On 24 May 2010 at 15:48, John Howell wrote: > At 11:03 AM -0400 5/24/10, David W. Fenton wrote: > >My point is that it's not quite as cut-and-dried in terms of the > >keyboard player having the freedom to follow a wayward singer > >indulging in rubato -- there's actually a much more complex musical > >process going on where the continuo players and the singer play off > >each other (timing of dramatic pauses and between phrases is > >particularly important and almost entirely the responsibility of the > >continuo players, for example). > > An excellent point, indeed! Opera Roanoke did a rather good > production of Monteverdi's "L'Orfeo" some years ago. (And yes, I > realize that Monteverdi is hardly Bach, let alone Mozart!) On our > side of the pit we had 3 lutes, a harpist, a harpsichordist, a > recorder player, and myself playing viol and recorder, but the recits > were led VERY competently by an imported theorbist. He worked with > the singers, and I followed him like a hawk!
I *so* wish we could find a lutenist/theorbist! It would sound so grand with our consort! In any event, in regard to "watching," I only recently discovered that the way to follow your continuo viol is to watch the tip of the bow -- it's the most incredibly expressive and accurate representation of what the player is doing. No doubt you already knew that, but it was a revelation for me. -- David W. Fenton http://dfenton.com David Fenton Associates http://dfenton.com/DFA/ _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
