G Crona pretty much has it. A further note on the harp piece (quoting Stewart McCoy):
From: "Stewart McCoy" <[email protected]> Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1999, and Jan 16, 2003 Subject: Mudarra's pastiche of Ludovico. There is a caveat in Mudarra's fantasy that some notes which might appear wrong are actually meant to sound as they are written. However, it is really a very special case, because the piece is a pastiche, an attempt to make the vihuela recreate the distinctive sounds of the harpist, Ludovico. Michael Morrow has argued convincingly in Early Music, October 1979, p. 503, that Mudarra's Fantasia suggests that Ludovico's harp was diatonic, i.e. without the option of additional chromatic notes available. Since so much 16th-century music requires F natural in the bass, and F sharp in the treble, Morrow argues that it was normal to tune the harp that way, i.e. with the lower octave at F natural, and the higher octave at F sharp. Mudarra wanted to recreate the special discordant effect arising from this way of tuning the harp, but felt he had to explain to his readers that the resultant harmonic clashes were intentional. No doubt he feared that a vihuelist, playing a chromatic instrument, might otherwise try to iron out such false relations. Regards, Leonard Williams /[ ] / \ | * | \_=_/ On 3/5/10 1:38 PM, "G. Crona" <[email protected]> wrote: > He writes at the beginning of the piece: > > "Es dificil hasta ser entendida." > > Its difficult until understood. > > "Algunas falsas, tañendo se bien no parecen mal." > > A few dissonances, well played they don't seem bad > > (my translation) > > G > To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
