Piece of the Month - June 2002

La Mora
This famous piece by Heinrich Isaac (c.1450-1517) was intabulated twice by Hans Newsidler (1536): a 2-part version, tenor and bass; and a 3-part version incorporating all three parts of the original plus some decoration. This second, more difficult version can be found in my anthology Renaissance Lute Music from German Sources, published by the Lute Society (www.lutesoc.co.uk). Here I present the 2-part version along with the score so you can play Newsidler's intabulation with one or more of the other parts played on other instruments. If you use the score in G, you can play the tablature on a G lute but the top part will be too high for another G lute and is probably best played on a melody instrument. If you use the score in D (the original pitch) you can play the tablature on a lute in D, or play all three parts on lutes in G - so get out your plectrum, invite two friends to join you and off you go…

Problems of musica ficta abound in this music. I have adjusted the score to match Newsidler's 2-part intabulation, but it is worth noting that his 3-part version handles ficta differently. In the tablature I have added a missing note in bar 9, corrected an error in bar 13 and changed an E to Eb in bar 14 (adjusting the tab to the score in this case).

Downloads:

Tablature plus score in D: lamorad.ft2

Tablature plus score in G: lamorag.ft2

Tablature only: lamora.tab

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