> To defend my fellow players: > We have a problem that researchers don't have. We sometimes are forced to > make decisions to be able to perform the music. And on top of that we have > to find ways to understand the music (and preferably appreciate it as well), > otherwise a good performance cannot be the result.
I fully appreciate that. I think players should follow their own star but not try to justify their choices with pseudo-accademic arguments. When I listen to music I do so for pleasure not in order to decide whether it is a historically accurate performance. I think it is necessary to make a very clear distinction between what the historical evidence suggests and what is the best way to play the music in our own time. I think we also need to acknowledge that there may have been a variety of ways of playing the music in the 17th century. that there is a relation between campanela's > and the re-entrant tuning. The fact that campanela's are there does probably > not tell us that bourdons are absent. I have been saying this is so throughout my career - which actually goes back some 50 years when there were even some people playing the baroque guitar! Like Cassandra, no-one ever listens to me! > Then point 3. That's me! (not the part about the 1st year harmony course... > we had to write serial compositions a la Anton Webern. I learned to > appreciate dissonants there). Interesting - but not terribly relevant. > As a matter of fact I did not invent the theory about leaving out notes with > Corbetta. You'll find it Richard Pinnell's thesis from 1976. He has mentioned it very briefly and he can at least recognise a misprint when he sees one - which apparently some guitarists cannot. The fact that he has put forward this theory doesn't mean that it should be accepted uncritically. I doubt whether he intended his suggestion to be taken to the lengths which you seem to think it should and I think you should be cautious about attributing elaborate theories to him which he might not share. Certainly some other guitarists wouldn't agree with him or see the dissonance as a problem. Quite a few people I know (including myself) like them. I think it is a > credible theory. I don't. I suspect also that Pinnell's knowledge of 17th century music as a whole was not very comprehensive and he was unaware how much dissonance was generally acceptable although he does actually mention this in one place. If we do not approach la Guitarre Royalle like this, we end > up with a huge number of very unusual (sometimes really ugly...) harmonies. Whether or not they are ugly is a matter of personal taste. I have been listening to a lot of Frescobaldi's keyboard recently and I think a lot of it is very ugly. If I were to suggest that the dissonance should be eliminated people would laugh at me - and quite right too. > The question is only how to work with it. Of course I am very much aware > that it is a serious crime to leave out notes from a piece of music. But if > these are just fingerings (notated for 'convenience' -as Pinnell remarks), > not meant to be played then who's a fool? He who plays them or he who leaves > them out? Neither - we can only make decisions based on the evidence available to us and our own musical instincts. If we turn out to be wrong - well at least we have acted in good faith. (Our number one atheist - when asked what he would do if after he died he discovered God really existed - simply says "Well then I shall just say that I was wrong". I am sure God will forgive him! Of course there is no way we will ever know whether we are wrong over Corbetta's music as we can't summon him up from the Deep where he is undoubtedly languishing. I don't think there is any logic in Pinnell's suggestion that notes on the 5th course are only there because the chord is played with a barre and therefore intended to be left out. Not only is it not convenient for the player in any way, but engraving the tablature is made neelessly complicated. In fact Corbetta puts dots on the line when courses are to be omitted and wavy lines under the tablature when a barre is to be used - fairly consistently, not only in chordal passages but also in melodic passages. In the first of Pinnell's examples the barre has already been established at the beginning of the bar and Corbetta has clearly indicated that the 5th course is to be omitted from the first 4 chords. There is no earthly reason why he should have included the 5th course in the chord at the cadence if it is not intended to be played. Let's leave it at that!! > Once I had chosen to work like this, I had to make decisions on every single > strummed chord (only the ones with a barre). On my Corbetta CD I did in fact > play quite many 6/4 chords. Good for you. I must have another listen to it and see how many I can spot! M > > > > The emphasis is on narrow interpretation. Included in my definition are > the > > following > > > > 1. Players who think that a high octave string should be used on the > 3rd > > course to eliminate all skips of a 7th in the melodic line. > > > > 2. Players who think that octave doubling in campanellas should be > > eliminated by selective plucking > > > > 3. Players who think all 6/4 chords should be eliminated simply because > > they were taught that they were unacceptable in their first year harmony > > course - in spite of the fact that > > > > a. they are clearly notated in the tablature > > b. the left hand fingering is even given for them in some sources > > (including Corbetta) > > > > 4. Players who think that the only dissonances allowed in the 17th > > century were chords of the 7th and 4-3 suspensions. > > > > 5. Players who invent their own rules of musical theory and try to make > > the music comply with them rather than studying the original sources to > try > > and understand what different composers were trying to achieve with the > > resources at their disposal. > > > > 6. Players who think that there is one big Rule Book in the Sky which > all > > composers adhere to religiously. > > > > I think most "scholars" are actually more broad minded and intellectually > > inquisitive than many people who play the baroque guitar. > > > > M > > > > > > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > > > > > > >
