--- "Mathias Rösel" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
> I was under the impression that
> playing the bass line
> _down_ an octave, where possible, was standard
> practice (cf continuo
> realizations in Fundamenta der Lauten Musique), but
> not vice versa.
>
Perhaps, however, the key phrase here is "where
possible." Solo music often shows that the bass was
usually played in the lower octave _unless_ possible.
Only the most diatonic of bass lines can be played
with only open basses. Any chromatic notes and you're
gone.
A couple of things that spring to mind...
How about this slow bass from the Courante of Weiss's
Sonata 45?:
o|.
-----|----|-------
-----|----|-------
-----|----|-------
-----|----|-------
-----|-i--|--------
-----|----|-------
///a 5
(Wow, what a leap from that #A ('i') in the second
measure down nearly TWO octaves to the B ('5')! Yet
the ear connects the two as a line just fine.)
Or this from the Allegro first movement of Staube's
Sonata II:
| |. |\
_________|______
_________|______
_________|______
_________|______
_________|______
______e__|______
5 5 ///a
Or the bass from the Siciliano of the same sonata:
|\
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
___________________________b_b_b________________
______e_e_e_____________________________________
4 4 4 ///a ///a ///a //a //a //a
In all of these composed examples, and throughout the
whole of the works, the bass is clearly conceived in
the lower octave since most of the notes are down
there and open basses form the arrival points for
chromatic alterations played on the fretboard.
Chris
> > not worrying so much about the "loss of integrity"
> of
> > the bass line. I believe the idea that we should
> go
> > to a lot of extra trouble to play the notes
> exactly as
> > written is a modern one.
>
> Agreed.
> --
> Mathias
>
>
>
> To get on or off this list see list information at
>
http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
>
____________________________________________________________________________________
Yahoo! oneSearch: Finally, mobile search
that gives answers, not web links.
http://mobile.yahoo.com/mobileweb/onesearch?refer=1ONXIC
