> Hi Stuart, > > I hate to disagree with you, but Geminiani's guittar music is a lot > like other guittar music, not just Marella. I suppose it depends on how > one looks at it. The only thing that makes it stand out (among the > "serious art music" written for guittar) is that it's in tablature. It > is, in general, very good music, with beautiful harmony. One of these > days I'll record it... > Doc,
I�m amazed that you think Geminiani�s music is just like typical guittar music. Firstly (as you say) �the tablature. It uses numbers (does any other plucked instrument tab in the 18th C use numbers?) And there are no rhythm signs over the tab � you have to look one stave up at the violin part. You can�t tell, from a stream of numbers in the tab, whether they are half notes, quarter notes etc. Can you really read this without writing out the music again � either as tab with rhythm signs or as ordinary music notation? It�s not just that Geminiani uses tab whereas other guittar composers don�t; he uses tab in a completely idiosyncratic way. Secondly Geminiani himself.. He was born in 1687 and studied with Corelli. His Concerti Grossi - (which are quite familiar today � I used to have a cassette of some of them � very nice too) are from the 1730s and sound wholly Baroque in sound. Although composers sometimes change their style in old age, it�s also likely that he continued to write in the familiar (to him) Baroque style. For example, on page 29 of the Art of Playing the Guitar, there�s a canon in E minor. Apart from a caccia by Merchi, I can�t think of any canons in the guittar literature � or anything further away from the new style of the second half of the 18th C. And thirdly, to me anyway, Geminiani�s music just looks and sounds different from typical guittar music (of Merchi, Noferi, Rush, Oswald, Thackray etc�even the fancier stuff of Straube is thoroughly guittar music). I have in front of me now some of Geminiani�s music and, just as an example, Noferi�s Sonata IV, also with a figured bass (c1765), but it could be any guittar music � and Noferi�s music seems to be from a different world, a different sensibility. (A pre-classical sensibility that many critics dismiss outright.) What other guittar music do you think is like Geminiani�s? (I wonder if you are going to argue that changes in musical style aren�t as clear-cut as later observers try to make out?) ----------------------------------------- Email sent from www.ntlworld.com virus-checked using McAfee(R) Software visit www.ntlworld.com/security for more information To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
