Richard Yates writes

> I transcribed a few Kapsberger pieces for the GFA Soundboard a few years
> ago. Part of that article said: "Among Kapsberger's works, the toccatas
> show the boldest ventures into the new era. The one I have chosen, from the
> Libro Primo d'intavolatura di Chitarone (Venice, 1604), is actually one of
> his more conservative. Unlike most of his others, it is in the form of a
> series of arpeggios, much like the lute preludes of S.L. Weiss.

This might have made it conservative had it been written a century later,
but it seems pretty avant-garde for 1604.

> In the
> original manuscript the arpeggiation pattern is not indicated and so this is
> left to the performer to invent.

As I noted in another post that I haven't seen on the list yet, Kapsberger
gave examples of how to arpeggiate in the introductory part of the book, so
the arpeggiation is not left to the performer.

> The two recordings that I have heard each
> use a different pattern. Paul O'Dette plays a simple pima-pima-pima-pima for
> each chord while Hopkinson Smith uses the more complex pimi-aimi-paim-paim.

I take it you meant that O'Dette used a pattern that would translate to pima
in your guitar transcription.  It is decidedly not what Paul actually did
with his fingers. I haven't heard Smith's recording.

HP


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