Tombeau sur la mort de Madame la contesse de Logi - LB209

[General Discussion]

From LB 209. My copy is very hard to read so I enhanced it. A beautiful tombeau for his mother I think followed by a sarabande and menuet which could be of Logi also.

[Jiri Arnet]

Hi Hans, is not it very unique to write a Tombeau for a mother? It is used to be composed for masters of music, lords, favorite court lady, but for mother from a son. He had to love her very much. I must say I can feel Losys bright personality, grace and a good heart through his music. Tombeau for mother is showing that aswell. Losy liked to express a mood by music so a Tombeau was a natural way how to say bye, mom.  I hope one day we will find it also in original lute tablature. As already mentioned, I will se what could be done to get the facs.  

[Roman Turovsky]

De Visee has a tombeau for his daughters, so it is possible to write one intrafamiliarily.

[Jiri Arnet]

Oh yes, it is, but doesn't showing the feelings towards mother require more courage, namely in those times?

[Roman Turovsky]

La Madame - I tend to think this refers to the wife rather than mother.

[Jiri Arnet]

It is true, some men mix their wifes and their mothers, or even worse it is when the wife becomes mother in law during the time ;-) but in this case it looks quite clear - I think "sons fils" means "her son", doesn't it?

[Jiri Arnet]

From Losy's biography we know, he played lute, violin (accompanied by his servant on clavecin) and also he had a small bed lute, When his last hour came he said: "A Dieu luths, a Dieu violins!" There was no A Dieu to guitars, unfortunately. It is often presented in that way he composed for guitar, but it seems quite unlikely. Most probably his very popular compositions were intabulated by a Lobkowicz family member, where we have an evidence of playing guitar, so there was a reason to reintabulate lute compositions. There are several concordances of guitar pieces with lute manuscripts, which also supports this version.

[Jiri Arnet]

Hoi Hans, U kommt uit Nederland? I heb gedacht U bent Duits. Waar vandaan bent U? Ik heb vrienden in  Nunspeet bei Zwolle. Willt U mij als en Ning vriend hebben?  

[Jiri Arnet]

Guys, I had today a talk with chief of Lobkowicz collections and the situation is worse than I thought. Mr. Lobkowicz's Nelahozeves foundation now possesses all 28 tablatures known as Lobkowicz Roudnice collection, including guitar tablatures II Ka 47, II Ka 48, II Ka 49, II Kk 75,  II Kk 76, II Kk 77, X Lb 206,  X Lb 207, X Lb 208, X Lb 209, X Lb 211. Mr. Lobkowicz, coming back in 1994 to Czech from the U.S., as a Harvard graduant in finance has purely owner's attitude and not being musician has not experienced the pleasure to share facs with musical friends yet ;-) His opinion is, that the tablatures were too long too much accessible (National Library) without a proper control  and that is why he is doing the opposite now. He is constantly refusing the big edition houses offers to publish other staff from his musical library (non - lute, mainly classical period). To get the whole book in facs is nearly impossible, it is better when you require just a portion, then you have a chance. The price to get partial digital copy is 1,20 EUR per page, if you get a permission to get the whole book, you pay about 4 EUR/ page. The whole thing is complicated by another fact, that manuscripts are currently part of Lobkowicz long term exposition and therefore is not possible to get a copy due to that fact. That's it. Tough times ...  

[Jiri Arnet]

I know you might be frustrated, with what was written above, that is why I am attaching the third source of Losys guitar music, which is HAM D189 Rondeau C. Loschi, the only Losy signed piece of that manuscript. It is one of those, which have lute concordance (Saizenay).     

[Jiri Arnet]

Regarding Sarabande & Menuet following the Tombeau, you write about, it is likely as you say, also Czech scholar Pohanka ascribes those to Losy.  

[Peter Sinnaeve]

This is for 6-c guitar, right?

[Jiri Arnet]

It looks like the writer of D 189 plucked part supposed to those compositions on both guitar and/or mandora. Plucked part of the manuscript starts with "Accordo Cytharae et Mandorae" - by G tone there is G on 3rd course aswell as on 6th for mandora, so by some compositions you need to cope with mandora borduns accordingly to get them played on 5 course (G one octave up in Rondeau).