Dear Dan, A fundamentally important question, and I hope many people will give their thoughts. I certainly wouldn't want to go much faster than minim = 120, but there are details which trouble me about the piece. In the setting for five viols/violins with lute, the lute has a couple of semiquavers in the first bar of the second section. In the consort version printed by Thomas Morley, there are eight semiquavers (halved to demi-semiquavers in Sydney Beck's edition) half way through the second section. I don't think these could be played (each note plucked separately, not slurred) at minim = 120. A speed of minim = 110 would be pushing it. If I had to choose a speed for those notes to be cleanly played, I would want something more in the region of minim = 100, but no slower. It's at that kind of speed where the count of 1 and, 2 and, 3 and, comes into its own to hold you back in the first bar.
The Earl of Essex Galliard has the words "Can she excuse". If you think Essex is angry, you might want a speed as fast as you can go. If you think he is being more reflective about what could have been, a slower speed might be more suitable. I notice that the Julian Bream consort plays the consort version followed by the song at about minim = 114, and he fudges the eight semiquavers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZXfHhLebVE Also available on YouTube is a performance of the song by Valeria Mignaco and Alfonso Marin. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fMk6YW6Xhk&feature=related Their speed is about minim = 126, although they slow down here and there to avoid it being relentless. It is an exciting speed, but not feasible for the consort version. The group Musica Ficta de Buenos Aires go a little faster than minim = 126. It is a bit of a scramble, and they slow down at the end. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKgkY85pMF0&feature=PlayList&p=29ABA0FC09 CDAA5D&index=0&playnext=1 I think their speed is too fast. I wonder if singers and their accompanists agree on a fast tempo, partly because the music is simple in enough to take it. Lutenists struggling with the consort setting will be looking for slower speeds, because otherwise they won't be able to play all the fast notes. Best wishes, Stewart McCoy. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Daniel Winheld Sent: 24 July 2009 15:03 To: [email protected] Subject: [LUTE] Re: The Galliard Could someone suggest a likely metronome tempo? >It's possible. >dt > > This idea of there being two galliard types I heard re-iterated some > years later by Layton Ring on one of the Lute Society courses at > Cheltenham. He demonstrated how it would be impossible to play The Earl > of Essex Galliard at the speed of someone dancing the fast galliard. > -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
