Chords for Introducing the Baroque Theorbo

_ _ _ [Em] _ _ [D] _ _ [G] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [F] _ _ _
[D] _ _ [G] _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ _ [Dm] _ [G] _ _
_ [C] _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ At the end of the 16th century in Florence, something strange happened in the musical world
which had an impact on lute players but also singers, stage directors, choreographers,
_ and this was known as opera _ and musical theatre scenes.
So the small lute that everybody had been
happily playing for centuries, on which beautiful, very intimate counterpoints, polyphony, very
complex mathematical music could be played, wasn't quite pizzazzy enough for the new forms
of theatrical music.
So the players were scurrying around with their lute makers,
_ thinking about what they could do to address the challenge of playing with louder singers,
coming in maybe on a cloud, accompanying somebody you can't see.
They needed a bit more beef and _ _ _ _ _ _ _ a
Hieronymus Capsburger was one of the pioneers, but _ the person who claimed to have invented this
instrument, the chitarone, or theobo as it would be called, was Alessandro Piccinini, and he said
that his great innovation was to invent a second neck.
If I point up there, that's the second peg
box, this is the first peg box.
So essentially I'm playing a lute with an extra neck.
Piccinini
called his invention the arch lute, and other makers at the same time were working on a different
kind of prototype called a chitarone.
This was meant to evoke the music of the spheres, the
ancient Greek kithara, and was a very intellectual enterprise.
_ However, because it looks a bit daft,
it acquired a second name, a tiorba.
So you have kithara for ancient Greece, and tiorba, which was
essentially a country instrument, some old geezer playing a hurdy-gurdy.
And what I love about the
instrument is that these two identities, the serious one and the daft one, existed and still coexist.
When I catch the tube in London, the capona or the blockhead identity comes out.
People complain a lot
about the space that I take up.
_ The other interesting thing about the instrument _ is that
the top string is buried in the middle.
_ [D] _ _ _ [G] _ _ [Am] _ _
_ It's a little bit like a ukulele.
And this is because
_ half of the instrument came from a bass lute, _ and the other half was kind of grafted on.
So in order
to get strings that would be this long to have the big resonant sound, _ _ different strings had to be used.
If you used normal gut, it broke.
So the solution was just to tune these down the [G] octave in order
that you could have the extra length [A] to _ _ this octave, _ _ _ _ _ [G] as some of the soloists would play it.
But this meant you could play, _ _ _ _ [D] _ [A] _ _
_ [E] _ _ _ [B] _ _ [C] _ _
[D] _ _ [G] _ _ _ [D] _ _ _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _
you had a considerable range, but going downwards instead of upwards.
_ _ And as the strings are made of gut, I'm going to have to tune this one. _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _
_ These two features of the instrument are what give it its slightly eccentric character. _
So you have the bass strings going down, sometimes even arpeggiated, _ _ or very [Gm] sad, [D] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Cm] _ _ _ _ [G] _
_ [D] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ which lent itself
to the kinds of improvisation that were going on in opera.
For example, [Cm] _ _ _ this C minor chord
_ would ring on, and along comes Penelope in [G] Il ritorno d'Ulisse to sing a lament
_ _ about her long lost husband.
So laments, vocal accompaniments, were what the instrument was
conceived for.
But of course, once you put a piece of kit like [E] this in a player's hand,
they'll do other things with it.
So because of the tuning, I now have _
_ [A] _ _ a lot of strings tuned
a tone apart.
So although we're in early music territory, this gives me a lot of harmonic options.
For example, [G] _ _ _ _ _ [A] _ _
_ _ _ _ [Em] _ _ [A] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [D] _ _ [A] _
_ _ [E] _ _ _ _ [B] _ _
_ _ so all [Am] those clashes which we wouldn't normally find in music of this period
are suddenly very _ gratifying to play under the hand.
And we even have Turkish influenced [G] pieces
such as, _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [A#] _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [F] _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ [D#] _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ [F] _ _ [G] _ _ _ [D#] _
_ [D] _ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ that's also a piece by Kapsberger called the Colosione, which is a three-stringed
Turkish instrument.
So around 1600, there's all sorts of innovations happening.
So what could you
use this instrument for if you're in an orchestra or in a band or in a theater? _ _
Improvisation
comes very naturally.
You build it around chords.
_ _ And to do that, rather than have all the composers
learn lute tablature, they wrote just one single bass note.
So a single D could [D] mean, _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[B] _ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _
or the [Dm] same D
could mean, _ _ _ [A#] _
_ [A] _ _ _ _ [Dm] _ _ _
_ [D] depending on the mood of the piece. _
So the oboe players learn to improvise, to harmonize
their own particular bass lines.
They might share a line with a harpsichordist or a viol player or
a harp and play in big groups.
Or sometimes just one voice and one lute was the kernel from which
larger operas were built. _
So Italy was the nerve center of innovation where this instrument was
invented.
But it did travel.
It traveled to France where, interestingly, it lost its chitarrone name
and became the théorbe or theorbo lute.
And also it ended up in England where it was a theorbo.
And theorbo came to mean just the word for anything that had an extra long neck.
_ And in
different people's imagination, the instrument took on a different character.
So we had all those
clashes and dissonances in the Italian music, but the French used it for a much more melodic purpose,
things like this.
_ _ _ _ [B] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [C#] _ [D] _ _
[F#] _ _ [Bm] _ _ [B] _ _ _ _
_ [A] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [B] _ _ _
_ [Am] _ _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _
_ _ [B] _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
[F#] _ _ _ _ _ _ [B] _ _
_ _ [G#m] _ _ [E] _ _ _ [A] _
_ [G] _ _ [F#m] _ _ [D] _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [E] _
_ [C#] _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _
_ [E] _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ [A] _
_ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
And then dark music _ and _ _
_ [A] _ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _
[G] _ _ [A] _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
[D] _ _ so on.
So it was then used for playing in suites.
So you
could play in one key for a while before you would have to stand up and retune to change key.
And this
is where the suite came from.
You'd have a whole group of pieces all in D major or C minor or B
minor.
And this was a particular French invention around these tunings on the lute.
The theorbo
went to England as well.
It was brought in by Inigo Jones in the 1600s, but he was stopped at
Dover at customs as they thought the instrument was a popish engine to destroy the king.
So the
theorbo got confiscated and not reunited with its owner until some time after.
Me and airport
officials across the world have a similar kind of relationship as I travel quite a lot with this
instrument these days. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _