• Composer(s): Wolff Jakob Lauffensteiner (1676-1754)
• Title: The Haslemere Manuscript
• Sub-title: Pieces and Lute Partitas
• Year of edition: c.1750-1780
• Source: GB-HAdolmetsch Ms II.B.2
• Volume: 2
The Haslemere Manuscript
This manuscript contains tablatures that a lutenist from Dresden or Prague assembled in the second half of the 18th century, most likely to be used for his own playing or teaching. His instrument of reference was a 12-course D-minor-tuned lute. Some pieces require a 13th course, but they are few in number, and the indication of a 13th course may have been added later. This copyist often indicated a composer's name alongside the titles; however, many pieces, whose origin must have been known to him, are anonymous. The tablatures are generally grouped by key, in order to be played consecutively without having to retune the bass courses. Only rarely are these groups of pieces explicitly referred to as Suites or Sonatas.
The original manuscript is now kept at the Carl Dolmetsch Library, in Haslemere, England; its reference is GB-HAdolmetsch ms II.B.2. Its history is unclear; it may have belonged to the Fétis collection, since we know that Fétis sold or traded several of the many works he had purchased1.
In the early 20th century, the manuscript was acquired by Eugène Arnold Dolmetsch (1858-1940). Born French into a family of organ, piano and harmonium makers, Arnold Dolmetsch went to London to study early music and its instruments. He earned a baccalaureate in music in 1889, and settled in London. After teaching a short while, he began building keyboard instruments, and opened a lutherie workshop in Haslemere in Surrey, where he built copies of almost every sort of instrument played from the 15th to the 18th century.
Wolff Jakob Lauffensteiner (1676-1754)
Wolff Jakob Lauffensteiner was born in Austria, in Steyr an der Enns (a town located in the north of present-day Austria).
Later, it was as a lutenist that Wolff Jakob Lauffensteiner settled in Graz. The official records of Styria indicate that he was married, and déclare the death of one of his children, there. According to his own declarations, he subsequently entered the service of the Court of Bavaria in 1712. From 1712 to 1715, he was employed by the Prince-Elector of Bavaria Maximilian-Emmanuel each time his court sojourned in Graz. His position was that of valet de chambre, and his task was to teach various musical instruments, including the lute.
In 1714, following the Treaty of Rastatt with Prince Eugene, which put an end to the bloody War of the Spanish Succession, the Bavarian Prince-Elector Maximilian-Emmanuel returned to his Germanic states, left Namur and the State of Luxembourg whose sovereignty he had secured, and settled in Munich; Wolff Jakob Lauffensteiner followed him and henceforth worked for him alone. At first, his salary was 350 Gulden (or florins); in 1715, it was increased by 100 Gulden to reward him for the musical education he had been giving the Prince for several years, mainly in the lute and other musical instruments; in 1717, it was again increased by 150 Gulden, in recognition of the “musics he had composed”.
Jean-Daniel Forget / Le Luth Doré © 2015
3 pieces in A Major
Gigue (Lauffensteiner)
Courante (Lauffensteiner)
Gigue (Lauffenstein)
5 pieces in D Major
Allemande
Courante (Lauffenstein)
Siciliana (P[ar] Lauffenstein)
Menuet (Lauffenstein)
Gigue (Par Lauffenstein)
• Editor(s): Jean-Daniel Forget & Guy Grangereau
• Music period: Baroque
• Instrument(s): 11c & 13c Baroque lute
• Instrumentation: Baroque lute solo
• Notation: French tablature
• Modern edition: Urtext
• Publisher: Le Luth Doré Urtext Editions
• Year of publication: 2016
• Collection: Lute and Theorbo Music Collection
• Pages: pp. 58
• Dimensions: 230x310 mm
• Weight: 0,320g
• Binding: Section sewn glue binding
• ISMN: 377-0-0017-8813-5
Passionate about the baroque era, Jean-Daniel Forget is a self-taught lutenist. In order to play the forgotten (lute) works of the 17th and 18th centuries, he has copied (and studied) their manuscripts for almost 20 years.
A long career as a computer scientist, having made him expert in programming, allowed him to utilize the normal logic of writing music, especially that which transcribes tablature for instruments with fretted strings.
In collaboration with Guy Grangereau. he has posted his tablatures on a public internet site that is frequented by many lutenists and guitarists.
Forget was enlisted by Miguel Serdoura to help prepare the musical examples for his fine Method of the Baroque Lute. Further on, he continues to assist Serdoura in the preparation of his (lute) editions.
Guy Grangereau is a professional musician who studied guitar playing in Paris, notably with the Brazilian Turibio Santos. Then, he perfected his musical knowledge at Martenot school in Paris.
Since 1984, he gave guitar and piano lessons and, for twenty years, he taught guitar in music schools.
His favorite instrument is a guitar (Maurice Dupont) initially with 13 strings, to which a 14th string was added; more recently were added two strings and a theorbo neck for the last four strings. This 16 strings instrument can be tuned in thirds (open tuning); he uses it to transcribe solo harpsichord works. He also plays a 14-course theorbed baroque lute (Stephen Murphy).
Since 2010, he is collaborating with Jean-Daniel Forget for the copy of German baroque lute manuscripts of the 17th and 18th centuries, in bringing more particularly his musical expertise to the review of the Silvius Leopold Weiss’ work.
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Our editions are urtext: we strive to provide reliable musical texts that are as true as possible to the existing sources and the composer’s intentions. We are aware, of course, that it is impossible to reconstruct the one and only urtext. Often, several manuscript sources exist for the same piece, and there is little reliable guidance for determining which version best represents the composer's intentions.
Although we cannot entirely dissipate historical uncertainty, we can compare texts and correct obvious errors, which sometimes occur even in autograph manuscripts. Sources have been meticulously examined - note by note, mark by mark.
The most important observations and editorial decisions are elucidated in the prefaces, in the critical commentary, in footnotes, or marked as such in the musical text. It therefore comes as no surprise that an editor has to invest a great deal of patience, knowledge and time when piecing together an urtext that is true to the source and, hopefully, to the composers’ intentions as well. Proven specialists with extensive knowledge and experience edit our Le Luth Doré Urtext Editions in close cooperation with our Editorial Department.
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