In 1568, Vincenzo Galilei published the first edition of Fronimo as a guide to the art of intabulating vocal music for the lute. A second edition was released in 1584 in which Galilei presents “26 Ricercari” to demonstrate the sound of each Glarean mode. These short works provide a methodical approach to experiencing the Renaissance modes through his beautiful writing for the lute.

This research project focuses on the “26 Ricercari” and explores the challenges of transcribing and arranging Renaissance lute tablatures to be played on the guitar. Topics such as making decisions for voicings, fingerings, tactus reductions, and formatting are examined. Historically-informed playing suggestions such as articulations, lute techniques, and tempo are also included.

Many lute and vihuela works, like the ricercari, have not yet been transcribed. The ricerari tablatures are idiomatic and instantly playable for guitarists who are familiar with different forms of tablature, but most classical guitarists today are familiar only with modern staff notation. Because of this, Galilei’s works have been wrongfully neglected.

My project presents the first guitar edition of these works, along with the documentation of my methodology, and serves as an aid to others for transcribing lute tablatures.

Transcriptions and arrangements of works originally written for other instruments have greatly expanded the guitar’s repertoire. This project focuses on a new arrangement of the Suite in A Minor by Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre (1665–1729), which originally was composed for harpsichord. The author chose this work because the repertoire for the guitar is critically lacking in examples of French Baroque harpsichord music and also of works by female composers. The suite includes an unmeasured harpsichord prelude––a genre that, to the author’s knowledge, has not been arranged for the modern six-string guitar. This project also contains a brief account of Jacquet de la Guerre’s life, discusses the genre of unmeasured harpsichord preludes, and provides an overview of compositional aspects of the suite. Furthermore, it includes the arrangement methodology, which shows the process of creating an idiomatic arrangement from harpsichord to solo guitar while trying to preserve the integrity of the original work. A summary of the changes in the current arrangement is presented in Appendix B.

In the 1950s, Miguel Llobet (1878–1938) and Emilio Pujol (1886–1980) published the first transcriptions of piano and orchestral music for two guitars that became staples in the repertoire. Ida Presti (1924–1967) and Alexandre Lagoya (1929–1999) expanded their efforts with new adaptations of Baroque, Romantic, and Modern music. Following their examples, generations of professional guitar duos have maintained a similar transcription repertoire. However, closer examination reveals noticeable gaps in it as Renaissance works have been largely overlooked. To illuminate this issue, chapter 2 revisits adaptations for two guitars of music originally written for vihuelas, lutes, viols, and the virginal to inquire about the reasons for this neglect and discuss plausible solutions. Because the virginal stands out for its innovative characteristics and alignment with the solo lute works by John Dowland (1563–1626) and John Johnson (ca. 1545–1594), the “English School” of Virginalists is further explored as a potential source of suitable works for transcriptions.

Chapter 3 discusses philosophical concepts and editorial practices to propose a method aimed at producing stylistically faithful adaptations of virginal music. The editorial criteria for this method are informed by in-depth reflections on terminology, the ontology of musical works, the notion of authenticity, and common sixteenth-century practices from musica ficta to tuning temperaments and notational conventions. Concerning ethical matters, this chapter assesses authorship issues that originated at the turn of the nineteenth century but are still adopted by modern editors and transcribers. This discussion aims to shed light on both the negative impact on intellectual property and how it can be avoided by simply resorting to the practice of scholarly transcriptions. Chapters 4 and 5 explain the procedures and applications of the proposed method in two parts: adaptation and revision. The first introduces concepts and strategies from choosing suitable works to balancing playability and aesthetic fidelity intended to produce a preliminary version of the original work. The second establishes a knowledge base through musico-historical discussions and comparative analyses of sources that inform editorial decisions and necessary changes to be implemented in the final score.

Tres Tangos para Duo de Contrabajos (Three Tangos for Double Bass Duet) is a three-movement set written by Andrés Martín and commissioned by Darren Cueva specifically for this document and accompanying performance project. This piece blends tango with Western art music in a style often referred to as “nuevo tango” (new tango) which was popularized by Astor Piazzolla. This research paper will serve as a performance aid for those wishing to present tango idioms on the double bass in addition to a more detailed guide to performing Tres Tangos by Martín.

To give context to performers, this survey begins with a brief history of the tango and the life and stylistic developments of Astor Piazzolla. Various music and dance styles that contributed to early tango include, milonga, habanera, and tango andalúz. The resulting tango was popularized as a music and dance style in the early twentieth century. Astor Piazzolla brought the tango to the concert hall after studying composition with acclaimed professor Nadia Boulanger. His new tango style merged traditional tango, classical composition, and jazz music, which he was exposed to after his family moved from Argentina to New York.

Tres Tangos was modeled after the style of Piazzolla. Characteristic articulation and improvised techniques are a fundamental aspect of the tango sound; a successful performance will depend on the musician’s ability to create these sounds. A detailed description of the most common elements is provided as well as suggestions for creating them on the double bass. Finally, I have compiled a specific performance guide for Tres Tangos. This guide includes rhythmic, articulation, fingering, and notational considerations, to assist in the performance of this piece.

The current project is a study of five violin sonatas by the German Baroque composer Johann Georg Pisendel (1687-1755), arranged for guitar. The first part of the document is comprised of an overview of Pisendel's life and career as a virtuoso violinist, primarily focusing on his time of employment with the Dresden Hofkapelle during the Saxon-Polish Union. This section also examines the history and issues surrounding the Royal Court of Dresden's Schrank II (Cabinet II) music collection, which holds all of Pisendel's manuscripts. Although many of his works were previously lost or attributed wrongly to other composers, new research from the 2008 Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation) funded project: The Instrumental Music of the Dresden Hofkapelle at the Time of the Saxon-Polish Union aids in providing a comprehensive list and description of each of Pisendel's violin sonatas, either ascertained or conjectural. The second part contains arrangements of five selected violin sonatas for solo guitar. Together with the rationale pertaining to interpretive choices that were made in adapting each sonata for solo guitar, each work includes explanatory notes regarding its history and provenance. The analysis and arrangement of each sonata was conducted from facsimiles of the Schrank II manuscripts, which are currently available to the public through the Saxon State and University Library Dresden (SLUB) online database.