Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Scores that show two or more voice-parts on a single staff, using symbols to
indicate how to produce a sound and its duration, are called tablatures.1 Although
there are some significant keyboard sources in the fifteenth century and many for
other instruments in the eighteenth century, the tablatures were mostly used in in the
sixteenth and seventeenth century Western Europe.2
The use of letter-notation is characteristic of German organ tablatures.3 The old
German organ tablature, which applied letters to all voices except the top line (which
was notated on a staff), was used from the early fifteenth century to the middle of the
sixteenth century. The notation system varied during this period. In regard of the staffnotation part, i.e the top line, the note value was presented as __________, or
__________ with the stems invariably going upwards.4 Accidental was indicated by
downward stem or a loop attached to the note.5 As for the letter-notation part, the
letters (a, b, c, etc.) indicated the pitch names; a dash above a letter meant an octave
higher, and a capital letter, or sometimes a dash underneath a letter, suggested the note
in the lowest octave.6 The accidentals in letter-notation were indicated by a scroll, an
abbreviation of the Latin is, attached to the letter. The time value was assigned above
each letter: _____________.7 From the second half of the sixteenth century onwards,
German organ tablature employed letters for the whole texture of the music, known as
the new German organ tablature.8During this period a more unified practice in
terms of rhythmical signs was developed. The semibrevis was always indicated by a
vertical stroke, and the smaller values were represented by additional flags:
______________. 9 The primary advantage of this notation was the saving of space.10
Spanish organ tablatures used numbers to represent particular notes on the
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
Rastall, p. 149
Apel, p. 47
Apel, p. 48
Apel, p. 49
Ibid.
Rastall, p. 151
Apel, p. 49
Rastall, p. 151
New Grove Dictionary
Apel, p. 56
Apel, p. 58
22 Apel, p. 59
23 Apel, p. 64
24 Rastall, p. 156
25 Rastall, p. 161
26 Appel, p. 74
27 Willi Apel, The Notation of Polyphonic Music, 900-1600,
Cambridge: The Mediaeval Academy of America, 1953, p. 54
28 Ibid.
29 The New Grove Dictionary.