Martyn Hodgson
Thu, 17 Jan 2008 00:54:44 -0800
The modern use of the 'baroque' guitar in period ensembles is as much due to the frequently misguided tastes of directors/conductors, who often crave the exotic thinking that without it audiences attention will wander, as to guitarists (and harpists etc) putting themselves forward. MH Lex Eisenhardt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: There is an interesting parallel to the rapid decline of alfabeto song after 1630. At about the same time the first instructions appeared for the use of the guitar in BC (Foscarini, Corbetta). Should we suppose that the practice of an all-battuto (alfabeto) accompaniment style has survived? There are (almost) no books with alfabeto from any other country than Italy, and the Italian alfabeto manuals from the second half of the 17th century are poor, rehashed versions of earlier editions, almost without exception. They were only printed in Rome and Venice, probably in small numbers, serving a local demand. Alfabeto (in print) clearly was past its prime. However, some players may have been able to realize an accompaniment, departing from the bass (and losing considerably in volume, while plucking part of the harmonies). Matteis (1680): 'The guitar was never so much in use & credit as it is at this day, & finding it improved to so great a perfection, it is my present design to make it company for other Instruments. Every body knows it to be an imperfect Instrument & yet finding upon experience how agreeable a part it bears in a consort I have composed severall Pieces both for ye practice & information of those that would make use of it with ye Harpsichord, Lute, Theorbo or Bass-Viol.' Campion (1716): '.one is not prejudiced against the guitar without reason. I acknowledge, along with everyone, that it is not as strong of harmony as the harpsichord or the theorbo. However, I believe that it is sufficient to accompany one voice.' They both did not include all-battuto accompaniments in their instructions, and the BC manuals from this time (Sanz, Grenerin, de Murcia) take the bass as the main reference. It seems that using the guitar for plain battuto had become quite much a matter of genre, kept for old exotic dances (ruggieros, ciacconas etc.) and a very specific (mainly archaic) song repertoire. I wonder if it did come to mind at all to add the strumming of a guitar to ensemble performance. Just like this was not usual in Church music (well, in Spain and South America of course they did...). There is a tantalizing lack of notated examples, eye-witness reports and iconography from the second half of the century, with regard to the role of the guitar in ensemble. Today it is often supposed that the guitar was added to ensembles, for rhythm and colour, with reference to unwritten traditions. What solid historical information is there to support this? Lex To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html --------------------------------- Sent from Yahoo! - a smarter inbox. --