>One thing is clear: if there are mensuration signs like C slash and >"3", the value of the crotchet and minim does not stay the same; it >is the pulse or beat which stays the same. This means that the pulse >(represented at the start of the song by a dotted minim) stays >constant, but after the C slash that pulse is notated in minims (not >semibreves, as I had suggested on 8th June).
Out of curiosity I just pulled this out and played through it. I don't hear it needing any change in pulse or notation. It seems to me that the song is in three until the last 2 measures which are duple. The C slash just signifies a time change IMHO. I also put on a CD of Campion by Steven Rickards and Dorothy Linell to check it and that is the way they perform it. But hey, if it works convincingly even slower, great. I just think that the slowness is built into it by the use of minims (and breves for the first and only time in the piece). You could also consider the first measure of the last line of the facsimile (third measure from end) as a kind of rhythmic modulation. It is the usual hemiola which, this time, sets up the minim as a new pulse. I think there are many cases in lute songs of mensuration signs that have no proportion. My two yen. cheers, -- Ed Durbrow Saitama, Japan http://www9.plala.or.jp/edurbrow/
