"Shaun Ng" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> schrieb: > Another point about nails... > > Playing with nails naturally gives one a more bright sound. This, as > we all know, is not the aesthetic favoured by French baroque > musicians in general.
There may be a diffence between playing solo or continuo. Someone as late as Weiss mentioned it when he wrote to Mattheson that the theorbo and arciliuto are played with nails, while the lute was played with the fingertips. As for Mr de Visee's playing thorough bass, I simply don't know evidence of which way he used the theorbo. > The construction of most instruments of the > period - harpsichords, organs, viols and woodwind instruments - > mostly point towards a lower pitch, i.e. a darker sound. I am sure > players who own both a large Italian and smaller continuo French > theorbo will notice this difference with their thicker strings and > shorter string lengths on their French instruments. I was under the impression that the lesser theorbo was exclusively used for solo music? > Jorge can argue his point, but there is also music written for the > instrument specifying an instrument in A, isn't there? I apologize, his name is Jose Miguel Moreno. His argument may be outlined as follows: Nominal reference pitch of the theorbo was A, but that was for the sake of convention, because theorbos in A were generally used for thorough bass playing. The actual pitch of the solo theorbo, however, was D (lesser theorbo). The 1716 edition of de Visee's music en partition may be considered evidence, as all pieces are notated a fourth higher than the same pieces in the tablatures of the Saizenay ms. Moreno's explanation is that solo music in tablature was notated with reference to the nominal instrument in A. But for sounding together with other instruments, the actual pitch had to be written, which was a fourth higher than that of the nominal instrument. Mathias > On 04/05/2007, at 5:30 AM, Mathias Rösel wrote: > > >> Does this mean we should not > >> use the same right hand technique to play the theorbo (chitaronne) > >> pieces by Piccinini as for De Viséé over a century later, > > > > If Piccinini died in 1639 and Visee flourished around 1700, there are > > some 60 years between them. Piccinini tells his readers how to play > > the > > chitarrone, while Visee's music survives mainly in the Saizenay ms. > > and > > a few other manuscripts without any instructions. Piccinini was a lute > > player and used his RH nails for the chitarrone, recommending his > > students to do so. Visee was a guitarist to the king. That's all that > > springs to my mind for the moment. > > > > Which leads to two conclusions: > > 1. We're pretty well informed about playing techniques of Italian > > chitarrone players up to 1640. Kapsberger is another source, by and > > large confirming Piccinini's instructions. > > > > 2. There is close to no evidence about how the last French theorbo > > players used to play their instruments. (Nails? Third finger of right > > hand? Position of RH?) > > > >> even though > >> virtually the same instrument is being played? > > > > Jorge Moreno has argued that solo music for the theorbo was > > performed on > > a lesser theorbo in France. IMO it's most probable that Roman > > chitarroni > > weren't used for solo music. > > -- > > Mathias > > > > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > > > > -- Viele Grüße Mathias Homepage St. Pauli: http://www.kirche-bremen.de/gemeinden/25_st_pauli/25_st_pauli http://www.bremen.de/sixcms/detail.php?id=335529 http://mathiasroesel.livejournal.com http://www.myspace.com/mathiasroesel http://de.geocities.com/mathiasroesel
