Fridolin Sicher Tablature
The Fridolin Sicher Tablature (assigned signature CH-SGs Cod. Sang. 530) is a tablature compiled by Fridolin Sicher.
It contains approximately 176 pieces by 94 composers, among them two settings of Resonet in laudibus attributed to Sicher himself. The manuscript is written in Old German Tablature Notation
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Description
Sicher dated several pieces in the manuscript, suggesting that the bulk of the tablature was compiled between 1504 and 1531. The intabulations themselves were entered in no particular order, and in many places the handwriting or ink colour changes drastically, hinting at a retroactive addition of a new piece between older ones. One inscription (on f. 101r) alludes to the importance of using available parchment as economically as possible.
What sets Sicher's collection apart from those of his peers is the relative lack of idiomatic keyboard ornamentation added to intabulations of vocal pieces. In the tablatures of both Kotter and Kleber, usage of ornaments, especially the turn, is a characteristic trait, while Sicher commonly transcribed pieces almost unchanged from their original vocal form. Presumably, he would improvise the ornaments while playing, as was custom at the time. It is, however, similar to the aforementioned two by conveying a significant amount of pieces by organists-teachers Buchner and Hofhaimer.
Links
CH-SGs Cod. Sang. 530 Online facsimile: www.e-codices.unifr.ch accessed 23 September, 2023.
References
www.e-codices.unifr.ch, accessed 23 September, 2023.
Warburton, T. A. (1969). Fridolin Sicher's tablature: A guide to keyboard performance of vocal music. Doctoral dissertation, University of Michigan.
Apel, W. (1967). Geschichte der Orgel- und Klaviermusik bis 1700. Kassel: Bärenreiter-Verlag.
Young, W. (1962). Keyboard music to 1600 I. Musica Disciplina, vol. 16. Mergelberg: American Institute of Musicology Verlag.
