Thanks for listening,
At the time leading to this concert I was playing without bourdons and kept it so. I like to avoid the bass line when playing continuo with gamba, especially with full re-entrant tuning. This tuning also makes continuo playing easier; you don't even have to worry about where you put the notes required; it just seems to fizzle out all together correctly. Also, playing thirds to the bass and what not can be done while a chord is still held and ringing (campanella)which lends itself to a fuller sound. I suppose you can do this with any stringing but you will be getting in the gamba's bass line's way. On the other hand, an experienced cembalist once questioned my method of leaving the bass out, there was gamba, cembalo, theorbo and guitar for the continuo part. Also, Stephen Stubbs, not the other one, said he just couldn't fathom playing continuo without playing the bass line. I don't know why Grenerin's BC is so flimsy, Corbetta's is a bit fuller, but they all still pluck the bass line? Dominic -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
