I forgot who started this, but to whomever it concerns, the Novello Purcell Society edition has this to say: Slashed C after C and slashed inverted C after slashed C imply 'twice as fast'. Slashed inverted C after C should imply 'four times as fast' but can mean 'twice as fast'. [...] Where Purcell used different time-signatures he usually expected different tempi; the return of the same time-signature often implies a return of the same tempo, though there were not enough different time-signatures available to him for this alwys to be the case. [...] Unfortunately, Purcell's care in indicating tempo relationships is disturbed by the song-books which nearly always substitute slashed C for Purcell's Cs.
There's more, but I think this sums it up nicely. The notes have more to say on the problems in the tempo relations (the editor believes the primary source is not complete). If you're interested, I can scan the (short) notes, as well as the facsimile in the Theater of Music (The Second Book 1685). David -- ******************************* David van Ooijen davidvanooi...@gmail.com www.davidvanooijen.nl ******************************* To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
