Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 4.djvu/66

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Italian method.

Af - flit - ti spir-ti miei

These examples will enable the student to solve any ordinary forms of Tablature. Those who wish to study the supplementary Positions of Galilei, and the complicated methods of Gerle, Besardus, and other German writers, will find no difficulty in understanding the rules laid down in their respective treatises, after having once mastered the general features of this system.

It remains only to speak of Tablature as applied to other intruments [sic] than that for which it was originally designed.

During the reign of King James I, Coperario, then resident in England, adapted the Lute Tablature to Music written for the Bass Viol. This method of Notation was used for beginners only, and not for playing in concert. John Playford, in his 'Introduction to the Skill of Music' (10th edit., London, 1683), describes this method of Notation as the 'Lyra-way'; and calls the instrument the Lero, or Lyra-Viol. The six strings of the Bass Viol are tuned thus, beginning with the 6th, or lowest String, and reckoning upwards—D, G (Γ), c, e, a, d̄; and the method proposed is exactly the same as that used for the Lute, adapted to this system of tuning. Thus, on the 6th String, a denotes D (the Open String); b denotes D♯; c denotes E; etc. A player, therefore, who can read Lute-Music, will find no difficulty in reading this.

John Playford, enlarging upon Coperario's idea, recommended the same method for beginners on the Violin, adapting it to the four Open Strings of that instrument—G, D, A, E. The following Air, arranged on this system, for the Violin, is taken from a tune called 'Parthenia.'

Parthenia.

This adaptation to the Violin is one of the latest developments of the system of Tablature on record: but Mendel, not without show of reason, thinks the term applicable to the Basso Continue, or Figured-Bass; and we should not be very far wrong were we to apply it to the Tonic-Sol-Fa system of our own day. [ W. S. R. ]

TABLE ENTERTAINMENT. A species of performance consisting generally of a mixture of narration and singing delivered by a single individual seated behind a table facing the audience. When or by whom it was originated seems doubtful. George Alexander Steevens gave, about 1765, entertainments in which he was the sole performer, but such were probably rather lectures than table entertainments. In May 1775, R. Baddeley, the comedian (the original Moses in 'The School for Scandal'), gave an entertainment at Marylebone Gardens, described as 'an attempt at a sketch of the times in a variety of