Dear Craig, In his famous edition of Capirola Otto Gombosi writes: "The writer of a ricercar wants to "look up again" something he had before. This something obviously is the beginning of some musical piece played before. The recercar is played after a composition - also before a composition, in which case it could be prefaces with a "tastar de corde," - and its function is to serve as a kind of ritornelle, to lead back to the beginning of the second, etc. stanza. Thus, Dalza ends his second Calata spagnola (fol.48v) with a Recercar detto coda. What the player is "looking for" is the beginning of his dance or frottola or what have you."
Thus, in early sources like the Spinacino prints and the Capirola Ms, certain ricercars are linked to particular pieces and are clearly intended to be played together. In both of his song books Bossinensis takes care to indicate which of his ricercars are appropriate to be used with which song - the linking factor is usually the mode of the pieces. It's common in modern editions of lute music to present pieces like the Bossinensis ricercars as stand alone pieces, and whilst it's not entirely incorrect to to do this, it makes players lose site of their original function. What really confuses the issue is that almost from the start lute players clearly began to enjoy playing these abstract pieces as a musical form in their own right. So whilst some early ricercars are not much more than a little flourish on the lute meant to start a song, others are finely wrought compositions that do stand on their own. Some of Spinacino's ricercars fall into this category and nearly all of those by Capirola and Marco Dall'Aquila. It's clear that by Francesco's time a ricercar could be an entirely free standing composition. There was, of couse, no fixed spelling of the word "ricercar" in those early sources and it's quite common for editors to follow the spelling in the source. The term continued to be used sporadically into the 17th century, and some musical dictionaries will follow this later usage, causing further confusion for the unwary! Best wishes, Denys ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, July 31, 2004 3:20 PM Subject: Pronunciation and meaning > Greetings Scholars, > > I have for some time been puzzling over the pronunciation of a word that is > common to our music. Finally I dug out my copy of Webster's New World > Italian Dictionary and looked up the word ricercare. Now I have seen this > word spelled riceracr and ricercare, but the dictionary only had ricercare, > so I am guessing that the different spellings are simply variations of the > same word. At any rate I was rewarded with a phonetic breakdown of the word > which rendered it's correct pronunciation for me. However, in looking up > the word another puzzle presented itself, and that is what the word means. > The dictionary's definition runs thus; > > ricercare [rit(a symbol representing sh as in sheep)er'kare] transitive > verb (onore, gloria) to seek; (successo, piacere) to pursue; (motivi, > cause) to look for, try to determine; e ricercato dalla polizia he's wanted > by the police. (NB: Naturally I don't believe either the music or the > composer is wanted by the police, though with some itinerate musicians one > can never tell.) > > What does this word mean with respect to the music of the lute? How do I > interpret this word when interpreting the music as I play it? I think this > is important, but I'm at a loss as to how to define it in terms of the > music. I've been going through Dick Hoban's booklet of 16 ricercars from > the Siena Lute Manuscript (which is what prompted me to finally look up the > pronunciation) and I think having a better understanding of the word itself > in terms of the music will help me in understanding how to better interpret > that music. I've got the companion CD to this book, but I have not yet been > able to hear any sense of seeking or pursuit in the pieces played. Maybe > I'm missing something essential. > > As always, your greater experience and wisdom is appreciated. > > Regards, > Craig > > > >
