Dear Tom, The thing to do, as you have already noticed, is to use your ears - in learning a new piece you need to explore the way the voices work for you and bring it out in your performance. We don't have Francesco's works in mensural notation except in modern editions - which are an editor's interpretation and therefore not an infallible guide to the composer's intentions. The nice thing about tablature is that we do know where to put our fingers - the only choice we have is which fingers to use where! Although there are cases where one might guess that a particular fingering might have been used for an expressive effect, that sort of approach is IMHO much more a feature of modern classical guitar playing than it is of lute playing. The exciting thing about this is that every players interpretation of a piece can be different - and equally valid. So making the move from notation to tablature is not just changing one kind of diagram for another, it's a change of musical culture that invites you into a greater creative involvement with the music. It's this point that those musicians who disparage the use of tablature fail to understand.
Best wishes, Denys ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2004 5:53 PM Subject: Imitations > Hi all, > > I'm playing some pieces by Francesco da Milano, which are technically not too > demanding. The problem I find is in recognising all the imitations in the > various voices. In staff notation these would be obvious, but I find myself > initially going plink-plonk-plonk-plink till my ear tells me there's actually > something going on in there that needs to be brought out. > > Clearly this affects the fingering, so it would be nice to know if there is a > more 'sure-fire' way of seeing the counterpoint before I've played the music > through a few times just to get the notes. Coming from staff notation, I'm > used to seeing the whole picture at one go, and find it a bit disconcerting to > realise after about half an hour that's I've not actually been playing what Mr > da Milano intended. Are there any tricks, things to look for, that can save me > from going down the wrong road, and enable me to learn the correct fingering > as I learn the piece, which would come from being able to see straight away > what's going on? All suggestions gratefully received. Cheers > > Tom Beck > > -- >
