-----Original Message----- From: Rob MacKillop [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 08 April 2005 15:42 To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' Subject: RE: Re: Geminiani
Doc is probably out saying farewell to Il Papa... It seems to me that Doc was talking about the style of music, so why Stuart went off on a rant about tablature is beyond me. Doc was saying that the tab makes it 'stand out', i.e. he wasn't saying that the tab made it, in Stuarts words, 'typical guittar music'. BTW, Stuart, I for one can read the tab without writing it out again, and I suspect most people who have read modern guitar tab can do exactly that. I agree that Geminiani stretched the guittar repertoire into different musical areas, in fact he tells us so: '(I) have endeavour'd to improve it by adding more Harmony and Modulation to the usual manner of performing on it'. But Doc can argue his own case... Rob -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 08 April 2005 11:27 To: doc rossi Cc: [email protected] Subject: Re: Re: Geminiani > 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
