Back to my main page for guitar tablature for Virgil Thomson's The Plow That Broke The Plains, including links to the 3 movements which include guitar or banjo.
Let me know if you ever make use of this. Thanks. Donald Sauter.
Short ID: PLOW6. Title: The Plow That Broke The Plains; Mvmt 6. Devastation. Composer: Virgil Thomson. Source: Orchestral score. Tuning: EADGBE. Guitar part. Time sig: Cut time. Half=72. The guitar part for movement 6 "Devastation" fits well on the fingerboard until measure 122; from there on adjustments have to be made. My decision was to remain faithful to the highest notes of the written chord and jettison unplayable bass notes, as opposed to finding a full barre-chord formation of the chord somewhere lower on the fingerboard. For example, for the last chord in the piece, C# major, I went with a truncated, 4-note version barred at the 13th fret as opposed to the easy, 6-note version found at the 9th fret. Original chords (m=measure): m122 m125 m127 m129 _____________________________________ |___11___|____9___|____8___|___13___| |____9___|___10___|____9___|___14___| |____8___|___11___|____8___|___13___| |___10___|____7___|___10___|___15___| |____6___|____4___|____6___|___11___| |____4___|____2___|____4___|____9___| There was also a G# below the low C# throughout m123, making a 7-note chord. Thomson did not indicate strums for the guitar chords, but it seems natural to me. I strum every chord with the thumb from bass to the treble. As with baroque guitar tablature, a stem by itself with an arrowhead means to strum the same chord again. Explanation of symbols: [51] = rehearsal number 51, for example. ^ (arrowhead) = big thumb strum. For a neater appearance, re-draw the ^ arrowhead right at the top of the stem. z = rest. Fill in to make a solid block. NOTE: the tablature begins at measure 98 in the movement. *** Download and edit out all material above and below the tablature. *** Set up your printer for: 96 characters/line (12 characters/inch). 66 lines/page (6 lines/inch). *** Print out starting with the title line below. The Plow That Broke The Plains; Mvmt 6. Devastation. PLOW6: Page 1 of 1. EADGBE. Guitar part. Leading measures: 98 107 116 125. Virgil Thomson. (m98) [51] flute... violin ___ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________|_9______|___11_9__|_________|___________|________|________|_______6|_8___4_4_4|_______ ____9_9_9|________|________9|_10______|___10_10_10|_9______|___7____|___7_9__|__________|_______ _________|________|_________|_________|___________|________|_____9_8|_9______|__________|_______ _________|________|_________|_________|___________|________|________|________|__________|_______ _________|________|_________|_________|___________|________|________|________|__________|_______ _________|________|_________|_________|___________|________|________|________|__________|_______ guitar [52] mf poco a poco cresc. ff ^ __ ^ ^ ^ ^ __ ^ ^ ^ ^ __ ^ ^ ^ ^ __ ^ ^ ^ ^ __ ^ ^ ^ |. | | | | | | | |. | | | | | | | |. | | | | | | | |. | | | | | | | |. | | | | ______^___________________^___________________^___________________^____________________^________ __9________|________|_2________|________|_4________|________|_4________|_4______|__9________|___ __9________|________|_2________|________|_4________|________|_5________|_4______|__9________|___ __9________|___z____|_2________|___z____|_5________|___z____|_6________|_5_z____|__9________|___ _11________|________|_4________|________|_6________|________|_6________|_6______|_11________|___ _11________|________|_4________|________|_6________|________|_4________|_6______|_11________|___ __9________|________|_2________|________|_4________|________|__________|_4______|__9________|___ cresc. fff ^ __ ^ ^ ^ ^ __ ^ ^ ^ ^ __ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ __ ^ ^ ^ __ ^ ^ | | | |. | | | | | | | |. | | | | | | | |. | | | | | | | |. | | | |. | | | ____________^___________________^____________________^_____________________^__________^_________ ______|_2________|________|_4________|________|__9________|___11____|__9________|__________|____ ______|_2________|________|_4________|________|__9________|____9____|__9________|__________|____ _z____|_2________|___z____|_5________|___z____|__9________|____8____|__9________|__________|____ ______|_4________|________|_6________|________|_11________|___10____|_11________|__________|____ ______|_4________|________|_6________|________|_11________|_________|_11________|__________|____ ______|_2________|________|_4________|________|__9________|_________|__9________|__________|____ [53] tremelo cresc. dim. ^ __ ^ ^ ^ __ ^ ^ ^ __ ^ ^ ^ __ ^ ^ ^ __ ^ ^ ^ |. | | | |. | | | |. | | | |. | | | |. | | | | | | | ______^__________^___________^__________^___________^___________________________________________ __9________|__________|__8________|__________|_13________|_________||___________________________ _10________|__________|__9________|__________|_14________|_________||___________________________ _11________|__________|__8________|__________|_13________|_________||___________________________ _11________|__________|_10________|__________|_15________|_________||___________________________ __9________|__________|___________|__________|___________|_________||___________________________ __9________|__________|___________|__________|___________|_________||___________________________