I have been trying to transcribe a rather obscure, and as far
as I know never-before-transcribed, piece of tablature from a
Scottish manuscript of about 1680. The MS gives no clue as to
what instrument it's for or what the tuning is, except that it
had four strings - the tab is written on four of the five lines
of ordinary music paper.
Here's the tablature from the MS. This tune only uses the top
three strings so that's all I've written. The parens represent
a bracket drawn over a group of notes. I don't think occasional
bits of horizontal space mean anything, but I've included them
anyway. Line break as in the MS. For lute-type tab, a is an open
string, then b, c, d,... move down the frets. Not all lute-family
instruments use semitone frets: the Skene MS, one of the best-known
early Scottish tune manuscripts, is for the mandour, a ukelele-like
instrument (usually tuned A,DAda) which was fretted in major
pentachords (or at least that's what the tablature describes) and
I'm assuming such a system here.
Cowgate gigue
2
---ba---cb--e--|----c|-dcbb:||:----b--------
dcb--d---------|dcb--|c----:||:cde--bb(cbabc)
-------------dd|-----|-----:||:-------------
------b--bcab----b------------bcde--b-----|]]
a--cde-bb----cde--bb-c(abc)a------de--dcbb|]]
-cc-------------------------cc-------c----|]]
Step one in interpreting this: replace - by x, replace a by A and
b by B, make each string a separate voice, and make a plausible
guess as to where the midpoint of the second part is:
X:1
T:Cowgate gigue
M:none
L:1/4
V:1
V:2 merge
V:3 merge
K:none
[V:1] xxxBAxxxcBxxexx|xxxxc|xdcBB:|
[V:2] dcBxxdxxxxxxxxx|dcBxx|cxxxx:|
[V:3] xxxxxxxxxxxxxdd|xxxxx|xxxxx:|
%
[V:1] xxxBxxxxxxxxxxxxxBxxBcAB
[V:2] cdexBBcBABcAxxcdexBBxxxx
[V:3] xxxxxxxxxxxxccxxxxxxxxxx
%
[V:1] xxxBxxxxxxxxxBcdexxBxxxxx|]
[V:2] cdexBBcABcAxxxxxxdexxdcBB|]
[V:3] xxxxxxxxxxxccxxxxxxxcxxxx|]
Now we just have to make a guess at the rhythm and the tuning.
Without altering any pitch names:
X:2
T:Cowgate gigue
M:6/4
L:1/4
Q:3/4=100
V:1 middle=G transpose +4 % c string
V:2 middle=d merge transpose -3 % F string
V:3 middle=a merge transpose -10 % Bb string
K:G Minor
[V:1] xxx BAx|c2B exx|xxx xx c|xdc B2B:|
[V:2] dcB xxd|xxx xxx|d2c B2 x|cxx xxx:|
[V:3] xxx xxx|xxx xdd|xxx xx x|xxx xxx:|
%
[V:1] xxx Bxx|xx x xxx|xxx Bx x|BcA B3 |
[V:2] cde xBB|cB/A/B/c/ Axx|cde xB B|xxx xxx |
[V:3] xxx xxx|xx x xcc|xxx xx x|xxx xxx |
%
[V:1] xxx Bxx|xx x xxx|Bcd ex B|xxx xxx|]
[V:2] cde xBB|cA/B/c Axx|xxx xd/e/x|xdc B2B|]
[V:3] xxx xxx|xx x xcc|xxx xx x|cxx xxx|]
which translates as:
X:3
T:Cowgate gigue
M:6/4
L:1/4
Q:3/4=100
K:G Minor
BAG dcB|e2d gEE|B2A G2e |Afe d2d:|
ABc dGG|AG/F/G/A/ FDD|ABc dGG |dec d3 |
ABc dGG|AF/G/A FDD|def gB/c/d|DBA G2G|]
The experimentation which produced that was not too difficult using
BarFly, except for that insane numerical transpose notation; keeping
the "middle=" and "transpose" directives consistent is a huge pain
in the arse. Nobody but a guitarist ever thinks of intervals by
counting semitones, and in this case (unlike a lute) there is no
advantage to be gained by any matching with the tab formalism.
The title is the thing about the tune that caught my attention -
it's the oldest tune to be named after an Edinburgh street by
about thirty years.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jack Campin: 11 Third Street, Newtongrange, Midlothian EH22 4PU; 0131 6604760
<http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack> * food intolerance data & recipes,
Mac logic fonts, Scots traditional music files, and my CD-ROM "Embro, Embro".
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