Dear Ron, 1) Could you please give an example of a public performance in a concert situation in the 16th century where a lutenist played a six or seven minute lute fantasia. By this I do not mean a little get together of friends, but people who paid to sit and listen without doing anything else but just listen to that 7 minute long fantasia. I personally do not know of any such situation. But this does happen in our "fallen age".
As far as confusing reality that does sound like something that the puritan critics of Elizabethan theater back in the good old days would have said. Also was dialectical discourse typical of all renaissance culture or just the bits we like to remember or re-discover. I would argue that a great number of television shows for example Battlestar Gallactica (the 21st century series and not the 1980's version) are in fact have a depth that is equal to the renaissance works we revere. You may say that it is too action orientated and too much fantasy, again criticisms that were thrown at renaissance theater. I do not say that everything in the 16th century or on todays cinema and TV screens has amazing depth, but our view of the past is always selective and often ignores the context. 2) I can imagine that life back then had a very regular often mechanical and not always laid back pace. Life for the not so well off was probably pretty awful, we may think they were poor but at least didn't have to drive in trains and suffer mobile phones etc. I think that if any of us were beamed back to the 16th century we would be shocked that were maybe less machines, but a lot of people (the poor) were used like machines. Not sure that I find that consoling. Maybe there was a leisured class that could live the gentle new age life that we yearn for, but most of them also had to fight in wars, become killing machines for some of this time. 3) What you say about being "pressed into service" is of course true. Children were abducted to become singers, this was also the case in England. Interestingly children were also abducted to become actors by church authorities and not to perform any sort of sacred duties. Shakespeare's London had a number of children acting companies who earned a great deal of money for the church. they were trained as actors and singers (which sort of makes nonsense of Sting's claim that there were no trained singers in Dowland's time performing secular music). Just as in our present headlines there were rumors of abuse and exploitation of children by the church. I have been doing some reading about these companies, because a lot of the music from the new Pantagruel CD is taken from the plays that they performed. One of these is "The Maydes Metamorphosis", the story and probably the whole play would probably be put down as absolute trash by todays critics and is definitely about confusing reality! The story is basically about transsexuality. A woman becomes transformed into a man, falls in love with a man and then gets transformed back into a woman. Pretty weird, but all the more weird when you know that ALL of the female parts were played by 12-14 year old boys. Now of course the puritans hated this sort of thing they said it attracted men who liked watch little boys in make-up pretending to be women, which is probably true. But guess who was in the audience, the Queen. Now this may be a long shot, but I doubt if Lizzy would have said, no lets stop in and get Dowland to play us one of his 7 minute fantasias. 4) Now Lady Gaga is something that of course is great to shock with, but I think that she is probably one of the most interesting and impressive artists around at the moment. The question of sequencers, is certainly not because she is not musically able, check out some of her acoustic performances on YouTube. Maybe it is more a question of style, but from what I have seen it is a mixture of live and pre-recorded elements. Which if it was atonal "neue musik" and the audience was smaller would be ART and get a whopping big grant from the arts council. All I am trying to show is that we often take the bits of history we like and ignore the rest, there is so much more to explore than what the classical meta-narrative has deemed suitable. All the best Mark On Mar 28, 2010, at 10:08 PM, Ron Andrico wrote: > Hello Mark: > > It's good to have such practical input on this important issue relating to > performance. Your responses to my admittedly almost tongue-in-cheek points > bear some (again) semantic clarification. > > 1) I still think TV and mass media are responsible for (sometimes > deliberately) confusing reality, but the worst result is in the way TV acts > to condition the modern mind to accept and expect information in small, > easily digestible sound bites. The old way of dialectical discourse allows > more time both to absorb information and to consider its many facets. Try > playing a six or seven minute lute fantasia (and I'm sure you can do this > well) to a modern audience. > > 2) Life in the 16th did indeed move at a non-mechanized pace. You are > certainly right in pointing out that one's life was probably more at risk > through acts of mob brutality but the deed was done by hand. This is an > important insight into the passion inherent in poetry and devotional practice > of the age. A person's life could end at any minute with something pointy, > sharp and painful. This sort of puts into perspective all of the impassioned > pleas for divine intercession found in the best 16th century motets. > > 3) Apart from the many misdeeds done in the name of religion, the idea of a > life that excluded sacred music and, indeed, devotional practice is a > complete anachronism when considering the context of 16th century music. > It's surely true that music was made in every class of society but not with > 'our' instruments. People led lives that were better integrated and anyone > who was fortunate enough to have learned the science and practice of music > undoubtedly was first taught sacred music and was pressed into service > singing the same. I think it would be very difficult to disprove this. > > 4) I hope you enjoy the Lady Gaga concert and, if her musicians are actually > playing music and not just activating sequences, I hope they can keep a beat. > > Best wishes, > > Ron Andrico > > www.mignarda.com > > > Date: Sun, 28 Mar 2010 20:56:35 +0200 > > To: [email protected] > > CC: [email protected]; [email protected] > > From: [email protected] > > Subject: [LUTE] Re: HIP, was string tension of all things > > > > This is probably one of the most important parts of a HIP approach, finding > > the facts about stringing etc is only one part, how to present and even > > think about music from a period that had radically different ideas is > > fascinating and inspiring. What I am particularly realizing is that the > > late 18th and 19th centuries are a huge barrier to understanding what > > happened before in any part of life. A sort of brick wall that has a few > > windows that allow you too peep through, but basically you have to bash > > down the whole wall to any any chance of a good view. There are still so > > many "classicisms" that we accept as being universally true, but they are > > in fact things that would have been foreign to a renaissance audience and > > musician and the strange but quite reassuring thing is that these "olde > > ways" often make the music far more approachable for a modern audience. > > > > As far as your suggestions goes > > 1. Only by understanding modern mediums such as film and television is it > > possible to understand the full impact of theater in the 16th and 17th > > century. The 19th centuries edited view of elizabethan theater is cutting > > out so much of the juicy and X rated bits. > > > > 2. The idea that 16th century life was generally slower and more relaxed is > > maybe a bit of a cliche. Do you think that people felt safer in their lives > > back then, short life span, the streets certainly were not safer than now > > and well terrorists - don't forget 1577, it was the 9/11 of the > > renaissance. Check out the play "The Massacre at Paris". > > > > 3. That is a bit too dangerous for me, I try to keep as far away from > > religion as possible, people just start getting killed...see 1577 and 9/11. > > > > 4. Dance music good idea....I hope to get to see the new Lady Gaga show, > > could be a good way to experience something in the spirit of a > > masque....with the added experience of the same old puritans protesting. > > > > > > All the best > > Mark > > > > On Mar 28, 2010, at 1:36 PM, Ron Andrico wrote: > > > > > What seems to be lacking in many performances of old music is a sense > > > of context. > > > > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > > Hotmail is redefining busy with tools for the New Busy. Get more from your > inbox. Sign up now. --
