(Sorry, first wrong subject and wrong group!)
Don't know about lute songs, but early among early continuo song
singers there definitely were "falsetto" folks. Bellerofonte Castaldi
wrote in his preface in 1623:
"And because [the pieces] handle either the love or the anger the lover
feels to the loved one, [the music] is represented in the tenor clef,
where the intervals are proper, and natural to be told[!] by a male; it
appears to the author to be a thing to be laughed at, when a man, with
a voice of woman, expresses his reasons, and asks for pity in
'falsetto', to/from his loved one."
For more of the preface, see my old page:
[1]http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/wikla/mus/Castaldi.html
Arto
On 01/12/11 12:51, Martyn Hodgson wrote:
Thank you for this David,
I'm afraid I'm going to mention the dreaded 'e' word again: what
evidence have you that the male alto ('countertenor') voice was used
historically to perform lute songs?
You may care to read David Hill's recent paper in Early Music Review
(no 144): 'All Fur Coat and No Knickers - Did countertenors ever sing
lute songs before 1953?'
Martyn
--- On Thu, 1/12/11, David van Ooijen<[email protected]> wrote:
From: David van Ooijen<[email protected]>
Subject: [BAROQUE-LUTE] Re: Transposing lute tablature on sight [was
Re: A=392]
To: "Baroque Lute List (E-mail)"<[email protected]>
Date: Thursday, 1 December, 2011, 10:22
On 1 December 2011 11:08, Martyn Hodgson<[1][email protected]>
wrote:
> Further to this, all the sopranos and tenors I have worked with have
found the early lute song repertoire well within their comfortable
range: why would you wish to transpose the lute part at all?
I see. I work a lot with an altus, so I have to transpose most of the
lute songs, and many of the continuo songs; somehow we always end up
in f-minor ... |-(. To add to that, he likes to keep his options open
for a concert: a little higher or lower depending on the condition of
the voice. And I accompany in many lute song workshops. I prepare
transpositions, but somehow the right one is always missing, so I
bodge myself through the first read/sing through (can be _very_
embarrassing), but get better along the way. So much better that I
don't bother to write out the transposition for the concert at the end
of the workshops. It's a skill that comes through practise, obviously.
But with the advent of computer score making (Finale in my case) I
find my transposing skills deteriorating. Still, to be a good
accompanist, I feel one should be able to transpose, at least good
enough for first rehearsals.
David - Messiah tonight, no transpositions
--
*******************************
David van Ooijen
[2][email protected]
www.davidvanooijen.nl
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References
1. http://us.mc817.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected]
2. http://us.mc817.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected]
3. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
