> > Thank you for the clarification. > > Sean > > On Feb 24, 2010, at 4:13 PM, John Griffiths wrote: > >> Dear list members, >> >> the evidence about Palestrina and the lute suggests not that he >> composed on the lute, but that he intabulated his new compositions >> and >> tested them on the lute before releasing them.
Larger churches (the papal chapel for Palestrina) are busy places. times when one can play organ are limited. Places for a keyboard are similarly limited. I suspect P used what he could to work out the kinks, and a lute is both portable and quiet. Yes, 5vv polyphony is unlikely on a lute, even an 8c, just four fingers on the left hand limits a lot, but witht he rules of composition he must have had to hand it might have sufficed to check out the canons at two vv, maybe two & a half. -- Dana Emery To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
