Is now available at following outlets in the US
www.amazon.com
www.cduniverse.com
www.tower.com
www.arkivmusic.com
www.hbdirect.com
www.newburycomics.com
www.kochdistribution.com
www.jr.com
www.allmusicimport.com
Anthony
Le 6 mars 09 à 12:54, Anthony Hind a écrit :
Dear Lutenists
Miguel Serdoura informs me that his Baricades CD is available
again in the US from today, but only at the Los Angeles Classical
Guitars.
https://www.lacg.net/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=3180
I have noticed that the link to You Tube, "Miguel in China" is
back and working, and for those interested in studying the causes
of RH shift,
(I am thinking of an earlier thread about "blends and splits"
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg25927.html
)
one can wonder whether Miguel has shifted to blend with the strong
bright tone of the Pipa players with whom he is playing, or whether
he is "splitting" from them in order to be more distinctly heard.
As discussed previously, Miguel tends to play near the rose, and
indeed that is the position shown in his method. In this he may be
following his mentor Hoppy, who sometimes plays very high on the rose.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1vxZgM08zo
Compare Hoppy's position with this photo of Miguel by Manuel
Minguillon.
http://www.miguelserdoura.com/images/Miguel-Serdoura-Rochester-2.jpg
Now look at the position Miguel adopts in his China Youtube recording:
See this photo:
http://tinyurl.com/b84azf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x_eV1MqQLU
This is closer to Robert Barto's present position as seen here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIANAfU2cS4
I recently had a chance to measure a finger mark on a lute played
by Robert Barto, and I was surprised to find that the centre of
that mark was about halfway between the rose, and the bridge. It
was not unlike the mark made by Jakob Lindberg on this 13c lute,
but longer:
http://www.musicamano.com/instruments/13_course_front.jpg
It stretched as far back as the bridge (but very pale near the
bridge). I suppose that could indicate that Robert was in the
process of studying the best position for himself (in relation to
the iconography), as he implies in his interview with Ed Durbrow.
http://www9.plala.or.jp/edurbrow/
I must insist that studying the RH position of modern players and
how (and perhaps why) they have changed during the period of EM
revival, is a valid historical question in its own right. Studying
films, photos, traces on lutes, and contrasting these with player's
declarations and interviews can be of interest: the traces on
Lindberg's lutes on his own web pages, as well as the one lute of
Robert Barto that I was able to measure, do seem to show that their
shifts correspond to their own consciousness of their playing
styles, and very probably relate to a fairly recent change from TI
to TO; and yet I have also noticed that several players who advise
playing back towards the bridge for Baroque music often in fact
shift back towards the rose, when they are not paying attention to
this. On the contrary, Miguel who advises students to play near the
bridge, here plays much further back.
Only in certain cases, where a shift occurs, either because of the
playing context, as here for Miguel, or because of a string type
change (low tension, loaded, or whatever), MAY this possibly give
us some HINTS about what could have occurred in the past.
I render this emphatic, because it can only be a hint, not a proof.
NB Although I believe that research into string types, and RH hand
positions, shapes and technique, can give us a better understanding
of the tonal colours and sound textures used by historic lutenist-
composers, and that these sound qualities may well have played a
role in the way "compositions" developed, the extent to which
modern players take account of this research must surely be left to
the judgement of each interpreter (and of course their audiences).
Research may shift our ideas about such historic sound qualities,
and many players do adopt an attitude of constant research and self
questioning, but some stability is also necessary for a performer
to develop their technique and sound quality to the highest degree.
It is difficult to shift constantly; and foolish to expect it.
While against any "dictatorship" of "historical correctness", I am
strongly in favour of keeping historical debate open. Apart from
anything else (like many others here), I am in favour of historical
research for its own sake, just because I want to know. I rather
hope that more researchers will join Mimmo Peruffo, and Ephraim
Segerman, before him, in making their work public, on the web, or
in the reborn FoMRHI, or elsewhere. i heartily thank all those that
do so.
It has been implied that, as I am in favour of the loaded string
hypothesis, I might want all lutenists to adopt only that
technology. I have never stated or implied this. I rather hope that
each player will make slightly different choices, giving us a range
of qualities; although I am hoping that some day soon we will hear
a recording of a lutenist using these strings.
regards
Anthony
PS Incidentally, in the domain of Linguistic research in relation
to accents, the notion of blends and splits (convergence and
divergence) is also discussed, albeit used in a slightly different
manner: e.g. this one found at random at
http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:57492
"Using the framework of Communication Accommodation Theory, this
study investigated the extent to which job applicants objectively
and subjectively altered their accents to converge to or diverge
from the speech style of the interviewer")
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