Basically, if you look at all the sources for renaissance music, including lute music, you will see many pieces that begin and end with the equivalent of a longa, and that the time for these notes, as well as those at medial cadences, can be free.
Looking again at the sources, if you look at how to begin a piece, you will see that what we call a cadenza appears in the earliest sources also at the beginning of a piece, not just the end. Depending on the source, the longa may also be indicated by a breve. Also, in some sources you will see the corona on the longa, but in other sources not. As for ornamentation, there are basically two kinds, graces and "glossas" Modern lute performance generally includes some of the graces, but few, if any, of the glossas. This is a good thing, because we can re-record (better yet, video) the 16th century, and still have something to add. As for the theme statement, that is a very complex subject, but the short version is that the statement may appear first in a different form, and the full or real statement my appear later. The "real" statement usually comes first, but not always. And, in some cases, it isn't possible to tell which is the real themes, as there will be several different versions. The only reason it is important is that to "correct" the opening motive can be more complicated than it seems. Another thing about "correcting" the first note is that we are basically assuming they didn't understand their own music. Obviously, there are mistakes, but it is often a good idea to explore other possibilities. In this case, Francesco's piece, there is room for more than one interpretation. dt At 09:22 AM 11/27/2010, you wrote: >Dear David, > >Interesting points I never heard of before. > >In which way do the mss sources support your opinion of the >"fermata" of the first note? > >What evidence do we have to play graces in pieces by Francesco? > >Why is it possible that the first statement is not a real statement? > >Best wishes, > >Susanne To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
