Dear Stuart, Concerning the earliest tablature in the Pesaro manuscript:
> True - but there must be a point when you have to begin to suspect > something is awry. Perhaps not in the printed publications (but maybe > even there too > e.g. 'The lute's Apology' from much later) but e.g. in the Pesaro MS. > Maybe one is facing, not a free-flowing free-spirited composition, but > some random notes that were an exercise, a mistake or whatever. > > Stuart It's worth considering that no-one, at least as far as I am aware, has claimed that the tablature in this manuscript is of a musically high order. It's quite possible that it was copied by a relatively inexperienced player. Added to this, the method of indicating rhythm is unusual and difficult to interpret. We can't be sure that modern editions accurately represent what was originally intended - although I have a lot of respect for John Robinson's readings as he has a real talent for making sense of music like this. Pesaro commands a lot of interest because it's the oldest known significant collection of lute music that we have. It just is what it is, and the challenge we have is to make what sense of it we can. If you haven't heard it, it's well worth getting a copy of Andrea Damiani's CD 'J'Ay Pris Amours' which is mainly drawn from the Pesaro Ms. - I find it very convincing and enjoyable. Also, if you haven't read them, the essays included with Crawford Young's wonderful (but expensive!) 'Early Lute Tablatures in Facsimile' (Winterthur/Schwiez: Amadeus Verlag, 2003) - which includes a colour facsimile of Pesaro - are essential reading for this repertoire. As is Vladimir Ivanoff's An Invitation to the fifteenth-century plectrum lute: the Pesaro Manuscript in Coelho ed. Performance on Lute Guitar and Vihuela (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1997). Re: the point in your latest e-mail: > But take for example: Isaac's Benedictus which Jon Banks has used in > several places as an example (and number one, in the Lute Society > publication) - bar 34 in the lowest voice. The Bb lasts four bars. Even > at a brisk pace, a very brisk pace or an outright gallop, a single > plucked note isn't going to last four bars. So why write it? Banks is > claiming that this music is actually, specifically written for plucked > instruments. Why didn't Isaac put in a rest for a couple of bars or why > didn't he repeat the note - rather than let it hang there inaudibly. I think that's a very fair point and one that's worth thinking about. I have a copy of Jon's version of the piece, but not the original. I don't know how he arrived at the interpretation of those tied notes. Bear in mind that we don't have Isaac's autograph, and that Jon's score is assembled from separate voice parts. It's interesting to compare it with Spinacino's solo intabulation of the same piece - he includes the Bb twice in each bar, which is just as one would expect for the lute. The Thibault Ms. lute version, however, has the equivalent of one Bb at the position corresponding to the beginning of each bar for this passage (the Thibault version doesn't have rhythm signs or bar lines). If the piece were to be played by a lute consort at a fairly rapid tempo, playing that note at the beginning of each bar would work. It's arguable that repeating, or as has been said previously in this thread, decorating long notes would have been second nature to lutenists playing this kind of part. But strictly speaking, as Jon has written that part in his edition, that passage doesn't make sense as a lute part. But I think we have to allow Jon some fallibility. The evidence he has uncovered about the ways in which the lute may have been used in the late 15th / early 16th century has opened up new ways (for us) to look at the polyphonic repertoire from this era, and offers an opportunity to greatly expand our repertoire. In this sense, I see both his book and the edition of music as a stimulus for further exploration by lute players rather than the last word on the subject. Best wishes, Denys To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
