Ancient Music for Ukulele

A selection of favorite pieces from the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque eras adapted for the Ukulele or Renaissance Guitar, using musical notation and tablature.

Ancient music written for the modern ukulele ….. None!

Playing ancient music on the ukulele ….. Absolutely!

This collection of favorite pieces from the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque eras are adapted for the Ukulele or Renaissance Guitar, using musical notation and tablature. These pieces are the favorites of the arranger, Robert Vanderzweerde, for many reasons. Some are just fun to play, many will be recognized by music lovers of other genres so they become great “set” pieces when asked to demonstrate what you do and, finally, Robert performed many of these pieces while learning to play classical guitar and they have remained favorites ever since. The pieces in this book are ordered first by musical era and then by degree of difficulty, starting with those that are easier. When playing a soprano, concert or tenor ukulele, linear tuning is required (i.e. using a low G string). Notes about the composers and pieces are at the back of this book.

Contents:

Medieval Period (before 1400) & Traditional (all time periods)
Coventry Carol (Anonymous)
“Canção do figueiral” (Traditional Portuguese
Ar Hyd y Nos (Traditional Welsh)
Early One Morning (Traditional English)

Renaissance Period (1400 to early 1600’s)
Bransle de Poitou (Adrian Le Roy)
Bransle (Guillaume Morlaye)
Tarleton’s Resurrection (John Dowland)
Greensleeves (Anonymous)
Fantasie (Gregoire Brayssing)
Buffons (Guillaume Morlaye)
Tourdion (Adrian Le Roy)
Pimontoyse (Adrian Le Roy)
Conte Clare (Guillaume Morlaye)
Villanesque (Guillaume Morlaye)
Chanson “Nous voyons que les hommes” (Jacques Arcadelt)
Almande “La mon amy la” (Adrian Le Roy)
Mrs. Winter’s Jump (John Dowland)
Pavane IV (Luis de Milan)
Deux Canons (Simon Gorlier)

Baroque Period (early 1600’s to 1750)
Minuet (Christian Petzold)
Bourrée (Johann Sebastian Bach)
Sheep May Safely Graze (Johann Sebastian Bach)
Rujero (Gaspar Sanz)
Canarios (Gaspar Sanz)

Recordings of the pieces are posted on either YouTube of SoundCloud (search for Ancient Music for Ukulele).

Please check out the other books in this series “Ancient Music for Ukulele” by visiting our website (ancientmusic4ukulele.com) and/or Facebook page.