Yes: the practice for most of the 17th century was indeed generally to eschew a bowed bass both in such secular works (including operas eg Orfeo) and in sacred music. The bowed mass only became ubiquitous towards the end of the 17th century. As you say, an organ (chamber type) and theorbo are generally quite sufficient.
In any event the more usual 17th century orchestral bowed bass instrument was not the violoncello (tuned from C up) but the Bass violin tuned from Bb up. MH - On Wed, 21/10/09, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote: From: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: [LUTE] Re: A Tale of Three Vespers To: "lute-cs.dartmouth.edu" <[email protected]>, "David Tayler" <[email protected]> Date: Wednesday, 21 October, 2009, 13:16 David, Thanks for this. Very interesting. You've certainly borrowed a lot from that last guy. But keep practicing: you'll eventually get the hang of playing properly left-handed ;-). I'm curious about the cello, though. My understanding of the present consensus of scholarly opinion on the performance practice of this period was that the bass line in arias and recits was typically not doubled by a bowed bass. Perhaps I'm thinking only of secular music. Is the practice different in sacred music? I must say, I hardly found it necessary. The organ + theorbo combo is quite adequate and you both did an excellent job. The organ provides the sustained harmony while the theorbo adds shaping as well as rhythmic and declamatory events. Its funny, I might have thought that the cello would enhance a vocal-like shaping of the phrases in order to compliment the singer, but for me it detracted somewhat from the range of expression in the continuo group. Just my two cents. All three were very nice performances. Chris --- On Tue, 10/20/09, David Tayler <[1][email protected]> wrote: > From: David Tayler <[2][email protected]> > Subject: [LUTE] A Tale of Three Vespers > To: "lute-cs.dartmouth.edu" <[3][email protected]> > Date: Tuesday, October 20, 2009, 11:50 PM > I found it really interesting to view > three versions of the same > Nigra Sum from the 1610 Vespers. I deliberately did not > look at any > before performing it, because it is too tempting to borrow > the really > good riffs. > Even though Monteverdi left no particular instructions for > the piece, > it has become some of an urban legend in the Theorbo world, > a little > moment in the sun before the darkness of the thundering > herds of > Mordor descend. > Oooops wrong piece. > But in any case, what is kind of cool, really very cool, is > that all > three versions use different orchestrations, different > ornaments, > different techniques, different playing styles, > arpeggiation, > stringing, frets, tastini, and so on. > All three theorbos are in a different tuning, so all of the > chords > look different. Not to mention two are playing right handed > instead > of the proper left handed (joke, joke) > Even more remarkable is that harmonization of the largely > unfigured > bass is different as well. Different chords. Different > suspensions. > If I had to do it over again I would borrow mucho! (with > permission, of course) > Numbers 1 and 3 are in tastini meantone. > > Three Vespers > [4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94-NIURkU8I > [5]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRUEFcWJ7Js > [6]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUqdpFYTatI > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > [7]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > -- References 1. http://uk.mc263.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected] 2. http://uk.mc263.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected] 3. http://uk.mc263.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected] 4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94-NIURkU8I 5. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRUEFcWJ7Js 6. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUqdpFYTatI 7. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
