to performing this work would be greatly
enhanced by this format.
Ex. 6: Transcription of the anonymous Et in terra pax hominibus imm 6-10 n “block” format
Audio Example 2 demonstrates that with the clear separation of choirs in the block
format approach, an organist could easily arrange for each choir to have its own
registration, which, as heard in this example, enables the listener to distinguish between
the two choirs with little or no effort.
67
Ex. 6 (cont.): Transcription of the anonymous Et in terra pax hominibus
mm 11-20 in “block” format
68
Ex. 6 (cont.): Transcription of the anonymous Et in terra pax hominibus
mm 21-30 in “block” format
69
Ex. 6 (cont.): Transcription of the anonymous Et in terra pax hominibus
mm 31-33 in “block” format
70
12. Conclusion
In summary, this study has established that organists of the Zips region of Slovakia relied
on German letter notation for a multitude of purposes, perhaps most importantly, to intabulate
works for practical reasons. It is clear from an evaluation of the contents of these manuscripts
that the organists were playing works by internationally known, contemporary composers, that
they were composing their own works, and that they had the personnel to mount large-scale,
Venetian-style polychoral performances involving the use of a variety of instrumentalists and
singers. And finally, it has been shown that, although they had the know-how to play from a
thoroughbass line or a reduced set of parts, they apparently preferred to play—and direct—from
intabulations that served as conductor’s scores.74
74 Additional sources of importance:
Papp, Ágmes. “Orgeltabulaturen des 17. Jahrhunderts aus Ungarn: Intavolierung, Reduktion,
Notationsarten.” In Studia Musicologica Academiæ Scientiarum Hungaricæ 46, 2005, pp. 441-469.
Horsley, Imogene. “Full and short scores in the accompaniment of Italian church music in the
early Baroque. Journal of American Musicological Society 30 (1977), 466-499.
Butt, John. Music education and the art of performance in the German Baroque.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Johnson, Cleveland. In the Trenches with Johann and Caspar Plotz: A Rediscovered
Gebrauchstabulatur from the Scheidt Circle (DePauw University, 2001). Digital link
http://acad.depauw.edu/~cjohnson/PLOTZ/ Accessed 15 April 2020.
Johnson, Cleveland. "A Keyboard Diminution Manual in Bártfa Ms. 27: Keyboard Figuration in
the Time of Scheidt" in Church, Stage, and Studio. Music and its Contexts in Seventeenth-Century
Germany (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1990), 279–347.
Király, Peter: “Wenig beachtete und unbekannte Quellen für Tasteninstrumente aus Oberungarn
und Siebenbtirgen,” Slovenskd hudba 22 (1996), 375-385.
Motnik, Marko. “Deutsche Tabulatur: gebreuchlich oder verdrießlich?” In Muzikološki Zbornik
[Musicological Annual], 47/2, Univerza v Ljubljani, 2011, pp. 125-137.
Hill, Robert. “Tablature versus Staff Notation: Or, Why Did the Young J.S. Bach
Compose in Tablature?” In Paul W. Walker, ed. Church, Stage, and Studio:
Music and its Contexts in Seventeenth-Century Germany. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1990, pp, 349-
360.
71
Appendix75
New German organ tablature, often referred to as “keyboard” tablature, since
harpsichordist also read from this notation, came about as early as about 1520, when German
keyboard players modified the style of the older tablature simply by eliminating the staff in favor
of an additional row of letters for the uppermost voice. The Klangenfurt MS (1547) is the first
complete manuscript to use NGOT.
Fig. 1: The Klangenfurt tablature from 1547.
75 The content of this Appendix is a conflation of pages 37-39 from Kite-Powell,
The Visby
(Petri) Organ Tablature: Investigation and Critical Edition
, vol. 14 in the series
Quellen-
Kataloge zur Musikgeschichte
. Wilhelmshaven: Heinrichshofen, 1979. Digigal link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8u5cqaweaecluc2/The%20Visby%20%28Petri%29%20Tabla
ture--1611%2C%20complete.pdf?dl=0
and the Introduction to my chapter on “German Organ Tablature,” in the Encyclopedia of
Tablature, John Griffiths, editor. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols Publishers, 2021.
