| Contents |
Instrumental music in German, 1529 -- Wind instruments blown with human breath -- Wind instruments blown by bellows -- Transcribing vocal notation into keyboard tablature -- String instruments with keyboards -- String instruments with frets -- Transcribing vocal notation into lute tablature -- Selecting and tuning lute strings -- The first type of fiddles -- The second type of fiddles -- The third type of fiddles -- Transcribing vocal notation into tablature for fiddles and other monophonic instruments -- String instruments with neither keyboards nor frets, but with many courses of strings -- String instruments with neither keyboards nor frets, but with one, two or three courses of strings -- Instruments made of sounding metal and other substances -- Instrumental music in German, 1545 -- Preface ; wind instruments -- Fiddles ; epilogue on ornamentation -- The lute and monochord -- The Pythagorean proportions ; tuning organ pipes and bells -- The harp, psaltery, xylophone and dulcimer -- Table of woodcut illustrations in Agricola's Musica instrumentalis deudsch (1529) derived from Virdung's Musica getutscht (1511) -- Pitches cited in the 1529 and 1545 editions of Musica instrumentalis deudsch, along with designations in letter-symbols -- Composite transcription of the fingering charts for recorders and related instruments on fols. 9-10 of the 1529 edition -- Composite transcription of the fingering charts for Swiss flutes on fols. 13[superscript v]-14[superscript v] of the 1529 edition -- Transcription of the fingering chart for the small recorder with four holes on fol. 15[superscript v] of the 1529 edition and fol. 23 of the 1545 edition -- Recto of the foldout, showing notes and rests in vocal notation and tablature, cited on fol. 25[superscript v] of the 1529 edition -- Verso of the foldout, showing a musical example in both vocal notation and tablature, cited on fol. 25[superscript v] of the 1529 edition -- Transcription of both types of notation on the verso of the foldout cited on fol. 25[superscript v] of the 1529 edition -- Table derived from the diagram of the old lute tablature on fol. 36[superscript v] of the 1529 edition -- Table derived from the diagram of letters showing octaves in the old lute tablature on fol. 37[superscript v] of the 1529 edition -- Recto of the foldout, showing a musical example in both mensural notation and tablature, cited on 37[superscript v] of the 1529 edition -- Transcription of the mensural notation and tablature on the recto of the foldout cited on fol. 37[superscript v] of the 1529 edition -- Verso of the foldout, showing a musical example in new lute tablature, cited on fol. 37[superscript v] of the 1529 edition -- Transcription of the tablature on the verso of the foldout cited on fol. 37[superscript v] of the 1529 edition -- Table derived from the diagram of mensural notation and new and old lute tablature on fol. 38 of the 1529 edition -- Transcription of the setting of 'Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein' in new lute tablature on fols. 38[superscript v]-40 of the 1529 edition -- The foldout, showing how to tune the strings of the lute by octaves, cited on fol. 42[superscript v] of the 1529 edition -- Table derived from the diagram on the foldout cited on fol. 42[superscript v] of the 1529 edition and the foldout cited on fol. 59 of the 1545 edition -- Transcription of the musical example in both mensural notation and tablature on fols. 52[superscript v] and 53 of the 1529 edition -- Composite transcription of the fingering charts for recorders and related instruments on fols. 20, 21 and 22 of the 1545 edition -- Composite transcription of the fingering charts for Swiss flutes on fols. 26[superscript v], 27[superscript v], 28 and 30[superscript v]-31[superscript v] of the 1545 edition -- Table of intervals derived from the instructions for measuring off the necks of the large Italian fiddle, the Polish fiddle and the small three-string, unfretted fiddle on fols. 41-42 and 49[superscript v] of the 1545 edition -- Table of intervals derived from the instructions for setting frets on the neck of the lute on fol. 53 of the 1545 edition -- The foldout, showing how to tune the strings of the lute by octaves, cited on fol. 59 of the 1545 edition -- Transcription of the foldout, showing the Pythagorean method of setting notes on the monochord, cited on fol. 63[superscript v] of the 1545 edition -- Table of intervals derived from the instructions for setting notes on the monochord according to two methods: (1) as presented on fols. 61[superscript v]-63 of the 1545 edition; and (2) as presented on the foldout cited on fol. 63[superscript v], and on fols. 64 and 64[superscript v] of the 1545 edition -- Transcription of the foldout, showing the dimensions of organ pipes, cited on fol. 75[superscript v] of the 1545 edition. |
| Abstract |
Martin Agricola (1486?1556) was an important early Lutheran musician and teacher from Saxony and his treatises were intended as textbooks in musical performance. Highly illustrated, they give practical instruction on a number of musical instruments, showing methods of fingering, tuning and notation. As such they are valuable sources of information about the study and performance of music in Germany in the early sixteenth century. The first Musica instrumentalis deudsch, written mostly in rhymed German verse and containing woodcut diagrams and depictions of musical instruments, appeared in 1529. It was modelled on the Musica getutscht (Basel 1511) of Sebastian Virdung, copying many of the woodcuts found in the earlier work and redefining its classification of musical instruments. A revised and almost completely rewritten edition of Agricola's treatise was published in 1545. This is the first translated, modern edition of this famous treatise on musical instruments. |
