Oops, sorry to Pietro and David - I hope you are not offended by my
comment.
It did bring a broad smile to my face, though, which is not such a bad
thing
these days.
Rob
I was laughing out loud the full week of receiving the music, chuckling
during rehearsals and smiling during the concert.
David - enjoying a hilarious job at times
PS: Disclaimer.
Someone sending me a private reply commented on my one-page summary of
Albrechtsberger, Jew's harp, mandora and personal adventure, implying that
my paragraph on the mandora ...
A mandora, also known as calchedon or colachon, is an 18th century German
lute with 6 to 8 courses (of sometimes single strings) and 10 frets on the
neck. The tuning of the first 6 courses is usually d'-a-f-c-G-D, but
Albrechtsberger's music requires a mandora tuned a tone higher to
e'-b-g-d-A-E
(just like a guitar), with courses 7 and 8 tuned to D and C. Although they
look alike at first glance, the construction was different from that of a
baroque lute, allowing higher tension strings for greater volume, because a
mandora was specifically designed for continuo playing. The surviving solo
music is much simpler than that for baroque lute.
<<
.. was lacking in clarity. He said the large A tuned instrument (string
length c. 95cm) was the professional continuo instrument, and said he wanted
to know of evidence showing the D (or E) tuned galichonmandora was used for
continuo. I have none. Semantically I think you could argue I didn't claim
to either, safely leaving the continuo part of the story to the mandora in
general without connecting it to string lengths or tunings, but I don't deny
you could also read in my passage that mandoras in D and E were
'specifically designed for continuo playing', too. I should think any
instrument in the hands of a professional continuo player will serve as
continuo instrument, by the way, but that is besides the point for someone
seeking evidence of past use. And a good point that is. Once more, I have
none and will gladly bow to superior knowledge.
****************************
David van Ooijen
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.davidvanooijen.nl
****************************
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