> -----Original Message-----
> From: Stuart Walsh [mailto:s.wa...@ntlworld.com]
> Sent: Thursday, May 13, 2010 6:02 PM
> To: Eugene C. Braig IV
> Cc: 'Nancy Carlin'; 'Lute List'
> Subject: Re: [LUTE] Re: lute music and playing technique in italy 18th
> century
>
> Eugene C. Braig IV wrote:
> > It was made by the semi-infamous Luciano Faria. Feel free to contact me
> > directly if you'd like details of the instrument itself.
> >
> > I play the dedicated repertoire for mandolino on it: Vivaldi, Scarlatti,
> > Arrigoni, the few works from the Dalla Casa book, etc. My favorite work
> for
> > the instrument is probably the little three-movement sonata by G.B.
> > Sammartini.
> >
> > Best,
> > Eugene
> >
> >
> >
> Interesting. Is that the Sammartini that is also in Tyler's book? What
> do you do with the bass line?
>
> You don't mention the Sauli pieces? Because they are a bit dull?
>
>
> I've always had 'issues' with this stuff (these 'issues', well actually
> there is only one, don't - doesn't - seem to bother some other people at
> all!). Fingerstyle play - as you play - sounds just no good at all when
> I try it.No good= very poor sound. Now that consideration is worth
> almost nothing, I admit but...are many people playing this fourth-tuned
> mandolino (lombardo etc) fingerstyle?
>
> Would it be fairly accurate to say that most professionals playing this
> fourth-tuned repertoire (rightly or wrongly, appropriately or not) )
> are using a plectrum? That's what I seem to have found recently.
>
> And that the one reason for saying that the music is not for plectrum is
> because there are (usually quite rare) places where the music, as
> written, couldn't be played with the sweep of a plectrum (but that most
> of it could)?
>
>
> Stuart
[Eugene C. Braig IV]
I do like what I've heard of the Sauli, but I've only heard one suite as
transcribed for modern Neapolitan mandolin (played by Carlo Aonzo) and have
never played those pieces myself.
For bass, I sometimes do without or play with a guitarist. (I know, not
quite HIP, but there it is. He actually has a 5-course guitar on the way.)
There is some music that works quite well without accompaniment, the
Sammartini sonata, e.g., with no more alteration than a bass note at
movements' closing cadences.
I think you're right that most people play this repertoire on these
instruments with plectra, but I believe that's because most people who come
to it do so via the modern mandolin as opposed to via lutes. I also think
that's partly why you can't find HIP recordings of the Sammartini sonata;
there are pedal passages and occasional double stops that don't really work
with plectra. In addition to only occasional passages like this, what
iconography there is of these things in the 18th c. appear to portray
players engaged in punteado play.
For Paul O'Dette's old Hyperion recording of Vivaldi's lute and mandolin
music with the Parley of Instruments, he played the mandolin concerti on
such an instrument using a plectrum, but he also played the lute concerto RV
93 and the two lute trios on a 4th-tuned mandolin using his fingers. I
believe he played the E minor Arrigoni sonata on his recording with
Tragicomedia using his fingers, but one of the Scarlatti sonatas with
plectrum.
Ulrich Wedemeier recorded Hasse's mandolin concerto fingerstyle with Musica
Alta Ripa on MDG Records.
James Tyler's old recordings of Vivaldi with the English Consort on Archiv
are fingerstyle.
..And all the other recordings of which I'm aware of this repertoire,
mostly by players who also play modern mandolins--Ensemble Baschenis, Il
Giardino Armonico, Ahlert and Schwab, Orlandi, Frati, Duo Capriccioso,
Duetto Giacondo, etc.--use plectra.
The field is ripe for an aspiring young lutenist who doesn't fear the
soprano range...
Best,
Eugene
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