t he amount of guitar music producedduringthelatesixteenththroughthemid- dle of the eighteenth century is huge—second only to that of the lute. a nd like the latter, it ranges from the modest efforts of amateur musicians to the miniature masterpieces of the great court composers of Europe. s ome of it even found its way to the n ew w orld. But while the lute’s vast repertoire has become—thanks to recordings, publications, and lately, some new and improved music transcription software—both familiar and avail- able throughout the world, the same cannot be said of the early guitar’s, probably be- cause of its rather unique notation.
v irtually all guitar music from the period was written in a tablature notation that looks somewhat similar to lute tablature. However, since the nature of the instrument, its idioms, and its playing techniques are significantly different from those of the lute (not to mention the classical guitar), so is its notation. f or example, what might look like an arpeggio to a lutenist accustomed to reading lute tablature is simply a single-line, running scale passage in baroque guitar tablature. g uitar composers signaled arpeggios in other ways, and interpreting their tablatures requires an understanding of both the unique idioms and techniques of the instrument for which they composed and the ways in which they notated them.