A personal link will be sent to you within 24 hours to download the digital score Diego Ortiz’s Trattado de glosas, Rome 1553, consists of two parts, or Books. The First Book is above all an instruction manual for the performance of diminutions on the viola da gamba or other instruments as well as for singers. The Second Book illustrates how to execute counterpoints to the pre-existing works and presents model pieces for bass viol entitled recercata. These are exceedingly important examples of composed versions based on an oral tradition of improvisation. There are three surviving copies of this book: A Spanish version in Berlin, an Italian/Spanish version in Bologna and an all-Italian version in Madrid. I took the all-Italian version from Madrid as the primary source for my edition. Though accessible to researchers, this Italian version from Madrid has long been overlooked and was thus virtually unknown for a long time. A critical modern edition of this Italian version was not available until now. I examined all three surviving copies in detail to provide a modern transcription of the ricercatas and found some points requiring correction in the earlier transcriptions. I strove to follow the musical styles and theories of the period and to choose the melodic movement as naturally as possible. This new edition is further intended as a practical manual for performers. For this goal, I have not translated Ortiz’s commentaries word by word but instead summarised them in order to extract and clearly express his intention. Ortiz’s Italian instructions were left standing in the places where they occur in the original source.(from the preface of Masako Hirao) Edited by Masako Hirao 92 pages, no page turns within a piece
