Hmmm, The Turpyn book and a few modern and baroque songs only? If so, the solo repertoire seems very biased towards sopranos, altos and female voices. Surely there must have been some technique for setting the hundreds of motets, chansons and madrigals prior to ~1590 for tenor or bass to accompany the lute. And most secular songs were from the male point of view ;^)
I notice that Adriaenssen includes both the cantus and bass to accompany(?) his solos and it is thought from the evidence in the Bottegari that he (Bottegari) was a bass. In the Attaignant, Valderabano and Phalese books, however, only the cantus is given. In the latter, some lute parts are transposed up a 4th from the originals vocal prints and lute solos. Perhaps this is a hint to use a bass lute? Somehow it seems to me the question for this rep would be: Would a male solo singer sing the tenor/bass line of the vocal score or the cantus down an octave? Or perhaps they transposed the whole song down by using a larger lute? Sean Smith At 12:21 PM 1/17/04, you wrote: >At 15:00 16-01-2004 -0500, James di Properzio wrote: > >Does anyone recommend--or have advice from experience with--lute songs > >that work well with bass or baritone voice? It doesn't seem that pieces > >written for high voice sound right when you pitch them down. > > > >If there is some obvious repertoire that I'm missing, let me know that, too! > > > >-James di Properzio > >"The Turpin Book of Lute Songs" (facs. from Boethius Press - somebody made >a modern ed., >I believe) has "Most men do love the Spanish wine" for bass voice and ren. >lute in G. > >Nice one! > >Arne.
