Perhaps it is a bit too early to call for a revised edition of Doug's lute
history. But with 58 pieces in the Paston lute books, and all the other pieces
that Rainer and I listed, quite a bit more than a half dozen works by Byrd have
come down to us in versions for lute. As I mentioned in my initial posting,
some are arrangements (by name composers such has Cutting and Holborne). And
who is to say whether the corantos, pavans and the famous volta, were not first
composed as lute pieces, and then keyboardized. As Byrd did with works by
Dowland, John Johnson and others. And these works deserve our attention. The
Byrd version of Johnson Delight Pavan and Galliard is the earliest one. And it
shows that the opening four notes in later versions are not the melody, but a
written out ornament. Another reason to favor the Spencer/Robinson/Berger
policy of including all relevant versions of a piece in a collected edition.
There are eight pieces by Couperin in a theorbo manuscript (Res 1106) at the
National Library in Paris. Many of the pieces in that huge manuscript are by de
Visee, but most of the Couperin pieces are unattributed. They are also not
mentioned in Ledbetter's book. And indeed much lute music in staff notation
remains uncharted territory. And there are some very large collections of it.
These are the titles in Ms Res 1106:
"Pastorelle de Couprin"
"Les Silvains de Mr Couprin [mis par de Visee]" (twice, once a fragment)
"Les bergeries rondeau"
"Les delices"
"Les bergeries"
"La Voluptueuze"
":Menuet de Mr. Couprin"
I wonder if Benjamin finds them in deVisee's style.
As for Couperin's transcriptions on grand staff, I was refering,not to his
original keyboard pieces in style luthee. Most of the clavecinistes made such
transcriptions (e.g., Couperin, Chambonnieres, and esp. D'Anglebert).
Paul has recent recordings of Byrd as well as that early one. See "Robin
Hood," for example. The fantasia mentioned by Mathias may be the one Stewart
published with his article on the Paston Lute Books. But there are three
others like it in the Paston books.
----- Original Message -----
From: Ed Durbrow
To: lute list
Sent: Friday, July 15, 2005 12:22 PM
Subject: Re: Byrd
At 10:43 AM -0600 7/11/05, Michael Thames wrote:
> I'm also courious about Couprion. Not being a historian , but able to
>add 2 and 2 together, one would have expected to see volumes of records made
>of Couperin's lute suites, what a find that would be! Yet as an avid
>collector of all baroque lute Cd's that I come across, I've yet to see any
>lute suites or peices by him. One might also have expected Paul Odette to
>record the complete "Lute Works of William Byrd".
>Here's a quote from DAS "History of the lute"
>
> William Byrd (1542-1623) the most highly regaurded composer of
>the English Renaissance, wrote no music for the lute. However,
>lutenists transcribed some of his keyboard and vocal pieces for
>thier instrument, about a half a dozen of these intabulations
>survive today
I believe Paul Odette's very first commercial release was dedicated
to Byrd and Dowland. He must have played all the extant Byrd tabs
then.
As for Couperin, DeVise arranged at least one piece for theorbo.
cheers,
--
Ed Durbrow
Saitama, Japan
http://www9.plala.or.jp/edurbrow/
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