Monica Hall
Sat, 12 Jan 2008 14:49:56 -0800
Subject: Re: [VIHUELA] Re: Foscarini again -
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?)
Not really although it did sort of come up some time ago. Most people seem to think you should take them literally. I always thought that he was a bit haphazard about the way he (or even his engraver) put them in, but recently I have come to the opinion that the strum marks serve more than one purpose and are not intended to be taken literally most of the time. He hasn't worked out a satisfactory or consistent way of distinguishing between strumming and lute style passages.
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.
In this instance the 3rd course could be included. This is part of the problem. They didn't put in the zeros (or "a"s in French tablature. You can see this in the table of chords at the beginning. This is a Labour Saving Device.
The crux of the matter is that there are quite often places where if you included the open course it would be an intolerable dissonance. An obvious example of this is in the Passacaglia on p.88 you mentioned originally. On the first line immediately before the Chord I. You can't incude the open 3rd course there.
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)?
He probably wasn't familiar with any 4-course guitar music. And this doesn't make any attempt to show what the right hand should do.
But no, he includes up and down
strokes too.
This is something which develops out of music in alfabeto. First you just have letters on the line with strum marks; then you start to put in passing notes to be played as single notes but you still put in strum marks. When you start writing counterpoint you still put in strum marks for good measure. Foscarini didn't sit down and invent a perfect system of notation all on his own. It sort of evolves as the music evolves.
The very first essay I had to write at university was about the way notation evolves to accommodate changes in musical style! A subject which has fascinated me ever since.
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.
Possibly but not necessarily.
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).
That's it - the stroke signs are redundant. They are a hang over from alfabeto notation.
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?
He just hadn't got his head properly round the problem. It is because the way in which he seems to suggest you should play the music is actually impractical that I don't think the strum signs should be taken too seriously.
(On line/stave 8, the final two bars: could there be a bar missing?)
Maybe.
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?
These mark the ends of phrases. They don't usually have any rhythmic significance.
That will have to do for tonight! Monica
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
