Dear Martin,
Thanks for two very interesting mailings - I very much
agree with what you say in both of them. There is plenty of
evidence from the sixteenth century to lend further support to
your point of view.
Dinko Fabris writes in relation to the rules from the Capirola Lute book:
"Another startling practice hinted at is the use of the thumb to stop the
sixth course, although his advice is not to use it often: 'et manco che
adoperi el deo groso, e piu bel al veder sul manego' (to paraphrase: the
neck of the lute is prettier the less you use the thumb). (2) The use of
this technique in the first half of the sixteenth century, which may seem
strange to us now but has a parallel in folk and rock guitar technique, is
corroborated by at least one authoratitive theoretical treatise which will
be discussed shortly, that of Silvestro Ganassi."
The quote from Ganassi which follows shortly after the above passage is from
his rules for left hand fingering:
"Ganassi also advocates 'the thumb to be that which helps the hand, by
keeping it steady, to serve the fingers' ('il dedo police per essere quello
che aiuta essa mano in servigio delle deda che รจ il tenirla ferma'), and
reiterates Capirola's unusual advice that 'sometimes one can use it to play
the contrabass string on any fret' ('alla volte el si puo accomodarsi su la
corde contrabassa su ogni tasto').
Coincidentally, the book that these quotes are taken from (Performance on
Lute, Guitar and Vihuela, (CUP, Cambridge, 1997)) sports a rather fine
sketch
by Raphael on the front cover of a lutenist whose left hand is wrapped
completely around the neck of his instrument (it's early 16c, so it may
be a 5 course lute). Giorgio Vasari writes in his life of Raphael: "In fact,
whereas pictures by others may be called simply pictures, those painted
by Raphael are truth itself: for in his figures the flesh seems to be
moving, they breathe, their pulses beat, and they are utterly true to life."
(from the "Lives of the Artists" translated by George Bull).
This concept of truth to life is fundemental to Renaissance art -
Shakespeare has Hamlet speaking of "holding the mirror up to nature."
The idea that a painter's model would simply pick up a lute,
hold it anyhow, and the artist would draw it, flies in the face of what is
known about the practice of 16c artists. And in their work, where we find
portrayals of lute players, we find this left hand position where the thumb
wraps around the neck over and over again: the famous supposed
portrait of Francesco da Milano by Marco Campi (see the cover of Paul
O'Dette's "Dolcissima et Amorosa") or the young lady playing the lute by
Bartolomeo Veneto (see the cover of the paperback edition of Diana Poulton's
Complete Works of John Dowland). To name but two.
The evidence is overwhelming that this left hand position was used
extensively by lute players in the sixteenth century. It's up to us what
we make of it - for anyone interested in 6 course lute technique that has
the right instrument, it's well worth experimenting with.
Best wishes,
Denys
----- Original Message -----
From: "Martin Eastwell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Vance Wood" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: "lute list" <[email protected]>; "Howard Posner"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, May 05, 2006 10:15 PM
Subject: [LUTE] Re: lute straps
> Vance-
> I wonder if you have seriously experimented with playing this this
> way? If you can stand big downloads, I will happily turn an old
> recording of me playing F Da Milano (Ness 33) with just such a
> technique, into an MP3, and send it to you (or anyone who is
> interested)! If you know the woodcut of a lutenist from Marcolini's
> Intabolatura di liuto (Venice 1536), then that will give a fair idea
> of the way I play a 6 course lute. Doug Alton Smith actually suggests
> that the player may be Francesco....! The main difference is that,
> being tall, I cross my left leg over my right ,close to my left
> ankle, and this raises the lute to a position higher up my chest,
> like the player in the woodcut.
> Why do I bother? Well, I feel there is an inherent conflict between
> the standard LH technique taught to lutenists today(which is
> basically the same as modern classical guitar technique), and the low
> neck angle needed for historical thumb under RH technique. I don't
> for a minute think that everyone should follow my example, and I
> believe, as I said, that it is not suitable for later repertories or
> for lutes with more than 6 courses-the wider neck makes it
> impractical. I do find it helps in several important respects.
> 1.The very narrow necks of surviving 6 course lutes are usually
> widened by modern makers of replicas. Mine is not, and when playing
> with the neck "cradled", I find that the fact that the left hand lies
> against the neck, results in the left hand fingers falling on the
> strings either perpendicular to the fingerboard, or beyond
> perpedicular. This lifts the pad of my (quite broad) fingertips away
> from strings they might otherwise foul, while the fingernails act as
> a "fence" to prevent the pad of the finger spreading out on the other
> side.
> 2. I find that when shifting positions, I don't need to use guide
> fingers so much, as the light contact of the hand on the neck serves
> as a guide instead. A similar effect is apparent with rapid and
> complex chord changes-it is easy to move all the fingers at once,
> rather than stabilising my hand with finger contact.
> 3. I have a long upper body, and if I try to play with a low neck
> angle, standard modern LH technique makes my left shoulder drop,
> causing tension and back pain. This problem disappears with the
> thumb wrapped round the neck.
>
> I should make it clear that while I can happily play simple music
> standing up without a strap, I would alway sit down for more complex
> music. It is also worth mentioning that the thumb over the neck
> technique was highly developed by C19th guitar virtuosi such as
> Giuliani, who wrote many passages that are almost unplayable without
> fingering the 6th string with the thumb (often clearly indicated in
> the notation). Fernando Sor argued against this in his tutor-I'm sure
> there were similar arguments in the C16th!
>
> Let me know if you'd like that MP3!
>
> Best wishes
>
> Martin
>
>
>
> On 4 May 2006, at 22:21:46, Vance Wood wrote:
>
> > I believe that left hand cradling does three things, two of them
> > bad. One
> > it obviously holds the neck of the Lute steady which is better than
> > having
> > it flop around all over the place because you have not found a way
> > to secure
> > it any other way. Two: it is the worst possible habit to get into
> > that will
> > affect your playing for years to come even if you find a way to
> > secure the
> > instrument without cradling it. Try playing some F DaMilano's
> > Fantasies with
> > this hand position. It may not be impossible but playing them well
> > and
> > executing the voicing cleanly is. This technique makes you stumble
> > through
> > passages where there are a lot of shifts up and down the neck, even
> > if it is
> > only one fret. Three: It forces the left hand to multitask and
> > as such is
> > a probable cause of a lot of physical problems down the road.
>
>
> --
>
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>
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