Dear Thomas, Elias & all, I think Thomas is right that the emergence of continuo accompanied lute song in the later 16c is much better documented than what happened earlier. But that is not to say that there was no singing to the lute in the early 16th century! My belief is that the extant examples of the choral music adapted for voice & lute (primarily Bossinensis, Attaignant & Verdelot) are the printed survivors of what must have been a much broader field. The frottola lute parts in the Thibault ms, for example, show that the Bossinensis books represent a performance tradition and not just an isolated instance of one person's transcriptions. Likewise, the Attaignant settings of chansons by Claudin de Sermisy suggest a publisher's response to a perceived demand amongst his music buying contemporaries. Let's not forget, publishers printed books in those days to make money!
Taking my cue from all this I have made about 30 transcriptions so far of early to mid sixteenth century songs for voice & lute, including some favourites by Josquin & Claudin for which no early settings survive to my knowledge. I have recently finished recording an album of some of these settings with my co-performer & singer Jenny Hill. I absolutely agree with Sean and Stewart that it's best to make your own transcriptions of this kind of music, and I believe that there is great scope for development of new repertoire in this field, working creatively within Renaissance traditions as musicians did then. I have thought, though, of publishing some of my settings, preferably as low cost Lute Society edition. If there are others like Elias who might want this type of music I would pursue the idea further. Best wishes, Denys ----- Original Message ----- From: "Thomas Schall" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Elias Fuchs" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: "Lautenliste" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, June 15, 2004 8:45 PM Subject: Re: Bottegari > Dear Elias, > > I think one problem of italian vocal music is that just as lute songs > became popular elsewhere the time of continuo began and this happend in > italy! In his doctoral thesis Ingo Negwer even suggests the french Air > de Cour would be settings of original continuo music (Correct me if I'm > wrong). > > I would know a lot of german sources for vocal music from the 1580's > (Adriansen, Denss) which are still not well explored. The often are > based on italian madrigals - take a look at them! > > Best wishes > Thomas > > Am Die, 2004-06-15 um 01.46 schrieb Elias Fuchs: > > > > > Thank you all for answering, Nancy, Arto, Sean Smith, Stewart, RT, and > > others.... The Verdelot book I have since long, it's really great music, but > > except that one, there is no other Italian music for voice and lute, except > > the Bottegari which I'll try to get plus the Bossinensis book too, that I > > can get from Minkoff you said. To transcribe madrigals myself....of course > > that would be the best way, no objections - but who does that for me??????? > > Don't laugh, don't even try to educate me, I just can't do it! > > I wonder why there is such a lot of spanish and even some french sources for > > voice and lute, but only 2 Italian. Anyway, if someone can tell me some > > other Italian voice-lute-books - also new editions in french tablature, like > > new transcriptions of madrigals and/or franco-flamish music - I would be > > happy about any infos. > > If somebody wants so send me his own personal madrigal-transcriptions, > > handwritten or else, I pay for it in advance, send me copies. Just write to > > my private address how much you want for your time, mail expenses, etc.... > > This is no joke, and not much of a problem or ridiculous or something, I > > hope. Because I'm not a publisher who wants to rip someone off, but just a > > very kind player of the lute, glad to hear from you on this. But no joking, > > maybe it's really unjust, somebody does all the studies and labour to do all > > the work (if it's hopefully well done), and then he should get payed off for > > it with 50 or 100 $, so maybe it's too personal, and if somebody wants to > > critizise me for that attitude, I could understand that viewpoint too. > > > > best wishes, > > > > Elias > > > > > > > > > > -- > Thomas Schall > Niederhofheimer Weg 3 > D-65843 Sulzbach > 06196/74519 > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > www.lautenist.de / www.tslaute.de/weiss > > -- >
