Ed,A is that not the version you sent me years ago in Tab for Soprano
lute?
A
Bruno
A
Happy New year...
On Mon, Jan 3, 2011 at 1:29 PM, Fabio Rizza <[1]fabio_ri...@alice.it>
wrote:
Il 03/01/2011 18:15, [2]...@heartistrymusic.com ha scritto:
I have heard many recordings of the guitar version with full
orchestra, and I havealso
performed the piece on guitar with full orchestra. A Guitars and
lutes were not designed for
this. A Even then I wanted a facsimile of the original, but was
unable to locate one.
A Now that I am dabbling in the lute world I would like to re-visit
this piece.
Questions:
A 1. Given the time period, would it be most historically accurate
to perform this on a baroque
lute in baroque tuning? A Or could one get by with an 8 course
renaissance instrument?
Vivaldi uses the word "leuto" Vivaldi to indicate an instrument able
to realize the continuo. See, for example, his "Concerto per la
solennitA di san Lorenzo" RV 556. In my opinion (and in that of
Rossella Perrone, who wrote a detailed preface to my edition of
Vivaldi's works for lute and mandolin) that instrument was the
archlute, i.e. the Italian baroque lute. But I guess that Vivaldi
wouldn't mind if someone played it on the German baroque lute -- or
even on the mandora, as Pietro Prosser suggested a few years ago.
In her preface, Rossella Perrone writes:
"In writing almost certainly for the A<<leutoA>> that he knew, that
is, the lute in use in Italy or the archlute, Vivaldi left the
Bohemian patron or his lutist the task of adapting the part. In any
event, it is significant that the three compositions dedicated to
Wrtby, together with the concerto RV 540, can be played on both
types of instrument and the keys of the works (C major in RV 82, G
minor in RV 85, D major in RV 93 and D minor in RV 540) are
comfortable for the archlute and the lute in D minor alike.
"Moreover, in the three compositions dedicated to the Bohemian
count, considering the fact that the pieces were certainly destined
for a chamber group, the lute part, unlike the concerto RV 540, in
which the richer order of the score allows an explicit doubling of
the roles of the instruments (as support for the basses in the
ripieno and for the solista in the solos), is notated only in the
treble clef without employing the bass clef. Nevertheless, since the
lute part in score is always in the middle, between the violin and
the bass, with the exception of the Larghetto of RV 82
(highlighting, with such an arrangement,
the derivation of the violin part from the A<<leutoA>> part), one
can put forward the hypothesis that the lutist of the period read
from his own line and the bass line at the same time, perhaps
playing both the melodic line as well as the basses for harmonic
support.
"Ever since the publication of these compositions, as we were
saying, the problem of the type of A<<leutoA>> employed by Vivaldi
has come up. The confusion arose because of Vivaldi's use of the
treble clef. However, from the autograph RV 540, where the notes in
the treble clef are written an octave higher and the basses on the
true notes, we learn that the parts of the three compositions
dedicated to Wrtby (all in G clef), were to be played by the
archlute an octave lower and not on a small lute with
a register that could go as high as D5".
A 2. Would Vivaldi have written standard notation that a lutenist
would then have entabulated
according to the instrument in their possession at the time?
I guess so. There are some examples of this "modus operandi" in the
lute literature of that time. There is an interesting article
written by Pietro Prosser (in Italian, sorry):
[3]http://riviste.paviauniversitypress.it/index.php/phi/article/view
/05-02-INT04/44
A 3. For correct volume and tonal balance, what would be the most
appropriate (and
historically correct) number of violins, etc.? String trio? A Two
per desk?...
The Concerto RV 93 is scored for two violins, lute and "basso".
Best regards,
Fabio
To get on or off this list see list information at
[4]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
--
References
1. mailto:fabio_ri...@alice.it
2. mailto:t...@heartistrymusic.com
3.
http://riviste.paviauniversitypress.it/index.php/phi/article/view/05-02-INT04/44
4. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
