Re: Ancient tablatures

[Trevor Daniels]

Francisco Vila wrote Saturday, October 03, 2009 12:01 AM


> Hello, would this kind of ancient tablatures very difficult to do?
>
> http://www.mateus-lutes.com/tablature/

I don't know, but it is very beautiful, isn't it!

It is Baroque Lute TAB (in the French, German,
English style).

My lute contact (step-son) tells me it's
typeset using Fronimo:

http://www.theaterofmusic.com/fronimo/
(windows only, I'm afraid)

For interest, he also says how to read it:

The symbols above the staff are the note
values, minim, crochet etc..., the letters
on the strings are fret numbers (the sequence
from a - open string - is:
a, b, r , d, e, f, g, h, j, k, l, m).

The comma after a letter indicates decoration
(different depending on the composer).

The dots, single & double indicate the finger
on the right hand that plucks the string.

The staff indicates the first 6 strings and
the basses are indicated below the staff as
follows in descending order: a a/ a// a/// 4 5 6

There's a lot more information and another
lute tab typesetter at
http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute/AboutTab.html

Trevor