Monica Hall – Baroque Guitar Research
Monica Hall
Bartolotti
Francesco Corbetta – the Best of All
The Baroque Guitar Made Simple!
The chitarra atiorbata and guitare-theorbee
My Periodical Articles
In the introduction to his "Instruccion de musica" printed in 1674 Gaspar Sanz refers to Corbetta as "el mejor de todo" – "the best of all" and clearly his contemporaries regarded him as such. Although his music is perhaps less popular today than that of Sanz or Santiago de Murcia he is undoubtedly the most significant and prolific composer for the 5-course baroque guitar of the seventeenth century.
The only full length study of Corbetta is Richard Pinnell's doctoral dissertation "The role of Francesco Corbetta (1615-1681) in the history of music for the baroque guitar" completed in 1976 and subsequently published by UMI Research Press ca. 1980 with the title "Francesco Corbetta and the baroque guitar with a transcription of his works". This covers a lot ground in a general way but is now very out of date.
This study is an attempt to give a more focused account of Corbetta's life and work. The main part of it comprises English translations of the introductions to his books with detailed commentaries on the wealth of information which these include. It also includes a study of music attributed to him in contemporary manuscript sources.
It is divided into the following sections –
Corbetta Contents 2019 April
Corbetta Section I – Biography
Corbetta Section II
(Printed Books of 1639, 1643 & 1643)
Corbetta Section III New
(Printed Books of 1671 & 1674)
Corbetta Section IV
(Dissonance in Corbetta's music)
Corbetta Section V Continuo Exercises
Section VI – Manuscript sources of Corbetta's music
Corbetta Section VI Part 1
Corbetta Section VI Part 6 I-Rama-A-Ms.4912
Corbetta Section VI Part 7 Thematic Index
Gallot Edition
Corbetta Liege Edition