>As for the particular case of the Recercar Terzo measure, I'd opt it's a >typo, for two reasons. First, 12th fret would be rather uncomfortable in >that situation...
Not on the right size & configuration of lute (8th fret at least a little clear of the neck joint, and use a reasonably sized tenor or alto, not a bass lute!)- and after playing the whole recercar up to that point, it's nowhere near as uncomfortable as some of the chord formations and progressions preceding it. For me, some of those may need refingering to be playable, but not that 12th semi-tone, high "g" note. > and is not necessarily required here in terms of >counterpoint. Instead, X sounds preferable IMHO. No, it's not an actual discord if one plays an "f" rather than the high "g", but it destroys the emotional peak that this entire recercar is heading towards; that high g is the top. I am convinced that it can be nothing else, just rhetorically speaking. Everything afterwards is winding down to the close. >In the case of XI in the measure from Pass'e mezo La Milanese, things >are even more unequivocal. Here, XI does not mean 12th fret, that much >is sure (wrong in terms of counterpoint--play it yourself or listen to >it in a computer file, and you'll see). So XI could mean 11th fret, >indeed, but for the abovementioned reasons, X is more probable. X/10th fret certainly possible, doesn't destroy the line like in the recercar, (12 out of the question as pointed out above) but c# at the 11th fret also matches c# on 1st course in the next measure. Doesn't seem to be the kind of piece or situation that would have that sort of harmonic ambiguity. My conclusion- Melchior Neusidler either had a complete range of semi-tonal frets right up to the octave or he had no frets past the tied ones on the neck. Dan -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
