abstract: In 1568, Vincenzo Galilei published the first edition of Fronimo as a guide to the art of intabulating vocal music for the lute. A second edition was released in 1584 in which Galilei presents “26 Ricercari” to demonstrate the sound of each Glarean mode. These short works provide a methodical approach to experiencing the Renaissance modes through his beautiful writing for the lute. This research project focuses on the “26 Ricercari” and explores the challenges of transcribing and arranging Renaissance lute tablatures to be played on the guitar. Topics such as making decisions for voicings, fingerings, tactus reductions, and formatting are examined. Historically-informed playing suggestions such as articulations, lute techniques, and tempo are also included. Many lute and vihuela works, like the ricercari, have not yet been transcribed. The ricerari tablatures are idiomatic and instantly playable for guitarists who are familiar with different forms of tablature, but most classical guitarists today are familiar only with modern staff notation. Because of this, Galilei’s works have been wrongfully neglected. My project presents the first guitar edition of these works, along with the documentation of my methodology, and serves as an aid to others for transcribing lute tablatures. / Dissertation/Thesis / "26 Ricercari" by Vincenzo Galilei, arranged and performed by John Oeth / Doctoral Dissertation Music 2020

In this thesis I investigate transformational practices in the secular music of mid-fifteenth-century German sources. At the heart of the research are case studies of the Lochamer Liederbuch with its two sections - a song and a keyboard collection - and of the newly discovered Wolfenbüttel Lute Tablature. By analysing and comparing the different versions of pieces surviving in these and related sources I explore how they interacted and what the motivations and techniques behind their transformation were. The organist and lute player Conrad Paumann and his 'School' were central driving forces in this process, which led to numerous innovations, particularly in the development of instrumental music and its notation. I then investigate the question of the instrumental accompaniment of monophonic song and how the development of new instruments and techniques influenced and shaped the melody types in the late medieval sources. To do this, I consult the genre of Neidhart songs as an oeuvre of secular song that was cultivated and transmitted in sources from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries. The network of interdependencies between repertoires enables an analysis of transformational practices in the songs of Oswald von Wolkenstein, which are influenced by the Neidhart-genre. The analysis comes full circle with reworkings of his melodies in the Lochamer Liederbuch and related sources. The study shows that vocal music and instrumental intabulations influenced each other mutually to create new repertoires and styles. Amongst the most significant insights are the findings around the WolfenbÃ1⁄4ttel Lute Tablature, which open up a field of hitherto unknown instrumental practices and playing techniques, particularly on the plectrum lute. The process of transferring intabulation techniques from the keyboard to other polyphonic instruments leads to the formulation of a coherent, 'pan-instrumental' style of solo intabulation in the fifteenth century.