A Historical, Practical and Computer-based Approach to Reconstructing Vocal and Instrumental Polyphony from Lute Tablature

With over 50,000 extant pieces in tablature notation, this repertoire remains largely unexplored by musicology due to the difficulty of reading the notation and the limited rhythmic and temporal information it provides. Nevertheless, this music contributes a wealth of information on ornamentation, voice leading, genres, arrangements, accompaniments and more. Furthermore, some tablature exemplars survive as the sole extant versions of vocal or instrumental pieces by the best known early modern composers. This is the case with some of the over 500 lute intabulations that survive in the music collection of Edward Paston (1550-1630), which contain unique versions of pieces by composers such as William Byrd and Tomas Luis de Victoria. This paper proposes a method for reconstructing vocal and instrumental polyphony from tablature notation by means of a multidimensional approach involving team reconstructions, performance workshops, and computer analysis. The goal is to tackle the issues presented by reconstruction and re-composition in a more systematical way that involves critical, practical and empirical methods.

Hector Sequera is a lecturer in music performance at Durham University. His main interest is the music of the long Renaissance, particularly aspects of reconstruction, oral traditions, ornamentation and improvisation, domestic practices, networks, music theory in practice, music editing, and early opera. When not teaching or researching, Hector plays the lute and related instruments with various ensembles throughout Europe and the Americas.