Yes I toyed a bit with the idea suggesting this, too. Bass voices are often printed in the book. I cannot really suggest this because we are living in the age of CDs and a certain culture which rather copies a performance than thinking about a musical piece by themselfes. So it would need boldness to perform music which will sound different to what we know from CDs and/or other performances.
Best wishes Thomas Am Die, 2004-01-20 um 01.38 schrieb Stewart McCoy: > Dear James, > > Finding suitable lute songs (not theorbo songs) for a bass singer is > difficult. The 16th century was the Age of Polyphony. > Sixteenth-century lute songs - by and large, generally speaking, and > a host of cavils and caveats - were for a high voice, where the lute > played the lowest voices. Unlike the theorbo, the lute is a treblish > instrument better suited to accompanying ladies' voices rather than > men's. > > We know that English lute songs were occasionally sung by a tenor > rather than a soprano, but I believe that when the cantus is sung an > octave lower by a tenor, it is wise to have a bass viol double the > bass line. The vocal cues in Robert Dowland's _A Musicall Banquet_ > (London, 1610) show that a tenor voice (rather than a soprano) is > intended, but there is always a bass voice or bass viol to offer > support, rather than leave the lute alone to do all the > accompanying. > > The answer, I think, for 16th-century music, is not to try to do the > impossible. Don't try to force the bass singer to be a latter-day > soprano or tenor soloist. Don't help his range with bass lutes > sounding down a 4th, and all that carry on. Do what Fuenllana does > (and possibly Terzi - it's too late at night for me to check now), > i.e. the bass singer simply sings the bass line. As long as the lute > covers all the parts, the music is complete in itself, and the > singer sings the part which naturally suits his voice. If there are > other singers who can join in, fine, but a lone bass singer is fine > too. After all, if the music is purely polyphonic, where each voice > is equally important, why favour the highest voice all the time? You > could as well favour the lowest instead. > > Best wishes, > > Stewart. > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "James di Properzio" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Friday, January 16, 2004 8:00 PM > Subject: Lute song with low male voice > > > > 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 > -- Thomas Schall Niederhofheimer Weg 3 D-65843 Sulzbach 06196/74519 [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.lautenist.de / www.tslaute.de/weiss --
