Greetings Martyn et alia, Reply interspersed below.
> -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On > Behalf Of Martyn Hodgson > Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2011 4:39 AM > To: Lute Dmth > Subject: [LUTE] RV93 - which instrument? > > The relatively low pitching of the mandora makes it an unlikely > candidate as the instrument Vivaldi conceived for RV93 and also for RV > 82 and 85 (all composed in the 1720s?): not only because of the > resulting unidiomatic high tessitura of these 'leuto' pieces on the > mandora but also because there is no evidence of this instrument being > known in Italy around this time. Bear in mind that, although the large > continuo gallichon in A (or B) had been around in > Bohemia/Silesia/Bavaria from the 1680s, its smaller cousin the mandora > tuned a forth higher (also, confusingly, often called gallichon) was > only developed during the early 18th century with peak popularity in > these and some other (generally North German) States in the 1740s to > 70s. [Eugene C. Braig IV] Musing upon the possibility of mandora is not without reason. The chamber works for "leuto" were dedicated to Wrtby, a Bohemian noble. While I certainly haven't had the benefit of inspecting the manuscripts (and certainly don't know a thing about paper even if I had), I have also read they were drafted on paper of Bohemian origin. It is assumed Vivaldi wrote these pieces while he visited Prague in 1730. While not conclusive, I do think those points make at least a fair case for mandora. While I have yet to hear them performed on mandora, I wouldn't point my finger and shout "HIP foul!" if I did. I suspect I would even enjoy the hearing. Really, with nothing of the solo part but a melody line, I can't imagine it would be too difficult for any competent performer to leave first position and realize these convincingly on mandora. If written during a short-term visit to a foreign land at the request of a Bohemian noble for an instrument with which Vivaldi couldn't have had much familiarity at home, I wouldn't expect Vivaldi to have intimate familiarity with composing in that instrument's idiomatic range. Liefeld (and I suspect others) also point out that the trios were numbered "2" and "5", leaving the tantalizing possibility that several other such pieces are out there (perhaps a cycle of 6?). Purely speculation on my part, but if these only existed in manuscript for the benefit of a noble dedicatee, and if that noble played them on mandora, I wouldn't be surprised if those that Wrtby enjoyed playing got played, moved about as needed, and eventually lost, while those that he found unidiomatic might have been shelved and preserved for our later discovery; i.e., perhaps there are "leuto" works in this cycle that are more idiomatic to mandora and that have been lost. Again, purely speculation and (weighing nothing) worth exactly its cyber-weight in any precious metal you choose. Whatever, I really doubt Vivaldi would have taken offense to these being performed on whatever lute-alike, especially considering he was willing to rearrange his own works or to jot alternate soloist designations on his manuscripts. > It is much more likely that the instrument required is the 18th > century Italian 'leuto' (sometimes but by no means always in its > arcileuto configuration) tuned, I and others have suggested, like the > old lute in a nominal G (but sometimes A); an E tuning has also been > proposed - tho' this is most unlikely in view of the string length of > these instruments. The general size of these instruments can be deduced > from contemporary iconography and there are good early/mid 18th century > Italian paintings showing lutes being played (often just 7 course > instruments - perhaps even old lutes?) suggesting string lengths close > to old G lutes (ie generally low/mid 60s cm). A number of these > instruments survive in modern collections and often in a pristine state > by makers such as Radice. [Eugene C. Braig IV] I have been fortunate to inspect a couple of these pieces in person. I am particularly fond of Presbler's work in this field, although it came a few decades after Vivaldi. In general, the handful of extant pieces seem to imply they were much more common/popular following Vivaldi's death, although there is an early (and somewhat smallish) 5-course piece by one of the Sellas family (late 17th c.). Relevant to the discussion at hand, a new and excellent recording of the bulk of Vivaldi's lute and mandolin works was recently released on Brilliant Classics (only the whopping grosso RV 558 is omitted in favor of a realization of RV 780 on harpsichord). I ordered my copy following Christmas, and it coincidentally arrived just yesterday. Instrumentation follows the recently popular status quo: RV 82, 85, and 93 on archlute by Diego Cantalupi; RV 425 and 532 on 6-course mandolino/i played by Mauro Squillante and list-occasional and mandolin scholar extraordinaire Davide Rebuffa; and RV 540 on D-minor lute by mandora scholar Pietro Prosser. The works with archlute are performed one instrument per part without keyboard instruments in continuo, and I find myself really liking the clarity that instrumentation provides. FYI: http://www.brilliantclassics.com/release.aspx?id=FM00350813 Enjoy! Eugene To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
