It reminds me of the lute duets by P.P. Melii. In spite of the fact
that Melii was a well-regarded professional musician, the duets seem
completely garbled. One could recompose them, but it would be easier to
start from scratch.
Martin
On 16/08/2011 16:14, David van Ooijen wrote:
Once more I've turned my attention to the lute duets from Besard's
1617 publication. What happened here? Unequal lengths of the two
parts, false relations al over the place, the literature writes about
polychords (D major in one part, G-major in another), simultaneous
cadenses in different keys, need I go on? We all like the occasional
spicy dissonance, and for some it cannot be spicy enough, but this ...
Let me quote Julia Sutton from her article 'The Music of J. B.
Besard's "Novus Partus", 1617' (Journal of the American Musicological
Society, Vol. 19, No. 2, Summer, 1966): "While it may be that some
unusual dissonances were intended by Besard, we may well be forced to
conclude that a combination of serious typographical errors and poor
writing renders some of these works unplayable." I know how to fix it:
rewrite it, and some of you send me their fixes when I last asked
about Besard last year (was it?). But looking at the music, it begs
the question: why? Why so many errors and/or poor writing, why bother
to publish it? Is there a theory out there, someone?
David
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