72
The first printed example of NGOT was published in 1571 by Nikolaus Ammerbach.
Fig.2: Nikolaus Ammerbach’s printed tablature from 1571.
Even J.S. Bach used NGOT several times in his Orgelbüchlein (1708-1717) when he ran
out of staff lines, since they use much more space than letters.
73
Fig. 3: J. S. Bach’s usage of NGOT in his Orgelbüchlein
The last known printed example of NGOT comes to us on copper-engraved plates by
Johann Erasmus Kindermann, 1645, reprint in 1655. That it was reprinted in 1655 suggests that
the compositions contained therein were still of interest, and that organists for at least the next
decade were able to read NGOT.
74
Fig. 4: Johann Kindermann’s tablature from 1645 the last known printed tablature
Other than this, the characteristics of the two styles are quite similar. One important
difference, however, is found in the page layout, as the keyboardists typically, but not always,
read the music across the full width of the open book, instead of down each page in succession;
the Kindermann example in Fig. 4 is an exception to the open book approach.
Rhythmic values are written above each letter or occasionally between two letters and
rests are written within the horizontal row of letters of the voice that is supposed to rest. The
notes of the final chord of each composition are provided with a fermata instead of a rhythm
75
sign. A dot affects the note in the same manner as a modern dot, and in some tablatures, ties are
employed.
Barlines: Periodic use of barlines can be found in some of the earlier manuscripts, while
other manuscripts leave a small space between groups of letters, suggesting some kind of
rhythmic grouping of the notes; still others do not give any indication of note groupings or any
other organizing characteristic at all. Most of the later manuscripts prefer to separate groupings
with spaces, but a few continue the use of the barline.
Designation of octaves: Typical for most tablatures, the great octave is indicated by
capital letters, the small octave by lower case letters, the one-line octave (c’ – b’) by lower case
letters with a horizontal line over them and the two-line octave (c” – b”) either by a wavy line
over the letters or two horizontal lines. The octave reaches from c to b in most cases, but
variances do occur. Since each letter can indicate only one pitch, clef signs are unnecessary.
Chromatic alteration was achieved by attaching a tail-like flourish to the affected letter—
usually functioning to raise the pitch—and is valid only for that one letter. This feature precludes
possible ambiguities, except in rare cases of scribal carelessness, and eliminates the necessity of
key signatures and natural signs. In Figure 5, the loop on the final note (f-sharp) can clearly be
differentiated from the ‘f’ at the start of the line.
Fig. 5 showing f-natural at the beginning of the line and f-sharp at the end
76
In the same way, a loop added to the letter ‘c’ indicates c-sharp (Cis), while flats were indicated
enharmonically by loops added to the letters ‘d’ and ‘g’, resulting in d-sharp (Dis) and g-
sharp (Gis), understood as e-flat (Es) and a-flat (As).
Other points of interest: There are a few instances in which a scribe places the value of a
note above the first letter in a series of letters but leaves the space above the remaining letters
blank until the note value changes. Rests are placed in the space where a letter (or letters) would
normally have been placed, but some scribes are often lax with the placement of rests. In
polychoral compositions, rests are generally not inserted for the absent choir.
There are several things to observe in Figure 2, the Bernard Schmid (1567-1625) excerpt
below, including: the π–like symbol above the top row of letters, the tie between the second and
third letters, the flourish attached to the first and last letters in the top line indicating the g has
been altered to g-sharp, the two short horizontal lines above the letters in the first three rows
indicating the two-line octave, the vertical J-like symbol above the third letters of the second and
third row of letters showing the rhythmic values of those notes, the single horizontal line above
the lowest row of letters indicating the one-line octave, and finally, the first three groups of
fence-like patters in the bottom line indicating groups of sixteenth notes, while the final two
groups show thirty-second notes. Note especially the unusual clash between the g-sharp in top
line and the g-natural in the bottom line (the first beat in the transcription)—a fairly common
practice in the day.
77
Fig. 6: facsimile and transcription of Bernard Schmid excerpt
For a transliteration of the German alphabet typically used in tablatures (Kite-Powell, Visby, p.
38) cli ck here.
For a chart of the rhythm signs and their equivalents in modern notation (Kite-Powell, Visby, p.
39), click here.
78
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