ABSTRACT
The tablature in the transcription is for modern guitar, with six strings in the standard tuning of E A d g b e’. The top line represents the highest string, and the numbers tell players on which frets to place their fingers. In the original tablature, for vihuela, the top line represents the lowest-pitched string. You will also notice that the fingerings on the third-highest string in the original are one fret higher than in the modern guitar tablature. Although vihuela tunings varied in the sixteenth century, they used a sequence of intervals almost like the modern guitar but with the third-highest string pitched a semitone lower in relation to the others. The vihuela you hear in the accompanying recording is tuned at G c f a d’ g’, in sixteenth-century pitch, which sounds about a half-step lower than modern pitch. The image below shows mm. 1–3 from the 1538 publication. The full publication is available digitally at the Biblioteca Nacional de España: https://bdh.bne.es/.
