Научна конференция Българското музикознание – ретроспективи и перспективи (70 години музикознание в БАН)
Intabulations of Protestant Sacred Songs and Psalms in Wurstisen lute book. Adaptation and Arrangement of the Chorale Models

Summary/Abstract: Wurstisen’s lute anthology contains arrangements of Sacred Songs and Psalms in its last part. This is a repertory of fifteen German Protestant chorales and two psalms after the Genevan Psalter. Тhe investigations on Wurstisen’s arrangement are preceded by a brief introduction of Luther’s and Calvin’s branches of Protestantism and their thoughts on the role of music for the new forms of worship. Historiographical data is involved in order to clarify the origin of Wurstisen’s chorales. The greatest amount of them belongs to Luther’s own liturgical legacy or to theologians and hymn-writers of his close circle. The idea was expressed that Wurstisen collected his chorales from the most preferable and popular titles among the lutenists of the time. The second part of the article is a study on the process of intabulation. It is focused on melody treatment, harmonization of the chorale tunes and embellishments. Several approaches to the musical texture are determined. In addition, certain comparison between Wurstisen’s intabulations and those in the rest of Basel’s lute mansucripts and Hainhoffer lute book managed. As a result, it can now be summarized that most of Wurstisen’s chorale versions don’t correspond to other arrangements. There is only one known exception, which leads to the idea that some of his intabulations might have been copied from another source, while others are possibly his own arrangements.

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