Damian:
This is an interesting phenomenon, and the fact that printed airs de cour do
not survive with accompaniments in alternate tunings indicates that they
(alternate tunings) were really meant to take advantage of the instrumental
colors of the instrument and were just less suitable for harmonic support. The
old tuning provided a much better menu of harmonic choices for accompaniments.
The disappearance of intabulated accompaniments probably had less to do with
the preference for d-minor tuning, and more to do with the advent of a simpler
style of accompaniment and the accepted use of figured bass, which could be
played on a variety of instruments. In fact, when Constantine Huygens
submitted his manuscript of Pathodia sacra et profana occupati (Ballard, 1647)
for publication, he included tablature accompaniments to the airs. The
publisher altered the tablatures to lightly figured bass, due to the change in
taste.
Cited below are a few interesting articles on the air de cour, a genre I find
particularly interesting.
Experimental Notation and Entrepreneurship in the Seventeenth Century: The Air
de Cour for Voice and Lute, 1608-1643, Jonathan Le Cocq, Revue de musicologie,
T. 85e, No. 2e (1999), pp. 265-275
Tunings and Transpositions in the Early 17th-Century French Lute Air -- Some
Implications, David Tunley, Early Music > Vol. 21, No. 2, (May, 1993), pp.
203-209
Best wishes,
Ron Andrico
http://www.mignarda.com
> Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2008 10:45:41 -0800> To: [email protected]> From:
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [LUTE] airs with lute in d minor tuning> > I
> should have been more clear that I was interested more to know why
> publication of lute songs in France> suddenly cease when the d minor tuning
> emerges.> > It's curious don't you think? All those volumes by Ballard and
> then nothing, in spite of the fact that there is some publishing of lute
> tablature in the 'accord nouveau'> > Damian> --> > To get on or off this list
> see list information at>
> http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
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