Hi!
Looking through Francesca Torelli's excellent theorbo tutor (published by Ut
Orpheus Edizioni), I was a little surprised by two of her recommendations
for right hand arpeggiation. She explains (p 23)the technique in which 4
note arpeggios, for example, are played p i m i, with the index finger
playing the highest note of the chord last, on the third course. So the
first bar of Kapsberger's Toccata Seconda Arpeggiata becomes...
----------- |-------------
----------- |-------------
---0------- |-0------------ repeated 4 times
---3------- |----------3---
---3------- |----3---------
---2------- |-------2------
./. p i m i
However, she suggests that once you have played the second note, you should
rest the index finger on the third course ready to play the final note of
the 4 note pattern. I don't play this way myself (though I can make it work)
and wonder if other people do. Also, if there is any mention of this "rest
stroke" technique in the original sources.
On p 24, she prints the above mentioned Toccata, with the recommendation
that the student should vary the RH fingering patterns so as to ensure that
all the notes in each chord are played in ascending order. The trouble with
this recommendation is that very often in the piece, the notes on the first
and third courses have a melodic function as well as an harmonic one. The
pattern in bar 6, for example, is notated as follows;
-------- ----------------
---2---- which could be realised either as ---2------------ or as
-------- ----------------
---0---- ------------0---
---3---- ------3---------
---3---- ---------3------
./. p i m i
------------------
-----2------------
------------------ if you follow Torelli's suggestion
-----------0------
--------3---------
--------------3--
p m i m
Or perhaps-p i i m ?
The result is that the melodic move Bb-A is reversed.
She admits that "This technique may seem complex and difficult in the
beginning..." ! To my ear, it also alters the piece significantly, in this
bar and a number of other places. What do people think? I wonder if anyone
can think of passages like this in the Italian theorbo repertory where the
arpeggiation is written out in full, thus giving us a hint?
Best wishes
martin
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