[VIHUELA] Re: Foscarini again -

[Stuart Walsh]

Monica Hall wrote:
I wonder if I can elicit another Pavlovian response from Martyn - or 
anyone
else.

There is a Toccatta in Foscarini's 5th book on p.105.

Stuart has put it on his website for the benefit of those who don't 
have it
to hand at

http://www.pluckedturkeys.co.uk/FoscoToccata-1a.jpg

There is a particularly interesting passage on stave 7 starting after 
Chord
H at the double bar outlined in red - in particular the three bars which
follow the double bar.

It seems to me to make no sense to strum those notes on the 4th/5th
course  - and it doesn't make much  sense to include  any open courses 
other
than
those he has indicated himself throughout the section although in some 
places it is possible.  It is just a
bit of  2/3 part counterpoint which should be played in lute style.

What I think is that  to save himself  some trouble he has put in the
figures only once and the stroke marks
are there to tell you how many times to play the single notes or chords
before moving to the  next ones.   The stroke marks are not there to tell
that you must play the notes with a finger or thumb up and down.

This really gets to the heart of it. Are these up and down stroke marks 
in Foscarini sometimes really not strums at all? (I mean that this gets 
to the heart of the matter as far as a newcomer to this music, like me, 
is concerned. Has this particular issue - about strums signs in 
Foscarini - been discussed a million times?)

In bar 4 of line 1, the first two beats could be (should be?) strummed 
(carefully avoiding the outer courses.) The third beat of this bar can't 
be strummed: the third course which could have been included at this 
point (and made the chord strummable) is omitted. But then why didn't 
Foscarini just have the tablature letters and the dotted crochet and the 
quaver (like in  lute music or, indeed, old-fashioned four-course guitar 
music, which he must have known)? But no, he includes up and down 
strokes too.

And the next line of music, the first three complete bars ending on 
letter G (Bb): if this is all pizzicato and not strummed, the stroke 
signs are redundant. But perhaps this section is to be strummed.

Things are clearer (to me, anyway) for the final two bars on line two.  
I'm sure this means in each case: strummed chord followed by a single 
note, strummed chord followed by a single note. The single notes 
couldn't be added to the preceding chord. But the single notes have a 
seemingly redundant upstroke (unless upstroke=fingers, downstroke=thumb, 
perhaps).

In the section Monica has indicated in red, there are up and down stoke 
signs. I agree that this section can't be strummed. For a start, you 
can't strum a single note.( And this isn't a fast running passage where, 
just possibly, an instance of dedillo might be suspected.) Monica 
supposes it to be a lute-style, pizzicato passage with the strum signs 
indicating to the player to repeat the last note(s) or chord until the 
next.. Well, I think that must be right. And it sounds plausible and 
perhaps bits of this section could be strummed too. I just wonder why 
Foscarini wrote both up and down strokes though?

(On line/stave 8, the final two bars: could there be a bar missing?)

This is the first piece I've seen from Book 5. The rhythm is completely  
clear - unlike just about every piece in the preceding books! What are 
the little dots next to some downstroke signs?


Stuart



This is Suart's website again

http://www.pluckedturkeys.co.uk/FoscoToccata-1a.jpg

Answers on a postcard to...

Monica



To get on or off this list see list information at
http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html