Hello David: I share your puzzlement at how Besard could have been so careless, especially in his ensemble writing. I think he may have had a different idea of what it means to print lute music in tablature, sort of an extension of my theory that music in tablature is not meant to be regarded as a finished product but rather a reservoir of information - especially with intabulations of polyphony. When playing from tablature, it is rather like adding water to a dried food product. Maybe Besard was just suggesting some unfinished ideas, assuming capable players would figure it all out. Or maybe he was just too busy to pay attention to the details - he was a rather busy individual. Ron Andrico > Date: Tue, 16 Aug 2011 17:14:33 +0200 > To: [email protected] > From: [email protected] > Subject: [LUTE] Besard duets once more > > 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 > > -- > ******************************* > David van Ooijen > [email protected] > www.davidvanooijen.nl > ******************************* > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
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