Sources of Lute Music

Sources of Lute Music: A Short List of "Finding Tools"

By Arthur J Ness, typeset by Wayne Cripps, in progress. All typos are Wayne's with the assistance of Arthur

RISM = Répertoire international des sources musicales = International inventory of musical sources = Internationales Quellenlexikon der Musik. An international effort to inventory all original sources of music before about 1800. A useful overview of this monumental undertaking, sponsored in part by UNESCO, is here: http://www.lib.umd.edu/guides/MusicalSources.html. Especially important for seeking original sources of lute music are Series A pt. 1 (prints devoted to a music by a single composer) and Series B/I & II (anthologies). Individual items are identified by code, Series A, composer’s first initial and consecutive number, e.g, B1234; Series B/I, by code made up of date plus consecutive number within the year in superscript, e.g., 1536/9.
Einzeldrucke vor 1800. ed.: Karlheinz Schlager. (Kassel, Basel, Tours [etc.]:
Bärenreiter-Verl., 1971-1981. International inventory of musical sources, Series A, pt. I

Recueils imprimés XVIe-XVIIe siècles. ed., François Lesure. (München: G. Henle 1960)
International inventory of musical sources. Series B; pt. I.
Recueils imprimés: XVIIIe siècle. ed., François Lesure (München: G. Henle, c1964)
International inventory of musical sources. Series B, pt. II.
Also see 1978 (Boetticher), below.
1965. Howard Mayer Brown. Instrumental Music Printed before 1600: A Bibliography. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1965.
A masterpiece of music bibliography. It is particularly useful due to its many indexes of names (composers), titles, performance medium, libraries and their holdings, with references in the lists proper to modern editions (as of 1965) and concordances.
1978. Wolfgang Boetticher. Handschriftlich überlieferte Lauten- und Gittarren- tabulaturen des 15. bis 18. Jahrhunderts. RISM B/VII Munich, 1978.
Carelessness and lack of thought regarding the requisites of a musical bibliography make this a disappointing reference tool for all working in the field. See the reviews by Douglas Alton Smith in Journal of the Lute Society of America, 12 (1979): 78-82; Dinko Fabris in Nuova rivisita musicale italiana 15 (1981):457-61; and Arthur J Ness in Journal of the American Musicological Society 34 (1981): 339-45. https://www.academia.edu/9263282/Boetticher_Handschriftlich_._._._Lauten-_und_Gitarrentabulaturen_RISM_Bvii_
1981. Jan Olof Rudén. Music in Tablature: A Thematic Index with Source Descriptions of Music in Sweden. Stockholm: Svenskt Musikhistoriskt Arkiv, 1981.
Inventory of lute and keyboard tablature manuscripts in Swedish libraries; includes thematic index, concordances and other information.
1982 Dinko Fabris. “Prime aggiunte italiane al volume RISM B/VII --intavolature mss. per liuto e chitarra”, Fontes Artis Musicae29 (1982):103-21
1982. Ernst Pohlmann. Laute, Theorbe, Chittarrone: Die Instrumente, ihre Musik und Literatur von 1500 bis Gegenwart. Fifth edition. Lillienthal/Bremen: Eres Edition, 1982.
An amateur lute enthusiast's labor of love. The fifth edition is significantly improved, but should be used with caution.
1990. Dorman H. Smith. Guitar and Lute Misic in Periodicals: An Index. Berkeley: Fallen Leaf Press, 1990.
1991-9. Christian Meyer, François-Pierre Goy, Monique Rollin, Peter Kiràly, et al. Sources manuscrites en tablature: Luth et theorbe (c. 1500-c.1800). Collection d'Etudes Musicologiques, vols 82, 87, 90 and 93, Baden-Baden and Bouxwiller: Koerner, 1991, 1994, 1997, 1999.
- I: Confoederatio Helvetica (CH), France (F);
- II: Bundesrepublik Deuchland (DK);
- III/1: Oesterreich (A)
- III/2: République Tchèque (CZ), Hongrie (H), Lituanie (LT), Pologne (PL), Fédération de Russie (RF), Slovaquie (SK), Ukraine (UKR).
Title inventories with concordances. An essential bibliography of manuscript tablatures, with references to modern editions and studies. Additional volumes in preparation. The indexes, included on a microfiche, are now available on-line, with a complete listing of cited manuscripts, and volumes in preparation. See http://www.bnu.fr/Smt/sommaire.htm
1992. Dieter Kirsch. Berliner Lautentablaturen in Krakau: bescheibender Katalog der handschriftlichen Tablaturen für Laute in der Bibliotheka Jagiellonska. Mainz: Schott, 1992.
Title inventory with thematic incipits in tablature of lute manuscripts formerly in the Prussian State Library, Berlin.
1994. Julia Craig-McFeely. “English Lute Manuscripts and Scribes 1530-1630.” Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oxford, 1994. Available online: http://www.ramesescats.co.uk/thesis/
Use with caution.
1995. Victor Coelho. The Manuscript Sources of Seventeenth-Century Italian Lute Music. New York: Garland, 1995.
Miscellaneous indexes, as http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/indices/INDEXES.html
2010. Peter Steur, Manuscripts for Baroque Lute: A Catalogue.
http://mss.slweiss.de/index.php?id=1&type=select&ms=A-GoessHue&lang=eng&showmss=1
A major resource. Includes concordances and tablature incipits.
François-Pierre Goy et Andreas Schlegel, Accords Nouveaux. Datenbank PAN (Pièces en accords nouveaux)
http://www.accordsnouveaux.ch/de/Abhandlung/Datenbank/Datenbank.html

Arthur J. Ness, 11 February 1998 (rev. 30 October 2010)

Wayne strongly recommends that you get to know your interlibrary loan specialist at your local library. A good librarian can get you any book, even though it is not in your local library. Also the amazing World Catalogue (below) will let you enter your ZIP code and it will tell you the nearest library holding the item you seek; most libraries, including academic libraries, welcome visitors. So what you seek may be just down the road a piece.

Literature and Modern Editions

Some finding tools for literature and modern editions of lute music (some emphasis on finding tools for dissertations and theses.)

ProQuest/Dissertation Abstracts (formerly UMI),
Complete dissertations can now be downloaded. You need to have a library that subscribes.
World Catalogue http://www.worldcat.org/
You can login to a free subscription to make personal and public bibliographies in a number of formats; be sure to use the filters in the left column, e. g., “theses/dissertations,” “music scores,” etc. A major resource; aka OCLC). Take advantage of the World Catalogue's offer to let you make lists and store them in their computer. See upper right corner. Just think how long it took you to type up the bibliography in your thesis. Now you can compile it with hardly any typing at all. Thanks to the folks at World Cat.
Karlsruhe Connection http://www.ubka.uni-karlsruhe.de/kvk/kvk/kvk_en.html
Searches libraries world-wide, including several national union catalogues; also links to several antiquarian dealers, some international in coverage.
Doctoral Dissertations in Musicology http://www.ams-net.org/ddm/
International coverage; includes works in progress. Not all items are tagged with keywords
French National Union Catalogue http://www.sudoc.abes.fr/
See Karlsruhe for more union catalogues; the Italian ones are especially good.
German dissertations in Music database http://musikwiss.uni-muenster.de/
I can't get it to work for me
Network Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations http://www.ndltd.org/find

Some search terms you may wish to use:

lute	Laute	liuto	lauto	luit
luth	lutnia	laud	loutna	l'oud
mandora	mandola	theorbo	cittern
tablature	tabulatura	(etc.)
et cetera.

--AJN (Boston) (6 February 2011) (updates April 13 2015)