Nelson, Jocelyn
Sun, 03 Jan 2010 06:17:59 -0800
Hi Stuart,
Thanks for posting this performance; your effort with this challenging
music sounds good.
I remember a conversation with Pat O'Brien on the passacalle where he
suggested that the term is more analogous to our (at least in US
English) "around the block" as in a circuit, or loop. He didn't claim
that was the literal translation, but this would be his idea of the
connotation.
I didn't analyze this harmonically, but it does sound like a repeating
loop to me, albeit with some variation and modulation.
I also noticed that the passage you mentioned where your guitar runs
out of tone is in the spot Monica says needed some "recomposing" in her
notes.
Monica, beautiful edition!
Best,
Jocelyn
___________________________________________________________________
From: Stuart Walsh <[1]s.wa...@ntlworld.com>
Date: Sun, 3 Jan 2010 06:02:35 -0500
To: Vihuelalist <[2]vihu...@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Subject: [VIHUELA] Foscarini Passacaglio
On the ning site Monica wrote: 'Passacalles literally means "pass
through the streets".' Interesting. And so you could be passing through
the streets purposefully or perhaps just meandering about.At the
beginning of his book (his collected works, as it were) Foscarini gives
the 'Passacalli sopra tutti le lettere' which seem to be just four bars
with four chords (not starting on first beat of bar). And, more or
less,
that's how most passacalles I've ever seen are structured: a four bar
scheme endlessly repeated. (Some in the Gallot MS don't always fit,
though)
But Foscarini's own examples of the passacalles don't fit this at all.
They really do seem to just meander about, always hinting at a typical
passaccalles but never quite being it. Monica has had a go at an edited
reconstruction of one in E minor. *[3]http://tinyurl.com/y8mvxfd
(page
17) -Passacaglio Variato sopra l'+*
//
There is no (easily discernible) repeated four bar structure and no
(easily discernible) direction to the music. And it's in two parts!
After 57 bars the first part ends and second part sort of carries on in
more or less the same way for another 64 bars. And it's as if Foscarini
really liked the sound and feel of certain chord changes - especially E
minor at second position to B minor with a g in the melody on top.
I've had a go at the first part. Technically it is not difficult piece
but I always manage to make a pig's ear of one bit or another and my
guitar runs out of tone in bars 16-19; it's like squeezing an orange
with no juice left. But I suspect a good player could make something of
the piece and the Part 2 would go yet deeper into the strange little
world. Maybe the use of repicco and trillo would spice it up a bit?
[4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XiJS0GVT5A
Stuart
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References
1. file://localhost/net/people/lute-arc/s.wa...@ntlworld.com
2. file://localhost/net/people/lute-arc/vihuela@cs.dartmouth.edu
3. http://tinyurl.com/y8mvxfd
4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XiJS0GVT5A
5. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html