On Feb 15, 2009, at 7:51 AM, Lex van Sante wrote: > Hi all! > > Andrew wrote: > > On the subject of lutenists accommodating (or not) singers: > Is there any evidence of what temperament the lutenist and > singer - I'm > thinking mainly of late 16th c lute songs - would have agreed > on? Would > the lutenist tune to get close to the temperament the singer had > trained to sing in (just intonation?) - or would the singer > helpfully > adjust to suit the tending-towards-ET lute accompaniment? Or > does it > just work with voice and lute in different temperaments? I've never > been clear about this...
A not-so-unlikely scenario: soprano: Uh, I think we're a little harsh-sounding at this point here. lutenist: Uh, I am playing in multiple- comma-6thtone-7thtone-8thtone-9thtone-semicolontone-meantone tuning, which is the appropriate tuning for the period of April 17th, 1589 through March 25th, 1637: the era that this song comes from soprano thinks, "what is this guy, some kind of seminar junkie?" and goes out and finds herself a better musician. lutenist for ever after condemns all sopranos for being "temperamental" and stubbornly resistant to his attempts to educate them in the ways of HIP soprano finds another lutenist. They try the song. It comes out perfectly. soprano, delighted with her second lutenist, repeats to herself the old dictum, "when you're working with a good musician there's not much need to say anything; when you're not working with a good musician, there's not much point in saying anything" > In my opinion composers who set music to words would have been > inclined > to use special sonorities offered by unequal temperaments to > underline > the sentiment of word. A singer singing in another temperament > would > certainly destroy or at least alter these effects. Agreed, but adjustments can be made if both musicians know what they're doing, and are willing to negotiate. Davidr dlu...@verizon.net -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
