Lute Intabulations by Adolf Blindhamer

A slender manuscript with lute intabulations by Blindhamer (» A-Wn Mus. Hs. 41950), with an estimated date of around 1525, is not only one of the earliest surviving sources of lute music but also almost the only source from this period that records more complex music by a professional player rather than didactically simplified music for beginners.[37] It contains a long prelude (a fantasia-like free form), further designated here as “Mutetae” (instrumental pieces), as well as intabulations of vocal pieces and some dance pieces. Besides Blindhamer himself, several composers are named: Josquin Desprez, Paul Hofhaimer (» C. Orgeln und Orgelmusik; » I. Hofhaimer), Heinrich Isaac (» G. Henricus Isaac), and Ludwig Senfl (» G. Ludwig Senfl). Except for Josquin, these musicians were closely associated with Maximilian. This closeness perhaps also explains the existence of a unique piece, a “Muteta mester paulus hofhamer” (» Notenbsp. Muteta mester paulus hofhamer), which is only preserved in this manuscript.

Notenbsp. Muteta mester paulus hofhamer

Muteta mester paulus hofhamer (» A-Wn Mus. Hs. 41950, fol. 7v [Nr. 7])

The title carries the addition “mit 3 stymen” (with 3 voices) meaning that three voices were considered in the intabulation (other intabulations in the source even mention four voices, which indicates the special skill of both the intabulator and the player in preserving and playing multiple contrapuntally guided voices in the lute piece). Musically, the virtuosic embellishments, called “coloration” at the time, stand out. Blindhamer’s presumed student Hans Gerle describes his playing as follows:
“Es hat auch gedachter Adolff (damit sein kunst vnd schickligkait erweittert werde) diese art gefürt / die dann alle Künstner der Musick vnd derselben Instrumenten haben sollen / wenn er bey verstendigen der Musica / oder vor berümbten Syngern geschlagen / hat er sich gleichwol zuuor in seinen Preambeln dermassen hören lassen / das sein geradigkait vnd kunst gewaltig erschinen ist / zusampt dem / so er zu einem gesatzten stücklein gegriffen / hat er das erstlich / wie es in noten gestanden / mit wenig Coloraturen / zum andern mit wolgestelten leuflein geziert / vnd zum dritten durch die Proportion geschlagen vnd volfürt / Vnd doch einer solchen gestalt / damit der süssigkait vnd vollkomenheyt des gesangs nichts benomen worden ist.”[38]
(Adolf (so that his art and skill may be extended) practiced this way, which all musicians and players of these instruments should follow. When he played before knowledgeable musicians or renowned singers, he first let himself be heard in his preludes, so that his precision and artistry appeared mightily. Additionally, when he played a written piece, he first played it with few embellishments, then adorned it with well-placed runs, and finally played it through proportional variations, without taking away the sweetness and completeness of the song.) 

After a prelude, which served both to tune the instrument and to attune the listeners and included virtuosic passages, Blindhamer played a written composition, such as the intabulation of a polyphonic vocal piece. The piece was played first with few embellishments, followed by a version with many runs and elaborations. Finally, the piece could be rhythmically varied in another repetition, without distorting the underlying composition. Remarkable is the repeated, always varied performance of usually short pieces mentioned here.

The piece by Hofhaimer, preserved only as a lute intabulation, highlights the significant gaps in the musical transmission that must be expected, as this is certainly not an original composition by Hofhaimer for the lute, but only an adaptation for this instrument. Such gaps are notable in the surviving music of Paul Hofhaimer. Although he was employed for life as an organist at the Habsburg court in Innsbruck in 1480, surprisingly little of his liturgical organ music has been preserved, even though this was the basis of his activity and fame. The elevation to knighthood in 1515, so important to him, took place in Vienna during the double wedding of Maximilian’s grandchildren. Following the ceremony, the imperial trumpeters played a fanfare, and the imperial chapel sang the Te Deum, and “in Organis Magister Paulus, qui in universa Germania parem non habet, respondit” (on the organ responded Master Paul, who has no equal in all of Germany).[39] This “responding” describes the so-called “alternatim practice,” in which the versets of a liturgical chant are alternately sung and played on the organ. The organist based his part on the liturgical tenor and demonstrated his skill by how artfully he adorned the cantus firmus. Only two of Hofhaimer’s organ settings have survived, perhaps recorded by his students—Hofhaimer himself probably extemporized them. His student Hans Buchner describes various methods of such chorale settings (even using the example of the Te Deum), but Hofhaimer’s practice also emerges from the two surviving organ pieces. Especially in the Recordare, based on the liturgical tenor, which was also appended to a Salve Regina like a hymn, the varied ways of handling the cantus firmus are evident, sounding in different voices and contrapuntal techniques in the three-voice setting.[40]