We had just last week (in France) a course for musicians wanting to play for dance sessions, with course for dancers too. Very interesting, with some workshop for renaissance dance, early Italian with Veronique Daniels (teacher at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis) and also Spanish baroque dances with Ana Yepes (the daughter of Narcisso...) french ren. with Robin Joly, and the lute workshop with Pascale Boquet (well known french lutenist with great experience of ren. Dances and continuo, she is the president of the French Lute Society and had wrote many publications, one on doing continuo with old tuning (in fact on a ren. Lute) (vol 12 of Le Secret des Muses collection, on the French lute society web site) and another on improvisation on standard grounds... Perhaps such courses should be organized in other countries too... very interesting for any lutenist ! The course was organized by the "Compagnie Outre Mesure" (I'm afraid the web site is only in French) : http://www.compagnie-outre-mesure.com/
for the publications of the French Soc. : http://www.sf-luth.org/en/?%26nbsp%3BMusical_Publications/Le_Secret_des_Muse s Val -----Message d'origine----- De : [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] De la part de [email protected] Envoyé : mercredi 2 novembre 2011 02:44 À : Lute Net; Stuart Walsh Objet : [LUTE] Re: strumming Gervaise I think the comment about looking for the correct tempo by knowing how it was danced is spot-on. There are now quite a few Renaissance dances filmed and available on YouTube. Assuming that these troups are performing the dances "correctly", an average tempo for a dance like #s 39 & 40, Bransle IIIand Bransle IV, would be somewhere between quarter note = 196 and 212 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWNe-6EdsBo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBnlfigRQlw As for MHO on strumming: four part arrangements for different voices / instruments lend themselves to chord changes on every beat when the arranger desires it. But this is not practical for chordophones. For actual dancers, the correct rhythm and tempo are paramount. Trying to strum a different chord on every beat at these tempos would be distracting in most dance situations and potentially ruinous. Better to accommodate the chord structure to the limitations of the instrument, and the harmonic rhythm to the rhythm of the dance. Playford is alright, but for these dances Thoinot Arbeau's "Orchesography", published in 1589, may be even more enlightening. It shows how to dance bransles and gives reccomendations on tempos. (Available cheap from Amazon). No matter what, if you're actually playing for dancers, the rhythm and a rock-solid correct tempo are THE most important aspects. Everything else is secondary (yes- even the melody ;) Good dance players would have known particular dance melodies by memory, and would have known from experience how to strum to facilitate the dance. Like Ron Andrico said in his post - it ain't rocket science. It's a matter of really knowing the dance and what fits musically. Hope this helps, Tom Draughon > How would a strummer strum chords to these tunes composed (arranged?) > by Gervaise in the 1550s? > > http://www.pluckedturkeys.co.uk/Gervaise/ > > They are strong melodies (Poulenc arranged some Gervaise dances for > piano - but not these particular tunes). Maybe you just strum a chord > according to the bass line. It's easy enough to work out what each > chord would be. But playing at speed it would be formidably difficult > to actually play them unless you were a Freddy Green-type > professional. These Gervaise arrangements are in four parts and, as it > stands, the bass is very easy to play as a single note. But really not > so easy at all when the chords are changing very quickly. > > But it's often said that strummers strummed in these, and even > earlier, times. And, if so, surely they would have strummed to > accompany tunes like this. Would they have strummed a chord for each > note as dictated by the rules of four part harmony? Or something > simpler - but potentially more rhythmic? > > > Stuart > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html Tom Draughon Heartistry Music http://www.heartistry.com/artists/tom.html 714 9th Avenue West Ashland, WI 54806 715-682-9362
