Zayas, Rodrigo de.

• The MS is from the time of Spanish domination of Naples .
• Bezón started compiling the MS on 4 Sept 1599.
• It contains 4 Italian songs, 22 Spanish songs, 2 in Italian mixed with Spanish, 1 in Latin = Lamentations
• At least the 1st strophe of each song has alfabeto guitar accompaniment written above the text. The notation does not indicate meter, durations, or the direction of strumming.
• There are 21 pieces for solo guitar in the first part of the MS: 10 pasacalles, 3 romanescas, 3 zarabandas, 1 «villano», 1 «sfessania» española and another napolitana, 1 pavanilla de España y 1 gallarda. There are more at the end.
• The other person who figures in the MS is Bezón’s student, Anton. Inscription on fol 2v: «a 7 de septiembre de 1600, començo el senor Anton a tomar liccion de mi, Mateo Bezon, spanol…» There are 2 hands in the MS, presumably Bezón and Antón.
• The book includes pasacalles in all keys, in common with other guitar books, and has a table of chords in tablature.
• The MS was acquired by Marius de Zayas in 1938 from book dealer Leo Olschki in Florence. Previous history unknown.
• This is the earlies book of Italian alfabeto, preceding Montesardo (Florencia, 1606) .
• In the article Zayas constructs a theory about implicit melodies in alfabeto books that can be reconstructed from the movement of the bass. This theory has not had any significant acceptance by other scholars.

Composer

Instrument GUITAR

Century 17CENT

Region SPAIN, ITALY

Medium

Music genre SONGS

Research field HISTORY, MUSIC, SOURCE STUDIES