On Jul 13, 2009, at 4:51 PM, Roman Turovsky wrote: > I've put together a page with the Falkenhagen engraving and a > detail from an > angelique that is VERY similar to the one he is playing - > http://polyhymnion.org/swv/music/falkenhagen
Interesting. Thanks for putting this up. I wonder if there's reason to believe this sort of construction was unique to the the angelique. Otherwise the pegboxes appear to be built to accomodate eight courses on the fingerboard (2x1 and 6 x 2) and 5 x 2 on the extension. In short, it would be a pretty standard theorboed baroque lute. Pardon my ignorance, but was an angelique necessarily constructed differently from a lute, or was it more of an alternative stringing? Did it need to be braced differently, for example? > There is also no apparent evidence that he is fretting beyond the 5th > course, which fits the puzzle. To my eyes, the third and fourth fingers are fretting the third and first courses, respectively, at the seventh fret. But I don't think it proves much in either case, since the left hand may just be arranged in a way that was comfortable or visually pleasing. (Yes, the right hand position does look serious). Pardon my ignorance again, but is there any reason to connect Falkenhagen with the angelique? Did he write any music for it? Does any source mention him and the angelique? > As to the blank sheet in front of the man - has it occurred to > anyone that > he might be composing, especially considering the inkwell nearby? Indeed it might symbolize that he is a composer. Or it might signify his position as margravial court secretary and registrar. The caption does after all describe him as "Adamo Falkenhagen, Segretario - Registratore - e Liutista della camera di S. A. S. il Marggravio ..." I'm guessing it's no accident that lute-playing gets mentioned last. The other two jobs involved making sure government business got done, and would thus would likely have been more important. If you had urgent business with the Margrave, it wouldn't be the lute player you'd go through (unless, of course, he happened to be the court secretary). Of course, a complete explanation would still have to account for the paper being blank tablature paper. There are only two conceivable explanations: 1. "Here is Falkenhagen, the illustrious court secretary and registrar, who inscribes the most important and sensitive court documents in a code called "tablature" so that only lute players can read it, thus eliminating leaks of sensitive information except among disreputable musician types who wouldn't know what to do with sensitive information." 2. "Here is Falkenhagen, the illustrious court secretary and registrar, whose mind wanders so that instead of writing down the Margrave's correspondence and official decrees, he writes a lot of lute music." I'm willing to entertain inconceivable explanations. -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
