Dear Jim,
Yes, it's a hold sign. Similar signs occur in many other printed and
manuscript sources of lute music. They simply help you identify
which notes need holding to preserve melodic lines in a polyphonic
texture. They compensate for the fact that tablature rhythm signs do
not tell you how long a note should last. They can be quite useful:
sometimes they help you to spot a polyphonic line which might
otherwise have gone unnoticed; sometimes they have implications for
left-hand fingering. For example, on the second system of page 172,
there is a hold sign (at the position marked C) effectively telling
you not to use a barré at the third fret:
|\ |\ |\ |\ |\
|\ |\ |\ |\ |\
|\ | |\ |\ |
| | | |\ |
---------------------|-3----------------------|-3-
---------------------|------------------------|---
----------------5----|-------0----------------|-0-
-------------5-----3-|-5-----3----------------|---
---------------------|-3----------------------|-0-
-7--3--5--7----------|----3--+--2--3--2--0--2-|-3-
A B C D
[The musical example should be read with a mono-spaced font like
Courier.]
If you were to use a barré for the chord at the beginning of the
second bar (A), you would be hard pressed to hold the 3 on the first
course immediately afterwards (B) to create a 4-3 suspension (C-D).
Instead, you would do better to hold the 3s at A and B with your
second finger. If you have thinnish fingertips, you may find it
easier for your second finger to hop from one 3 to the other (A-B);
if you have fattish fingertips, you may prefer to hold both 3s with
the second finger at the same time. The main thing is to allow the 3
at B to ring on through C.
Best wishes,
Stewart McCoy.
----- Original Message -----
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, April 16, 2007 4:09 PM
Subject: [LUTE] Vincenzo Galilei
> Dear All:
> In looking at the manuscript of Vincenzo Galilei's "Intavolatura"
of 1584,
> which features about 50 galliards, including nine on the names of
the muses, he
> has a mark that looks like a plus sign (+). My guess from the
context is that
> means to hold the previous note. Is that correct?
> Thanks,
> Jim
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