Dear Stewart and all, in Django, Stringwalker's successor, you have an option for the right relation in each file.
Regards, Stephan Am 8 Jun 2004 um 13:03 hat Stewart McCoy geschrieben: > Dear All, > > While examining the Scolar Press facsimile of Campion's "My sweetest > Lesbia" to be able to reply to Peter Nightingales' query, my mind > turned to note values. It is perfectly clear from this song, or indeed > any other song from this period, that the tablature rhythm sign > > |\ > | > | > > means one minim (or half-note). I find it immensely frustrating that > so many people either misunderstand or choose to ignore that > relationship. > > It was fashionable some years ago to halve note values when > transcribing lute tablature into staff notation. Diana Poulton and > Basil Lam do so in _The Collected Lute Music of John Dowland_ (London: > Faber Music Limited, 1974). In their edition that minim sign is > transcribed as a crotchet. I have the second edition (1978), which > includes a few extra pieces which came to light after the first > edition had been published. In this newer edition the editors no > longer adhere to their policy of halving note values. Nos 93-6 have > the correct transcription, nos 97-8 have halved note values, nos > 99-100 are correct, and nos 101-3 have halved note values. It is a > vertitable dog's dinner, at least as far as the rhythmic values are > concerned. > > Pascale Boquet, in her _Approche du Luth Renaissance_ (n.p.: n.p., > 1987) goes one stage worse. She confusingly regards that same minim > sign as a quaver (quarter note). > > Alain Veylit with Stringwalker and Francesco Tribioli with Fronimo > both get the relationship wrong in their computer software. I think > both their programmes are excellent in their different ways, and have > proved immensely useful, yet both make the mistake of automatically > halving note values. Stringwalker can create instant transcriptions of > tablature, but with the option of halved or quartered note values, not > the correct value. Fronimo can reproduce lute songs, but the singer's > notes have half the value of the notes for the lute. One is left with > the dilemma: do I give the wrong note values to the singer or to the > lute? It is confusing performing lute songs prepared with Fronimo, > since the lutenist reads his tablature with one set of note values, > while glancing up to the singer's part, which has a totally different > set of note values. > > -o-O-o- > > To show how fashions have changed over the years, here are a few > books where the value of tablature rhythm signs has been halved. > Note the date of publication: > > Thomas Morley, _The First Book of Consort Lessons_, ed. Sydney Beck > (New York: C. F. Peters Corporation for The New York Public Library, > 1959) > > _Jacobean Consort Music_, ed. Thurston Dart and William Coates, > Musica Britannica 9 (London: Stainer and Bell Ltd for the Royal > Musical Association, 2nd edn 1962) > > Anthony Holborne, _The Complete Works of Anthony Holborne_, ed. > Masakata Kanazawa, Harvard Publications in Music 1 (Cambridge, > Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1967) > > Contrast this with more recent editions, where the tablature rhythm > signs have been transcribed with their correct value. Again note the > date of publication: > > Alfonso Ferrabosco the Elder, _Opera Omnia_, Corpus Mensurabilis > Musicae 96, vol. 9 (Neuhausen-Stuttgart: H�nssler-Verlag for the > American Institute of Musicology, 1988) > > _Collected English Lutenist Partsongs: 1_, ed. David Greer, Musica > Britannica 53 (London: Stainer and Bell for the Musica Britannica > Trust established by the Royal Musical Association, 1987) > > Francis Cutting, _Collected Lute Music_, ed. Jan W. J. Burgers > (L�beck: Tree Edition, 2002) > > -o-O-o- > > Older editions tend to have triple time treated differently from > duple time. This results in a somewhat anomalous transcription in > _Chansons au Luth_ ed. Lionel de la Laurencie (Paris: Heugel, 1976), > p. 164. At the top of the page the music is in triple time, and the > tablature rhythm signs are transcribed with halved note values. Half > way down the page there is a change of meter to C with a slash, and > thereafter the rhythm signs are given their correct value. It's all > rather confusing really. > > I leave the final word to Thomas Robinson. On page B2v of _The > Schoole of Musicke (London, 1603) he writes: > > |\ > | > | A Minim. > > > Best wishes, > > Stewart McCoy. > > > >
