German tabs origins are, like all the forms, obscured by time.
It is reputed to have been invented by Conrad Pauman, mid fifteenth
century, as a way to record music for short-necked lutes having 5 courses.
The notation was extended for lutes having 6 or more courses and more
frets, and we have lots of printed music and ms; but as each publisher and
scribe extended the notation in a personal manner there are variants.
An edition of M Waissel's music printed by J Eichorn in 1573 (Frankfurt an
der oder) shows the fretboard of a 6 course lute with one form of
extension. Note, the fingerboard is viewed from above; intersection of nut
and highest pitched string is labeled 5.
5 e k p v 9 -e -k
4 d j o t 7 -d -j
3 c h n s z -c -h
2 b g m r y -b -g
1 a f l q x -a -f
A B C D E G H -J
another printer (Heckel) and his inheritee (Jobin) uses the following for
6th course
-1 -a -f -l -q -x -aa -ff -ll
>From the first piece in the Waissel edition, "Pass e Mezo" (first row is
flags, giving duration)
1 2 2 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 ...
5 n 4 5 5 | 5 g 5 o d 4 n | 4 2 o o d 4 n | ...
d d 4 | d 2 | c c 2 | ...
n n h | n | D D | ...
J J A | J | | ...
which might be entered
// preface, 4 row german tab, glyphs detailed...
// hidden time signature common (often ommited, but used)
// ? hidden key signature c (tab lacks key sigs)
{1 {5,d,n,J}}
{2 {n}}
{2 {4}}
{5 {d,n,J}}
{5 {4,h,A}}
{thinbar}
...
While an entirely ascii based input encoding is feasible and protean, the
variety of german systems makes it desireable to allow the user to define
the entry glyphs (which will sometimes be ligatures).
Historical fonts are not always easy to read, typedesigners based their
fonts on the handwriting in use by the presumed readership. Civilte for
french and english tablature, Blackletter for german were common choices.
The results were good for historical readers, less so today when most folk
are accustomed to Roman; this challenges the user entering data from an
historical source.
Such a user can take advantage of a font similar to her source (I make a
few based on historical tablature fonts) when entering data, especially
for blackletter, in which case the encoding of the ligatured glyphs might
need to be specifyable; easy to do, an ordered list of the glyphs gets
typed at the same time as the input; no need to specify font.
I have a list of some more variant glyph lists for 6th and more course
german tab; couldnt find it in a short search at home, hope this is enough
for now.
--
Dana Emery
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