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Hacking the System

Italian Keyboard Intavolatura and Scribal Habit

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  • Abstract(s)
    • The commonly-understood conception of Italian keyboard intavolatura as a species of tablature notation carries with it certain implications: that intavolatura shares a basic affinity with lute and figure-based keyboard notational systems; that it is a ‘finger notation’, designed to transmit information necessary for the mechanical actions of playing, but not for voice leading and polyphonic detail; that its functioning was predicated upon a particular set of notational conventions or laws. The identification of intavolatura as a distinct notational system has been primarily established through a reading of Diruta’s treatise Il Transilvano – our most complete historical source describing intavolatura and the process of intabulating music in it – and through the volumes of keyboard music printed by 16th-century houses such as Gardano, Vincenti, and Verovio. However, not fully examined to this point has been conceptualizations of intavolatura on the part of scribes working on the Italian peninsula, mainly because there hasn’t been a thorough examination of extant intabulations in manuscript. An examination of these intabulations further supports the conceptual framing of intavolatura as a system of conventions – a system that was tacitly understood by scribes as well as printing houses. An investigation into scribal habits further highlights the functioning of intavolatura as a kind of lute tablature for keyboard that used mensural notation in place of figures. At the same time, the use of mensural notation allowed for instances in which scribes use intavolatura as a kind of ‘partitura’, ignoring its conventions and rules in order to show the original voice leading of the polyphonic model. In their very divergence from intavolatura convention these instances further solidify the systematic conception of intavolatura; at the same time, they also show that scribes were aware of the possibility of bypassing the rules for the sake of showing polyphonic detail.
  • Date Issued 2024
  • Author(s) Pritchard, Ian
  • DOI 10.21939/harpsichord-16c-04
  • Publication Type book part
  • Language en
  • License CC-BY-4.0
  • Publisher mdwPress