Hi, all, To answer (sort of) Suzanne's original question: personally, one of my favorite things to do with Francesco is to play the same fantasia or ricercar with very different moods. Ness 40, for example, is quite a different piece played with a steady, sprightly feel or with a slower, more meditative feel and more rhythmic variation. I've even been known to play it twice, first one way, then the other. Because, hey, they're fantasies!
In re: slower tempi with duets: I've been finding that with some guitar music I've been working on with a friend. They're duets from about 1900, and consciously constructed so the Guitar 1 part can be played as a solo but Guitar 2 is actually "playing something," not just chording along. I really have to slow them down for the duo arrangement, I think because of the thicker texture, and to let the interplay come out. [1]http://meantone.com/MusicDownloads/WalterJacobs/WalterJacobs.html A related question for the more well-read list members: do we have any indication that "they" actually tried to play solo settings (or what we assume to be solo settings) of dance forms at the tempi they would have been played for dancing? In re: caffienated jet setting: My older brother had a theory that the flowering of the English Renaissance, at least in part, was brought about by the introduction of caffeine and nicotine into a theretofore mainly alcoholized culture. Suddenly they had energy and were brimming with creativity! Go figure! I don't know enough about continental caffeine history to expand his theory, but my point is that caffeine is hardly a modern invention. As for jet travel, while indeed it has revolutionized travel in the mega-sense, in that I can leave Tokyo at 12 noon on Tuesday and arrive in New York at 11:00 a.m. on the same Tuesday, I don't think that arriving 2 hours before departure to wait in line to have my papers checked and my shoes x-rayed has sped up my sense of time on a minute-to-minute basis. Best to all, and keep playing (at the tempo of your choice). Chris. >>> David Tayler <[email protected]> 3/12/2010 3:54 PM >>> 60 is a very good tactus for many of Francesco's pieces for me. But that is just me. Quite a few of the pieces roll along smoothly in the 56-64 range. There is no reason whatsoever to to feel that one tempo is historically accurate. As for whether we live in a caffeinated, jet set society, it seems pretty clear that since we don't as a general practice employ the "top gear" for ornamentation compared to cornetto and recorder players, that we can't really draw a conclusion from that unless we are fly more or drink more coffee and tea than they do :) dt At 10:44 AM 3/12/2010, you wrote: >>tempos chosen to allow the contrapuntal lines to connect -- >>if the music is taken too slowly, it becomes disjointed as >>individual notes die away before the next notes continue the line. > >This betrays a rather low opinion of the modern listener's ability >to actually hear and follow contrapuntal lines. I don't think >having a note die away before the next one in its line is heard >prevents one from hearing it as a continuous voice. Just as in >social dialog, different voices take *turns*, not all talking at >once. Its partly that gracious interaction of the lines that you >need the space and time to appreciate. And at least this modern >listener can follow and appreciate polyphony doing that in lute >music without the sound being utterly continuous. > >Suzanne > > > >To get on or off this list see list information at >[2]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- References 1. http://meantone.com/MusicDownloads/WalterJacobs/WalterJacobs.html 2. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute
