Intabulation as process and practice (Master thesis)
(2021)
author(s): Asako Ueda
published in: KC Research Portal
Research Title:
Intabulation as process and practice
Research questions:
When it comes to the manifold surviving solo lute intabulations from around 1500, where is the line between "unwritten" and "written" intabulation?
Intabulating involves the writing out of several parts into tablature, but does this twofold distinction really apply to all pieces?
What was the process of appropriation of vocal polyphony for a lutenist of the early 16th century?
How can we apply this to our own processes?
Abstract:
Intabulation refers to the arrangement of vocal pieces for what Johannes Tinctoris refers to as a “perfect instrument”, amongst which he counts such instruments as keyboards and the lute – and it implies writing out the parts of a polyphonic composition into tablature. However, after playing many surviving intabulations for several years, I had a strong feeling that there must be an “unwritten” solo lute intabulation practice behind the “written” intabulations from the beginning of the 16th century, in contrast to the more “composed” intabulations from the time after the mid-16th century. While surviving sources provide us with much information on what lutenists played, they also hide the “unwritten” practice which they did not record. We can only imagine what was happening. In this thesis, I investigate the process of intabulation by lute players from this time by analysing and comparing different versions of the same song from different sources. Through this research, I trace the transition of the changing style of intabulation, which is in turn related to the transition of lute technique from plectrum to finger-plucked and the change in style of the vocal models. Moreover, the diffusion of printed music changed the manner of the transmission of music. To conclude, I hypothesise that lute players might have listened to and copied each other’s intabulations unconsciously, and when they wanted to preserve their work, they might have made some adjustments to their intabulations. The study also suggests how to apply these ideas to actual intabulation practice, which will be presented in the Research Symposium online as a video format.
Biography:
The Japanese lutenist Asako Ueda studied the lute at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague with Mike Fentross and Joachim Held and completed her Bachelor's with the highest achievable mark, which gives her the opportunity to continue to the Master’s program with the Excellence Scholarship of the Royal Conservatory of the Hague. She won first prize at the Biagio Marini Competition and third prize at the International Van Wassenaer Competition.
She started playing the violin at the age of five. After finishing her Bachelor’s degree with the violin in Tokyo, she continued to study the Baroque violin and composition.
https://asakoueda.com
Music as an artificial language - an annotated collection of early music sources mentioning the relationship between instrumental music, singing, and speaking, questioning their relevance for today’s performers
(2016)
author(s): Isabella Mercuri
published in: KC Research Portal
Name
Isabella Mercuri
Main Subject
Recorder
Research supervisors
Inês de Avena Braga and Frédérique Thouvenot
Title of Research
Music as an artificial language - an annotated collection of early music sources mentioning the relationship between instrumental music, singing, and speaking, questioning their relevance for today’s performers
Research Question
What do treatises of the Renaissance and Baroque period mention about the relationship between instrumental music, singing, and speaking and how can I use those indications in my playing?
Summary of Results
The collection of sources from the beginning of the sixteenth century until the middle of the eighteenth century showed that the indications given by the authors are often very similar to each other, although being written in a completely different time and environment. The following three main ideas appear in several treatises and were therefore examined more in detail:
- Imitation of the human voice or of a specific instrument
- Following a speech and using the means of rhetoric
- Underlying instrumental music with text
The practical application of those three ideas led to an enrichment of my palette of sound colours, to an improvement in making clear phrasings and gave me some inspiration to find the appropriate affections to communicate to the listeners.
This research paper and the included collection of sources might also be a starting point for further research exploring for instance more in detail one of the three main ideas mentioned above.
Biography
Isabella Mercuri was born in Switzerland, where she started studying the recorder with Kees Boeke and Matthias Weilenmann and completed her Bachelor of Arts in Music at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste in 2013. She then moved to the Netherlands to continue her studies with Daniël Brüggen at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, where she also studies the baroque oboe with Frank de Bruine.
Isabella Mercuri is active as a recorder teacher for children and adults and regularly performs in different chamber music settings in the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Serbia and Spain.
A historical Overview of Flute Materials
(last edited: 2023)
author(s): Elin Körnich
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
The flute is one of the oldest instruments in the world. Most likely, after humans figured our percussion, they blew across reeds to make sounds. And so the flute was born. They are an instrument shrouded in mystery and ritual, but that is not what this text will be focusing on. Rather I would like to ask the question how we went from making flutes out of the bones of animals, to wood and today to using precious metals such as gold and silver? What makes this material so much better than the wood that had been the standard for hundreds of years, even though it arguably is much more difficult to acquire? In this text I will explore the different materials used throughout history for the European Flutes, and when and why it changed.