That was a bit of a sweeping statement on my part. I have never had a chance to actually perform the Corbetta pieces myself but I have heard a recording of some of them - by Italian singers - which I wasn't too impressed with. (No English translation of the words!)
So I am very interested in your experiences of performing them The problem seemed to me to be the voice parts especially the bass part which covers a huge range from F below the bass stave up to middle c' or even d' but on the whole lies high. The soprano part also occasionally goes up to a" above the treble stave. Whatever pitch they are performed at there is going to be a problem for one of the singers. I wonder how experienced Corbetta was at writing this kind of thing. Of course he may have had some brilliant singers at his disposal. I seem to recall that Purcell had a bass singer at his disposal with a huge range. Monica ----- Original Message ----- From: [1]Martyn Hodgson To: [2]Monica Hall Sent: Monday, February 21, 2011 10:44 AM Subject: Re: [LUTE] Re: Jaques-Martin Hotteterre Dear Monica, You wrote ' Corbetta does so rather less - his accompaniments are predominantly strummed. I don't think his vocal pieces work very well.' Well, it's obviously a matter of opinion but all I can say is whenever I've done Corbetta's songs in concert they have always gone down very well and, indeed, have been among those the items exciting the most positive comment after the show. I will allow though that they do need good singers who understand the language and the meaning of the words and can even act a bit (ie gestures) but the tunes are also often very good (easily comparable with Lambert and Le Camus) and some of the harmonies rather more startling than the French composers. I always find it interesting that in many comtemporary French operas (noteably Lully of course) stage performers are frequently reffered to as 'actors who sing' showing, I think, where the drama of the performance lies. regards Martyn --- On Sun, 20/2/11, Monica Hall <[email protected]> wrote: From: Monica Hall <[email protected]> Subject: [LUTE] Re: Jaques-Martin Hotteterre To: "Dominic Robillard" <[email protected]> Cc: "Lutelist" <[email protected]> Date: Sunday, 20 February, 2011, 18:19 > 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. What you are saying makes good sense to me. If you are playing continuo with other instruments there is no point in trying to double the bass line. Filling in the harmony is what matters. > 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 didn't know there were two! But I think it is quite clear that strumming the accompaniment was standard practice. > 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? Grenerin seems to reproduce the bass line a lot of the time. Corbetta does so rather less - his accompaniments are predominantly strummed. I don't think his vocal pieces work very well. Monica > To get on or off this list see list information at > [3]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- References 1. mailto:[email protected] 2. mailto:[email protected] 3. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
