Well spotted! This occurs in the first piece in the book too - and it has puzzled me for a while. My preliminary conclusion is that it indicates use of the thumb, especially when you would normally expect to use another finger. For instance, in bar 8 of the first piece:
----3-------- -2-----0-2--- ------------- -0----------- -4----------- ------------- the dot appears on the second and third notes. Using the usual thumb-index alternation, one would expect the second note to be played with the first finger. Playing it with the thumb is perhaps more comfortable and gives better continuity of tone to the bass line. In bars 11-13 of the Recerchar Primo we have: -----0-2-|-3-----|---------| ---------|-----0-|---2-3---| ---------|-------|-------0-| ---------|-------|---------| ---------|-------|---------| --0------|-------|-0-------| where the open 5th course in the second bar has the mystery dot, in this case I think because the bass line is syncopated and it makes sense for the thumb to play this note so that the articulation of the rising scale works properly. Another interesting example is in the 8th bar of line 3, where the dot is applied to a 2nd fret on the 4th course, presumably to avoid getting too strong an effect of the upper octave of the 4th course when the phrase crosses from open 3rd course to 4th course and back again. After these first few pieces, he seems to have abandoned this piece of notation. Just for the record, the interpretation of ornament signs in this book is difficult, but the distinction between the two signs is definitely nothing to do with an 18th C question about whether or not "trills" begin on the upper note or the main note! It seems that the red dotted number indicates a shake between the main note and the red note (probably starting with the main note) while the two dots above a note indicates a lower mordent or a fall. As far as my limited Italian takes me, the line at the bottom means "start on the first string as you see here, and continue as above". It involves more or less an octave repetition of the opening phrase. Best wishes, Martin Orphenica wrote: >Oh, collective Lute Wisdom of the world, > >Im trying to get into the works of Vinzenco Capirola and bought a >facsimile of his works. > >Apart from struggling with the "antipodal" charme of Italian tab, I >stumbled accross some fingering hints (?) in the Richerchar primo. Here >my questions: >Is a dot to the upper (left) of a number a thumb indicator and a double >dot under a cypher a suggestion to use the middle finger (the latter >might be flyspeck). > >A scan of the first tab line from R1 can be found here (it's the last >two bars, I refer to): >http://bogulamedia.de/aa/capi1.jpg > >Another miracle is the last line of the first page of the Richerchar >primo, does anybody out there in lute space know, what this means: >http://bogulamedia.de/aa/capi2.jpg > >Some answers might be found in the preface of the lute manuscript, but >unfortunately my Italian is not even sufficient to distinguish >Parpadelle from Orichiette. Is there an English translation of the foreword? > > >Thank your for your time and expertise > > Werner > > > > > >To get on or off this list see list information at >http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > > >
