This collection contains sixty easy Renaissance pieces from various European countries, and from works of well known, but also obscure or anonymous composers, transcribed for the classical guitar mainly from lute, vihuela, and bandore sources. The pieces will be published in three volumes, each volume containing twenty pieces.
I have tried to include pieces of varied difficulty in all three volumes and also to keep the upper level of technical difficulty to the contemporary grade IV level of the A.B.R.S.M. which takes the student to the intermediate level (grades IV-VI).
The pieces in each volume are given in two versions, first as decorated pages in ordinary notation, and then the same pieces are again given in undecorated pages of notation and tablature. Therefore each volume contains two books in one and the choice is left to the user whether to keep the volume as presented, or to construct his own book by inclusion or deletion of unwanted pages, blank pages, etc, for use either as a printed or a tablet-screen book version. The addition of tablature of course results in doubling the number of pages needed for the presentation of the pieces, therefore the staff sizes are here reduced to an appropriate degree which can maintain the two-page view principle of any piece without need for automatic or manual page turners, foot pedals etc.
The inclusion of tablatures which shows a preference for open string combinations whenever that is possible, clarifies sufficiently the left hand playing positions without need for additional fingerings.
Having said that, my professional advice to all guitar students is to abandon completely their reliance on tablatures and study seriously through many easy collections of music such as the present one in order to familiarise themselves to all aspects of musical notation. And always have in mind that tablatures were invented and still are in use only for fretted instruments, and only due to commercial (publisher?s) considerations primarily, while other string instrumentalists neither have them available, nor need them in order to study/play music.

Metronome marks are only suggestions that need not be taken too literally and are placed mainly for guiding a score writer programme such as Sibelius for performance and extraction of audio and video files. To this end many other expression and/or technique and tempo marks may have been added to the score and made invisible.

NAVIGATION INDEXES ? External and Internal links

The second page in every volume is an index divided into three columns. The first column has the titles of the pieces as active invisible links which take the user to the relevant tablature page. The header of that page brings the user back to this index.
The second column has visible links (in frames) to live performances of the pieces either by professional guitarists or students, which are only for getting familiar with the music, but not as suggestions that particular performances should be followed for study purposes.
The third column contains active links to information about particular composers, found mainly in Wikipedia, but sometimes also in other external sources.
The third page in every volume contains a thematic index of active links to the decorated (without tablatures) pages of the pieces. The header of every decorated page brings the user back to this index.
Finally, the titles of all decorated and tablature pages are active links of interconnection between these pages.

This product was created by a member of ArrangeMe, Hal Leonard?s global self-publishing community of independent composers, arrangers, and songwriters. ArrangeMe allows for the publication of unique arrangements of both popular titles and original compositions from a wide variety of voices and backgrounds.

ISBN 9781513459547. 8.75x11.75 inches.

This book of 53 intermediate-level guitar pieces is derived from Le Secret des Muses, a two-volume collection of lute tablature by Nicolas Vallet (c. 1583 c. 1642). Born in France, by 1614 Vallet had relocated to Amsterdam where he established a dance school and was active as a composer, lute teacher and leader of a consort that played at weddings and festivals. Le Secret des Muses is among the last published collections of French lute tablature intended for the 10-course Renaissance lute, which was ultimately supplanted by the larger 13-course Baroque model. Most of these pieces consist of traditional European dance forms, but also contains a few settings of popular lute themes and longer works suitable for concert performance are included. Written in standard notation only with occasional drop-D tuning, these pieces make excellent sight-reading and warmup material as well as historically significant concert selections.

ISBN 9781513459882. 8.75 x 11.75 inches.

Robert Johnson (c. 1583 1633) was the last of the great English lutenists; he served Prince Henry and was later a prominent figure in the court of Charles I. He wrote music for many plays and masques of the time, including several by Shakespeare. Decades after Johnsons death, in a Dialogue between the Author and His Lute within Musicks Monument and the persona of the Lute, writer and lutenist Thomas Mace described John Dowland and Robert Johnson as Two famous men; Great Masters in My Art. Despite such high praise and the fact that much of Johnsons music is well-suited to the guitar, few guitarists play it. This comprehensive collection of solo lute works, transcribed for guitar in standard notation, is an attempt to remedy this shortcoming. It includes music for the beginner as well as the advanced player. The books 23 pieces range from Johnsons delightful almains, galliards, masques and a single coranto to the somber intensity of the pavans and a fantasie. Dropped-D and lowered third-string tuning (F#) are frequently used to better approximate the tuning and range of the 9 or 10-course Renaissance lute.

Tom Strini's carefully researched and fully annotated 1974 survey of French, German, Italian and Spanish lute and vihuela music. With 12 playable pieces in modern notation and facsimile tablatures. 67 pages. More info: https://striniwrites.blogspot.com/2021/02/when-i-was-scholar-i-wrote-little-book.html

ISBN 9781609746810. Scholarly editions, which serve different purposes than performance editions, are not often designed with the modern guitarist in mind. For instance, Renaissance vihuela tablatures are usually transcribed with the open first string as G, not E. Most are presented in double-staff notation, a medium that is superior for realizing counterpoint but unconventional as guitar notation. Furthermore, these editions sometimes give idealized, but not realistic, solutions for voicing, note duration, and other matters that need to be considered within the limitations of our instrument. Guitarists who try to play from these editions essentially are faced with the task of transcribing the transcription!This 188-page anthology is designed as a companion volume to The Baroque Guitar in Spain and the New World (MB21122). It includes representative selections, edited for modern guitar, from the seven books for vihuela that were published in Spain between 1536 and 1576.As well as being fun and entertaining music for all to enjoy, these collections are intended to help bridge the gap between scholarly editions and performance editions by providing a hands-on introduction to tablature transcription and to issues concerning historically informed performance of early music on the guitar.* A 188-page anthology, edited for modern guitar, from the seven books for vihuela that were published in Spain between 1536 and 1576* A companion volume to The Baroque Guitar in Spain and the New World (MB21122)*Intended to help bridge the gap between scholarly editions and performance editions* An introduction to tablature transcription and to issues concerning historically informed performance of early music on the modern guitar.