> I think especially for open air performance the plain gut basses of the five > course guitar are not very useful. The 'musica ruidosa' that Sanz speaks of > could refer to another (indoor?) situation. 'el que quiere taner guitarra > para hazer musica ruidosa, o accompagnarse el baxo con alguno tono, o > sonada, es mejor con bordones la guitarra, que sin ellos. > It seems that he speaks of basso continuo (and, indeed , of 'noisy music'). > In his time, in Spain, every use of strumming may have been seen as 'noisy'.
I don't think the location has anything to do with it. Sanz is actually referring to two different sets of circumstances. In Spain - and the New World - the guitar was used as an accompanying instrument for villancicos performed on religious festivals both in church and out of doors and in the theatre which was out of doors - that is arranged around a courtyard - but with a covered stage and boxes for the elite. > As you know Sanz, Marin and Guerau did hardly use this technique. It could > be understood as a way to say that bourdons are useful for strumming in the > old-fashioned or popular style. Sanz does combine strumming with puntedo a lot more than you would think. The point about Marin is that the guitar accompaniment is someone's (not necessarily Marin's realization of the bass line. The songs were not specifically composed for voice and guitar. Most of them survive in other (earlier) sources as songs with an unfigured bass. We don't know to what extent a player would have elaborated or varied the accompaniment. This is probably true of a lot of music in Spanish music - it is the basis for improvised performance - which is why it appears rather simple. (I have been having a discussion with someone in Spain about this who is not very happy about the use of the term "Spanish style" in connection with the above. You can't please all of the people all of the time) > My point (rather speculative) was that the origins of the re-entrant tuning > may have come from outdoor playing, possibly a century or more before Sanz. > I have the impression that certain frequencies (middle-higher) of early > plucked instruments reach further outdoors than lower ones. Hence the > (respectful) ukelele comparison. I do think it has more to do with playing with a plectrum. Playing the cittern was quite a defining moment for me. A lot of things which didn't seem logical before suddenly made good sense. I have no experience of the ukelele. M > > L. > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
