This is a really interesting collection, with quite a few basso continuo parts marked as being for theorbo.
What strikes me is that these theorbo parts are basically the same as the other basso continuo parts, with no attempt made to adapt them for the instrument. Chromatic bass lines. A range that doesn't use the instrument's bass notes. And no manuscript annotations to show how the player adapted the part for his instrument. Maybe the musicians simply weren't allowed to write on the music. Are there any theorbo basso continuo parts anywhere which are clearly designed for theorbo, more instrument-specific? P 2009/10/22 <[1][email protected]> The Dueben collection at the Uppsala University Library, Sweden, is one of the largest collections of music from (essentially) the second half of the 17th century. There are about 2300 works in manuscripts, and there are vocal and instrumental pieces by more than 300 composers. For most of the works we have the parts, and for some we also have the scores (but in German organ tablature...). But these manuscripts are what "the old ones" actually played from! Almost all works have one or more parts for Basso Continuo in form of figured base. There are 40+ works that have a BC part labeled Tiorba (or something similar), so my guess is that this is what "the old pluckers" played from. But there are two works that also have lute tablature, an anonymous work titled "Ach Swea Trohn" and one by Buxtehude "Fuerchtet Euch Nicht". Now to the evidence... The work "Ach Swea Trohn" was composed for a special occasion (the death of a Swedish Queen) and is written for soprano, 2 viola d' amore(actually one of the earliest pieces specifying that instrument) and BC. But there are 4 BC parts(one marked Tiorba) + 2 (almost identical) lute tablature parts for something in d-minor tuning. I don't think they wrote out parts just for fun, so I think we can assume that the solists (soprano + 2 viola d'amore) were "supported by" 6 continuo players (including one tiorba and two other lute instruments)! We don't hear the very often today. The really fun thing is that the whole Dueben collection is being scanned and made available on-line. So if you would like to look at the parts for the piece above, click at [1][2]http://www.musik.uu.se/duben/presentationSource.php?Select_Dnr =1705 and you will get a list of all the parts. From there you can go on to the individual manuscript pages. When you have looked at those you can continue with the other 30.000 manuscript pages.... The home page of the Dueben collection is [2][3]http://www.musik.uu.se/duben/Duben.php and there are search functions for composer, title, scoring.... If you have comments or questions you can contact me, I'm currently working on the implementation of the Dueben collection data base. Have fun exploring this unique collection! Jan Johansson References 1. [4]http://www.musik.uu.se/duben/presentationSource.php?Select_Dnr=17 05 2. [5]http://www.musik.uu.se/duben/Duben.php To get on or off this list see list information at [6]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- Peter Martin Belle Serre La Caulie 81100 Castres France tel: 0033 5 63 35 68 46 mob: 0044 7971 232614 e: [7][email protected] [8]www.silvius.co.uk -- References 1. mailto:[email protected] 2. http://www.musik.uu.se/duben/presentationSource.php?Select_Dnr=1705 3. http://www.musik.uu.se/duben/Duben.php 4. http://www.musik.uu.se/duben/presentationSource.php?Select_Dnr=1705 5. http://www.musik.uu.se/duben/Duben.php 6. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html 7. mailto:[email protected] 8. http://www.silvius.co.uk/
