----- Original Message -----
From: "howard posner" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "List Lute" <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2008 9:40 PM
Subject: [LUTE] Re: Respighi
|I believe the remaining pieces are from the "Chilesotti Lute
| Book" (Da un Codice Lauten-buch), a book of musicologist Oscar
| Chilesotti's transcriptions of a lute manuscript, which was published
| in 1891. The original lute book has not been available publicly, if
| at all, for more than a century. Rumors of its whereabouts drift
| around from time to time. Arthur Ness will doubtless have something
| to say on that subject.
<<<SNIP>>
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Hello, again, Howard
<<Contuned. Part 2>>
I first heard about the survival of the Codice Lauten-Buch at the 1997
Francesco conference in Milan. Not one but several persons told me
about
it, and named the well known Italian lutenist who was hired to give a
private recital. His host brought out a 16th-century manuscript of lute
music, from which he was asked to play. The lutenist immediately
recognized it as the Codice Lauten-Buch belonging formerly to Oscar
Chilesotti (1846-1916). It was long thought to have been destroyed in
a
fire.
Paul O'Dette did not attend that Francesco conference, but he
somehow independently learned about the manuscript being in a private
library in northern Italy a decade earlier, and reports that
information
in the notes to his Ancient Airs CD, mentioning the conflicting (and
false) rumor about
the fire.
Furthermore, Thomas Schall reported on this list that he met the
lutenist
who played the recital, and confirmed what I heard from several persons
at
the Francesco conference. This points not to rumors, but to an "eye
witness sighting of the manuscript." Thomas wrote, and I see no reason
to
believe he and the lutenist are not telling the truth:
>As far as I can judge the story of the Chilesotti
>Codice which survived
>and about the lutenist giving a house concert
>from it is true - I met
>the lutenist in question and he confirmed the story.
>It seems the manuscript is preserved in a
>bank tresor (I've been told
>there would be many treasures in tresors
>because some people buy old
>books for their insurance value which would
>get lost if the owner would
>make the manuscript accessible to the public). A pity!
What purpose is served to lie about this matter, and call the Italian
lutenist, Schall, O'Dette, Fabris and all the others liars?
The attitudes that some owners of rare books and music harbor are
unfortunate. Such bibliophiles often believe that by sharing their
treasures with others, for example in a facsimile edition, the value of
the books will be diminished (as Thomas hints in his comments). Some
collectors buy rare books as an investment (the stock market returns
have
been demonstrated to be a better invenstment than old books). Even some
librarians hold such a view, and (to cite one of many instances) for
decades a librarian at the Fitzwilliam Museum would not permit the
Cherbury
manuscript to be published in facsimile.
Of course, not all collectors of rare music are so possessive, as the
example of the late Bob Spencer demonstrates. He generously allowed
visitors into his home to view and freely use his collection. He
realized
that he was just a temporary
custodian of treasures that really belong to everyone.
And if it were to be come known, a parade of visitors would surely
appear asking to see the Lauten-Buch. That might hurt current Italian
efforts to convince the owner to make the manuscript available in a
facsimile edition.
Otherwise we will just have to wait until the manuscript comes on the
auction market, and hope that it will be purchased by a pubic
institution.
Until then Dick Hoban's re-intabulation will serve us well. Other than
those pieces (five of the six*), the original tablatures of the pieces
orchestrated by Respighi are readily available, many in published
facsimile editions.
*P.S. Of the 22 pieces in Respighi's suites, only SIX are from the
Codice
Lauten-Buch, and for one we have a published photograph of the original
page. <_Pace_ Eugene!>
