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M 6983 (OLIM MS. GRASSE 5102) MANUSCRIPT LUTE TABLATURE
FROM THE PHILIPP SPITTA COLLECTION
The literature of the subject does not provide much information about the manuscript. The description given here, as well as the transcription, constitute the first full source
edition of this material.
The tablature referred to now as M 6983 (olim Ms. Grasse 5102) was created in southern Germany around 1600. In the nineteenth century it belonged to the collection of Philipp Spitta, after whose death (in 1894) it came to be at the Hochschule fur Musik library in Berlin. After the Second World War, together with other collections from this higher education establishment, it was transported from Berlin to Silesia, and then found its way to Lodz. For many years musicologists were not aware of this, and the manuscript was regarded as lost. At present it is held at the University Library in Lodz, in the Music section.
The author of the manuscript used German tablature notation. The tablature includes 101
compositions in total. Most of them - as many as 49 - are dances. There are also 41 other lute
compositions and 11 intavolations of vocal songs. The length of particular works varies considerably: from a few to a few hundred bars. The titles of particular items (above all adaptations of vocal works) are mainly given in German and Italian, and sporadically also in French and Latin. The authorship of the majority of compositions in the manuscript is unknown, nevertheless one also comes across names such as Caspar Bohemus, Orazio Vecchi, Hans Leo Hassler, Hieronymus Wullinus, Diomedes Cato and Iacobus Iosius. One can also finds works ascribed to composers such as Giulio Renaldi, Thomas Crecquillon, or Claudin de Sermisy. The article also contains a description of concordances of the dances "Ungerisch Passomezo" and "Saltarello", and editions of vocal songs "Pour ung plaisir" and "Se di dolor".
Translated by Zofia Weaver
Muzyka, 2004 no 3