Hello Ned and Martin Shepherd,
Ned wrote:
>After re-reading Shepherd's article on right hand position which you
referenced the other day, I re-read what he wrote about octave tuning
also.
> My interpretation - from reading this - is that Dowland used unison
tuning for the first through sixth courses, and perhaps octave tuning
for lower
> courses (not specified by Dowland that I could find). I wonder, is
this is how you interpret Shepherd's article?
Yes, I agree with you. Dowland presumably had in mind that octaves on
the basses might create voice leading which is against the rules of
counterpoint, and that must be refused by "learned Musitions".
I haven't found information if Dowland's lower basses ("accessories")
had octaves , but I guess they had, else they would have sounded too
soft and dull. At 1610 (when he wrote about octaves) he played a
9-course lute, down to the C. As the 7th and lower courses presumably
were not so often used in bass lines as the 6th and higher courses, the
disturbing octave effect in voice leading would have been seldom.
If Dowland had no octaves on the 6th course or even lower, most of his
contemporary players surely had (perhaps apart of some learned
Musitions).
There were octaves even on the 6th course of the baroque lutes,
which was definitely thinner than that of renaissance lutes.
On the other hand the octaves also could be used to enhance voice
leading, e.g. in cadences.
You should also read Shepherd's article "Dowlands Lutes"- Octave
stringing:
[1]http://www.johndowland.co.uk/DowlandsLutes.htm
He writes:
"Returning to Dowlands solo lute music, if (as seems likely) nearly all
of it dates from before 1600, then it would all have been composed for
a lute with an octave on (at least) the sixth course. In fact, internal
evidence from some Dowland pieces (the best example probably being
K.Darcys Galliard) and others from the 1590s suggests octaves on the
fifth and even the fourth course."
M. Shepherd wrote in an e-mail to Ned,
Lute Re: octave stringing 7. Juli 2009 23:44
> The part-writing of almost all lute music (with some honourable
exceptions) ignores the upper octave - almost all the music is written
as though the upper
>octave string of each pair sounded at the lower pitch. But it is
equally clear that the upper octave must have been audible, at least
some of the time,
> because even cadential resolutions sometimes behave as though only
the upper octave was audible.
I have looked for K. Darcy's Gaillard and found it was "Queen Elizabeth
her galliard". In the cadence in bars 3, 4 the leading tone f# does
not lead directly to the tonic g in bar 4; only on the second beat
there is a g. The octave f#' it leads directly to g' in the soprano.
Best wishes
Karl
--
References
1. http://www.johndowland.co.uk/DowlandsLutes.htm
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