Thank you Ed and Stewart for the detailed analysis of fingering. It had escaped me about the octave stringing duplicating one of the voices in events 6 and 7 (which is probably what I'm hearing in O'Dette's recording). I've been using all four fingers in event 8 and hadn't considered Stewart's suggestion - right now it feels foreign, so I'll need to spend some more time with it. As to the similarity to the Dowland piece, could this be related to what O'Dette refers to in the liner notes? : ... Fantasia 83, which appears only in late sources, may not be his work. Its style is quite unusual for Il divino, particularly in the second half where the harmonies are more reminiscent of Lassus's famous chanson "Susanne un jour", than of Francesco's authenticated Fantasias. Also thanks to Wayne for debugging my email issue. Best, David Stewart McCoy wrote:
Thanks to Ed for reproducing David's message, which arrived as a blank message the other day, and I had no idea what it was about. The passage under discussion is a tricky one. However, the really interesting bit is what follows, because that will determine to some extent what you do. I agree with Ed's fingering: |\ |\ |\ |\ | |\ | |\ | | | | __1c___3e_______1c__1c_______1b__c______a___ _______2d___1c______2d_|__1c______________|_ _______4f___2d______4f_|__1c_____d________|_ _______________________|_________e___e____|_ _______________________|__3e_____f______e_|_ _______________________|__________________|_ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (= event numbers) You need a barré of some kind at the 2nd fret for events 3 and 4. It may as well stay there until event 7, which gives you the 4-3 suspension. You have to play e of event 6 with the 3rd finger, because you've just used the 4th finger at event 5. Anyway, you don't want any of that "4th-finger-on-the-low-courses" stuff, if you can possibly avoid it. That 3rd finger must sustain the bass from event 6 to 8. Now the fun begins. For event 7, the 1st finger lets go of the two notes at the 2nd fret, and reaches back for g'#. It doesn't matter that a couple of notes are lost, as long as the bass is held. The important thing is to stop that g# with the part of the finger nearest the palm of the hand, as if it were holding down a full barré, not just a single note. Now, what about the next chord? I suggest you look back at the extract above, and when you've thought what to do, scroll down for my solution. |\ |\ |\ |\ | |\ | |\ | | | | __1c___3e_______1c__1c_______1b__1c______a___ _______2d___1c______2d_|__1c_______________|_ _______4f___2d______4f_|__1c_____1d________|_ _______________________|_________2e__2e____|_ _______________________|__3e_____3f_____3e_|_ _______________________|___________________|_ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (= event numbers) Fortunately events 7 and 8 produce an interrupted cadence, involving an unexpected chord. This means that a slight gap before event 8 (for technical reasons) produces a dramatic effect (for musical reasons). The first finger has to cover two notes at different frets. It helps to turn the fingers so that they are more parallel to the strings, not at the usual 90 degrees. The 3rd finger can stay touching the 5th course as it slides from event 7 to 8, and on to 10. I have described the use of this chord before. It's a jolly useful fingering, so I guess it does no harm mentioning it again in this context. If you want to put off learning it for a rainy day, then use the 4th finger for notes on the 5th course (events 6 and 8). That's an option here, and may prove useful at the end of the piece, but you don't always have the luxury of a choice. -o-O-o- By the way, did you notice Dowland's "I'll cut the string", from No. 1 of his _First Booke of Songes_ (London, 1597), from bars 26 to 28? I think it's probably just a coincidence. |\ |\ | |\ | | _______a__a_____________________________a______ _c__c_______|_a__a__d__d_|______a__c__d____c_|_ _c__________|____c__f__f_|_d_______d____d____|_ ____________|_c__c_______|_e__e______________|_ _e________e_|_______c__c_|_f_______a_________|_ ____________|____________|___________________|_ Best wishes, Stewart. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ed Durbrow" [1]<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "David Cassetti" [2]<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; [3]<[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, August 30, 2005 12:19 PM Subject: *** SPAM *** [LUTE] Re: FDM-83 fingering question On Aug 29, 2005, at 1:16 PM, David Cassetti wrote: Hi all, I have a question about fingering a passage of Francesco da Milano's Fantasia 83 starting a measure 23: 1 2 2 ___c___e______c___c____________b____ |______d___c______d____|__c_________ |______f___d______f____|__c_________ |______________________|____________ |______________________|__e_________ |______________________|____________ The question is how to finger the end of measure 23 and measure 24? It depends on the size of your lute, the structure of your hands, how difficult you are willing to make it and your interpretation of the voices. In the end it comes down to what sounds best consistently. With difficult fingerings you have to ask yourself is it worth the trouble? Is this a fingering that I'll mess up under performance pressure? Is it something that I will be able to do easily after a lot of practice? Can I create the illusion of sustained voices with a simple fingering? If this piece were consistently in three voices or an intabulation of a three voice piece, you may not need to hold the c over the bar line. Just something to consider for the future. However, I see it is a Fantasia, so it probably would be better to hold that c over. Is the next note a C on the first course? That would add more credence to a separate voice on the first string. Okay, I'll take a quick stab at it. 1 2 2 __1c___3e______1c___1c____________1b____ |______2d___1c______2d____|__1c_________ |______4f___2d______4f____|__1c_________ |_________________________|____________ |_________________________|__3e_________ |_________________________|____________ I'd use a mini-bar across the top three courses from the second chord (the two note one) and hold it until you have to play the b on the first course. You can jump to the tip of the index or use the bottom of the finger around the joint to play that B, whatever is easier and sounds best. Yes, you have to let go of the C ciphers to play the B (G#) on the first course, but (now I'll speak in pitches as if on a G lute) the E in the bass would probably have an octave string and take up the slack of the E on the second course and the B on the 3rd course is the fifth of the "chord" and most expendable. The 4-3 suspension against the E bass is the important point, IMHO. But Stuart iz da man for fingering! See his recent posts. Some could finger the two 'C's with the middle finger. See Stuart's posts of several months ago. cheers, To get on or off this list see list information at [4]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html References 1. mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 2. mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 3. mailto:[email protected] 4. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
