Thank you, Stewart. That makes sense to me. The irony is that my singer took me up on my offer to put it back into the G lute's key because it's easier for her to read there ;^)
cheers, s At 03:57 PM 3/15/04, you wrote: >Dear Sean, > >The lute is most definitely in g' (not in a'), which concurs with >the pitch of the bass part. The song is in C minor. The voice part >is written a tone higher in D minor to make it easier for the singer >to read (not so many flats in the key signature), but ultimately the >singer has to sing in tune with the lute, whatever pitch the >instrument is at. > >So why isn't the bass part written in D minor too, since it may be >sung by a bass singer? After all it has words, so the aim is to sing >it. If it helps the cantus singer to have the music notated in D >minor (with fewer flats), why not do the same for the bass singer? > >The reason (as I understand it) is that the bass line may be played >on bass viol instead of being sung. The difficulties faced by a bass >viol player having to transpose down a tone to C minor are greater >than those of a singer faced with a key signature with lots of flats >for C minor, so the bass part is notated at the correct pitch for >the sake of the viol player. > >In fact this particular lute-song is extremely useful in showing >that the cantus part really is a transposing part, and you don't >need an extra lute. You use the same old lute in g' for all the >songs, and the singer transposes. So often all we have is the cantus >part and lute tablature, and no extra bass part. Since tablature has >no specific pitch, it is tempting to take the cantus part literally, >and accept the cantus pitch as the real pitch. Many eminent scholars >have done so, and no doubt will continue to do so. If you go along >that road, you would need a lute in a' for "To plead my faith". To >play other lute songs (where the voice part is really meant to >transpose) you would end up needing anything up to 12 different >sizes of lute, one for every conceivable pitch. > >The actual size of the lute, and hence the pitch in terms of >vibrations of strings per second, can be whatever you want it to >be - any string length you like, as long as you call it a lute in g' >for "To plead my faith". > >All the best, > >Stewart. > > > > >----- Original Message ----- >From: "lutesmith" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Sent: Monday, March 15, 2004 8:12 PM >Subject: Lutesong in A? > > > > > > I'm working on To plead my faith by Daniel Bathelar from The >Musical > > Banquet with a singer and a gambist and am wondering about the >intended > > tunings of the instruments. > > > > The cantus line gives one flat and starts on a D; the lute part >starts on a > > Cminor chord w/ the singer's first note given as 'd' on the 3rd >course. Ok, > > it appears to be for an A lute which is not uncommon. > > > > The bassus line (with lyrics) however clearly starts and ends on C >and has > > 3 flats in the signature as though for a G lute. > > > > We had a discussion lately on A lutes and songs but this doesn't >seem to > > line up w/ the conclusions there. Any ideas on the intentions >here? > > > > much appreciated, > > Sean Smith > > > >
