Domenico Obizzi

[Bill Brettschneider]

Im looking for some pieces to play on the guitar with a baritone and a keyboard (baroque organ or harpsichord) and I stumbled upon a book of madrigals and arias by Domenico Obezzi. Im wondering if anyone is familiar with these, and can point me to any information on them. recordings would be fantastic. 

[Bill Brettschneider]

The chords would be unwieldy in f, as opposed to g.
If it were all composed together, you would think that the solution would be to write the parts all in G. That must be what you were talking about, only writing for one flat. Movable DO, essentially.

[Monica Hall]

Yes - at least two of the chords would involve using a barre.  Having them all in G means that only the chords at the very beginning of the sequence - A  B  C   D   + are used.   The standard clef configuation for these things is C1 for the voice and F4 for the bass.   Anything different  is suspicious.   I haven't had time to look at all of the songs closely though but I think it is all the ones with a flat in the signature which have the alfabeto a tone higher.

[Bill Brettschneider]

I made a mistake. The one that is not aligned key wise is on page 72. I did not have the score when I posted earlier. I thought I remembered which one it was. Clearly I was wrong.

[Bill Brettschneider]

So, with a piece with the clef configuration you described, and one flat, is it expected that a keyboard continuo player would be playing in F, or d minor, such as we would expect today, or was this more flexible than that?
Since alfabeto is not so clear as to the function of the chords as it is to the specific voicing, I figured that alfabeto was not widely used for transposition.
Of course, the chart at the beginning of Sanz's book seems to function in part a a transposition key. Or at least that's the best guess I could come up with.

[Monica Hall]

Yes - I think so probably.   Unless I have missed something the voice part does not go above E/E flat.  The songs are all in a fairly comfortable range if you take the pitch at face value.   Obviously people do all sorts of things so some singers may have sung them at whatever pitch sutied them.  There is just one song on p. 3 which is in G minor with one flat and the alfabeto is also in G minor - an oversight on the editor perhaps.   Alfabeto can't easily be used for transposition.   I don't know how deep you are into this.   The different method of notating the chords in Amat's Guitarra espanola - i.e. arranging the chords in a circle of 5th and numbering them 1-12 does allow for transposition into any key provide you are comfortable playing chords with a barre.   If you are referring to Sanz' Laberinto - this serves a different purpose.  It shows how the same chord can be played in different positions on the fingerboard.   So in the first column you have E minor/major chords played in 1st postiion, with a barre at the 2nd, 4th and 7th fret.   So you can create a varied accompaniment rather than one at a different pitch I think.  Some of the Italian battute books have similar table.

[Monica Hall]

P.s.  I've been trying to play and sing your Aria Avrette.   I think the some of chords are wrongly aligned in the original in places.   I would shift some of them as per example attached...if it works...don't seem to be able to download my file though.

[Monica Hall]

This is my example - this time it worked I think.....

[Bill Brettschneider]

Thanks very much for doing this. I was aware of the misalignment, but I was first trying to stay as close to the original as possible. Other than the alignment and text underlay, does anything pop out as needing adjustment?

[Monica Hall]

No - everything else was fine.  

[Bill Brettschneider]

I thought Sanz was getting at more than just other voicing. He shows minor forms as well. With that, and his showing the bar forms, I thought the alert student would be able to figure out transposition. But I can see that he at least didn't have a very elegant system worked out.
I forgot which source, but there was a book I came across that did not list all the chords alphabetically, but grouped as major and minor. I haven't figured it out quite, but I think that author must have been on his way to a more functional harmony approach.
I'm having so much fun, just perusing facsimiles, and gleaning what I can. I really appreciate your help.

[Monica Hall]

You are right about Sanz actually.  The figures in the top row in the little triangles are the numbers of the chords according to Amat.  I don't know whether this is the book you are thinking of but Amat arranges the chords in two groups, major and minor.   The major ones are 1n, 2n etc. and the minor are 1b, 2b etc.  

[Bill Brettschneider]

Ive run into another snag. the singer I am working with needs the text for all verses underlayed, and so i set about doing it. The next verses don't seem to be long enough. I don't read italian, so maybe it would be obvious to someone who does, but its not to me. any ideas?