Andrew Hartig wrote: > Rob (et al): > > OMG - I can't believe that Rob's recordings aren't listed! For public > record, Rob HAS been a long time visitor and supporter. I KNOW those > recordings were listed -- I must have lost a page update when my laptop died. > > Anyhow, Rob's recordings are great [no, I'm not getting paid to state this > :-) ]. I will be sure that they get listed shortly. > > Rob brings up an interesting point: The cittern page started off as > "Renaissance," but there are obviously other interesting avenues to pursue. > What would others like to see the page include? I don't feel at all that > the Scottish cittern music of the 1650s is any more out of place than > Playford's publications of 1666. >
Having read my way through a huge volume about madrigals which dealt with what 'renaissance' really meant I'd say that Scottish 17th c cittern music probably isn't too 'late' for renaissance... because if anything it probably reflects much what folk had done with cittern-things before the renaissance, during the renaissance, and after the renaissance. The cittern outburst on Rob's 'Flowers of the Forest' could almost be a McGuinn 12-string or Nashville tuning rythm guitar - sort of proving that taste for bright, airy, rythmic sound is enduring and permanent. Byrd to Byrds, no big problem. But it could also equally well be a bit of the slightly over-the-top music which Mary Queen of Scots indulged in whenever she struck camp with her retinue a century earlier (her habit of holding personal rock concerts constantly got her into trouble). This Scottish music is often dismissed by academic classical musicians as being of no interest or merit, partly because they don't know Scottish music but mainly because it is not complex and rarely covers dozens of pages (or even bars...). To sound good it has to be played with a combination of precision and feeling, and with exactly the right kind of ornaments (and variations) which Rob manages to extrapolate from both baroque-classical technique and the continuing traditions of Scottish music. Most players have only been exposed to the former. We should all remember that in the centuries involved, most people who could afford a cittern were permanently drunk and probably didn't know what century it was anyway. Even lute players would probably have failed a breathalyser test 12 hours of the day. We have a lot to live up to. To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
