I remember reading a review by Stewart McCoy of a book of lute song texts translated into German. He found that, curiously, the translations gave great insights into the texts because the translator had to make explicit their meaning, in the way that Martin illustrates. Stewart, could you remind us what the book was? And for those whose German is less than perfect, are there any good 'translations' into modern English available?
Peter 2008/6/17 Martin Shepherd <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > Dear David (van Oiijen), > > I've only just got around to reading your article and it is excellent! I'm > copying this to David Hill as well, as he and I have sat through many a Bob > Spencer masterclass and I really think Bob was one of the few people who > took both the historical evidence and the necessity of communication > seriously. Elizabethan English is difficult, and even English singers fail > to distinguish between "condemn" and "contemn", or totally misconstrue the > meaning of "Can she excuse my wrongs" as "Can she forgive the wrongs I have > done to her" instead of "How dare she try to excuse the wrongs she has done > to me by pretending her motives were virtuous?" (virtues' cloak). Some of > the most famous songs are the ones which give the most trouble - Come heavy > sleep, Fine knacks for ladies, etc. There is still a long way to go before > we regularly hear performances of these songs where the meaning is > understood by the singer, let alone successfully communicated to the > audience. So Bob's work must continue, though alas he is no longer here to > do it himself. > > Best to all, > > Martin > > LGS-Europe wrote: > > Stewart was kind of enough to find no less than nine spelling mistakes and >> made the remark that not all lute songs are for one to four voices. Point >> taken; a few have a fifth part. Dowland's 'Welcome Black Night' comes to >> mind. >> >> David >> >> >> **************************** >> David van Ooijen >> [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> www.davidvanooijen.nl >> **************************** >> > -- Peter Martin Belle Serre La Caulie 81100 Castres France tel: 0033 5 63 35 68 46 e: [EMAIL PROTECTED] web: www.silvius.co.uk http://absolute81.blogspot.com/ www.myspace.com/sambuca999 www.myspace.com/chuckerbutty -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
