Sorry about chopping up and shuffling around pieces of the various replies here. I'm trying to keep this post somewhat organised by (sub)topic.
Rob MacKillop wrote: > I'll look at it when I have more time, Frank. But just a follow-up on > something you mentioned earlier: there are actually 96 airs for the > seasons. Wow! But these airs are very commercial (in a positive way) and I guess it's not that surprising Oswald (who apparently had his main income from his independent music publishing at that time) would try to make the most out of it. Rob MacKillop wrote: > And the 12 Divertimentis are for fingerstyle playing, not plectrum. > The 18 Divertimentis for two guitars or mandelins are for plectrum. and Brad McEwen wrote: > I'm sure that Rob will respond, but..Oswalds's Twelve Divertinmenti > are certainly NOT for plectrum playing. OK. My assumption was only based on a very quick look at the first pages of the score. ------- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > I'd agree with others that this may not be very authentic. I don't > think I've ever seen guittar music in G minor. .. > I don't think that the guittar was thought of as a continuo instrument > - but more like a melody instrument with double and treble stopping > and even some chords. and Rob MacKillop wrote: > 1) I would say it doesn't look very authentic - but don't let that > stop you from doing it that way if you want to. Take a look at > Geminiani's Art of playing the Guitar or Citra - published by Bremner > in Edinburgh, 1760. It has a violin part, a guittar part and a basso > continuo part - pretty close to what you have, except the guittar > doesn't play continuo. It plays the solo line, which the violin > doubles. The guittar part adds extra notes to fill out the sound, but > it is mainly playing the top part. You could have the guittar playing > the optional second violin part. That would be quite nice. As for the G minor key Stuart mentioned, don't blame me, blame Oswald! ;-) (Wasn't there an earlier thread here where unusual keys on the guittar were discussed btw?) I really was very tempted to give the guittar a more medodlic function at first. Not only is it more typical for the guittar, it also fits well with the role the lute had in the Elizabethan mixed consort and the various cittern type instruments have in a modern trad band. The problem is that that would require yet another instrument to do the chords. The Airs for the Seasons really need a continuo instrument and I was trying to see if the guittar could fill that role. That requires a more chordal aproach than what we find in more solistic guittar music. I haven't heard of any reference to the guittar being used for contiuno playing either, but surely it must have been from time to time? David Kilpatrick wrote: > What you've written here is not unlike my own regular approach to > accompanying Scottish tunes on modern guitar, .. Actually when it comes to authenticity as a "generic continuo part" (ignoring the choice of instrument for the moment) I'm more worried about it being too old-fashioned than too modern. I tried to base my realisation on Matteis' style, although I have to admit I feel far more confident with playing continuo on a lute where I really can keep the bass line going, and of course I was in a bit of a hurry so I may have made a few serious blunders. But Matteis published his "False consonaces" in 1682 73 years before the Airs. It gavce me this vision of 24th century musicians trying to learn how to play Smoke on the water in the authentic Freddie Green style. ;-) I'd really have loved to see a copy of Fran�ois Campion's continuo school. Like Matteis he wrote it for the baroque guitar rather than the guittar, but he's much closer to Oswald in time and probably in style. David Kilpatrick wrote: > My immediate thought is that genuine 18th c English guittar pieces > seem to major on adjacent courses (double-stop type chords) and throw > in bass notes singly and rarely - while your realisation uses a lot of > chords on say courses 6-4-2 in unison calling for a PIM pinch not > often seen in other guittar music and better suited to the flat > fretboard and bridge of a normal (baroque etc) guitar. .. Yes, when you mention it I can clearly see this style of chord voicing would suit a guitar or a lute better than a guittar. I have to do something about that. David Kilpatrick wrote: .. > To many shifts around for me. I like to > keep things anchored and just sort of roll around the frets on > changing pivotal fingertips to find the notes! That's definitely a mistake I have to correct. The golden rule of continuo playing is: "Unless you are the reincarnation of Georg Friedrich H�ndel, keep it as simple as possible." I guess I broke that rule - or at least I bent it quite a bit. Frank Nordberg http://www.musicaviva.com http://www.tablatvre.com To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
