Dear Stuart, In response to your questions below: Hiroyuki Minamino is of course one of the most distinguished scholars in the Renaissance lute field. I'm not sure that Jon Banks would think of himself as working in quite the same area. He has impressive academic credentials including a DPhil from Oxford in 15th century Italian music and a book on the motet in Northern Italy in print. But he is a harp player rather than a lutenist, and as I understand it has developed an interest in the lute's role in late medieval music from his study of that repertoire.
In his introduction to the forthcoming Lute Society edition Jon suggests that the music may have originally been performed on a true consort of 5 course lutes tuned a fourth apart, but notes that in practice other configurations are possible and that the music will work on three lutes of the same pitch. Using staff notation for the music maintains this flexibility whereas transferring it into tablature would necessitate a fixed pitch relationship between the lutes. For my own part, I feel that this is a very exciting opportunity to expand the lute's early repertoire. There is much fine music from this period that will remain outside of the lute's domain if players restrict themselves to only those sources that have survived in tablature. I have for several years developed a lot of my own repertoire of lute songs and intabulations from choral sources and find that a very enjoyable and creative way of working. In my early days of lute playing there seemed to be an unwritten law that one played lute music from the surviving tablatures, but these days I think of myself as player of Renaissance music on the lute. The text / commentary of "Early lute tablatures in facsimile" is in German and English in parallel columns throughout the book - a very civilised arrangement. It would have been a great loss to the English speaking lute fraternity if the scholarship contained in it had not been readily accessible. Best wishes, Denys ----- Original Message ----- From: "Stuart Walsh" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Denys Stephens" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, October 09, 2005 10:17 AM Subject: [LUTE] Re: Jon Banks and lute ensembles > Denys Stephens wrote: > > >Dear Stuart, > >I took on the role of being general editor of the > >Lute Society's music editions earlier this year > >and I have on my desk at the moment the > >proof copy of Jon Banks "Music for Lute Consort > >circa 1500. Volume 1." If all goes according to > >plan it will be published and available from the > >Lute Society next month. It contains an introduction, > >performance notes and 17 pieces edited and arranged > >in staff notation for lute trio. Jon makes the point in > >his performance notes that many of the pieces may > >also be suitable for adaptation as lute duets or solos. > > > >I understand from Jon that he has written a book on > >this repertory which I imagine will expand on the ideas > >presented in his Lute Society article. The book is currently > >with his publisher and is likely to be available next year. > > > >Jon is not alone in his view that lutenists used mensural > >notation in the fifteenth century - Crawford Young writes > >in his introduction to his spectacularly fine facsimile of the > >Pesaro Manuscript: > > > >"The main reasons, then, for the apparent gap between > >what we know of lute practice and corresponding sources > >of lute repertory before the end of the fifteenth century > >are two: first, professional lute players of the fifteenth > >century seemingly did not need anything more than > >mensural notation and so-called "keyboard tablature" > >notation to record and disseminate their arrangements, and > >second, tablature arrived later because it was developed as a > >relatively simple system of notation for those who had little > >or no experience with mensural or keyboard notation, i.e., with > >the rise in the last decades of the fifteenth century of a broad > >market of amateur lutenists." > > > >The full title of the book containing the Pesaro ms facsimile > >is "Fruhe lautentabulaturen im faksimile / Early lute tablatures > >in facsimile" - it's published by Amadeus Verlag and contains > >reproductions of several early lute sources. It's not the kind of > >book that provides instant repertoire as much of the music > >requires an element of reconstruction, but for anyone who has an > >interest in seeing some of the earliest lute music in its original > >form it's an absolute treasure. > > > >I hope this is helpful, > > > >Best wishes, > > > >Denys > > > > > > > Very interesting. I look forward to the Lute Society's publication. Is > it for 'equal' lutes or a consort?(You resisted the temptation to put it > in tablature?) > > Is the Crawford Young book written in German or English? > > In the same edition of 'Lute News' for September 2000 (No55) is an > article by Hiroyuki Minamino - who seems to be in the same territory, > and been at it longer? > > Thanks. > > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > > > > -- > Internal Virus Database is out-of-date. > Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. > Version: 7.0.344 / Virus Database: 267.11.8/114 - Release Date: 28/09/2005 > > -- Internal Virus Database is out-of-date. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.344 / Virus Database: 267.11.8/114 - Release Date: 28/09/2005
