Interesting discussion. For me it ties in with the question of whether a dance suite by J.S. Bach was meant to be danced to: Those dance forms were very old by 1700 - 1750. Were courtly dances such as courante or chaconne still in fashion during the height of the Baroque era, or were they considered antiques that nobody cool would be seen trying? Take this one step further and ask if Bach was merely using the old dance rhythms as a vehicle for artistic expression, to be played at any varying tempo the performer feels comfortable with, or were they meant to be danced to - implying strict meter and appropriate tempo for social dancing? BTW, it seems to me that lutes just don't fit in with the image of country dancing in the 1700s. Not impossible, but it feels more like the domain of fiddles and pipes to me. Perhaps some paintings from the era could shed some light? Looking forward to your responses. Thanks, Tom > I don't know about the scholarship, but from personal experience, I > can say that in a small room a lute can produce enough sound for a > few people to dance. Especially if you aren't competing with > post-industrial white noise from traffic, refrigerators, central > heating and cooling, etc. > > Best to all, and keep playing. > > Chris. > On Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 12:11 PM, Anthony Hind > <[1][email protected]> wrote: > > According to David v. O there is a "Tablature for baroque lute: > dance tunes. Written by Kaempfer." > [2]http://home.planet.nl/~ooije006/david/writings/kaempfer_f.html > but I will leave David to comment on that. > [3]http://home.planet.nl/~ooije006/david/writings/kaempfer_f.html > "Of course that is puritan England in 1670 - Who knows what > things > were like in other places and at other times?" William Samson > I believe during the commonwealth, courtly dances were forbidden, > but not country dancing (see Playford's English Dancing Master); > and at his daughter's wedding, Cromwell is said to have danced > all night. Perhaps the gamba (or other bowed intrument) tended to > take over from the lute among the Cromwellians, at least for > dance music? Although, as others have said, where there was only > a lute in a household, surely that could have been used? ----- > Mail original ----- De : Ed Durbrow <[4][email protected]> > A : LuteNet list <[5][email protected]> Cc : Envoye le : > Jeudi 2 fevrier 2012 6h08 Objet : [LUTE] Re: Some history > questions > > A recent Lute News had an article about this very issue. They > looked into some statistics about how many instruments > households had and > made > the proposition that if there was only a lute available and > people wanted to dance, they would have danced to the lute. I > think trends change over time. It is hard to imagine dancing > dying out immediately with the advent of Dm tuning when dance > manuals had been written in lute tab around 1600, but it is also > doesn't seem to fit the image of the kind of music that was > being played in the time > of > Baron and Weiss on the Baroque lute. On the other hand, if you > expand > the definition of what a Baroque lute is, clearly some kinds of > lutes > (theorbo, archlute, theorboized dm lute) were used in orchestras > that > played dance music. > Interesting question. I wish some musicologists would chime in. > Ed Durbrow Saitama, Japan > [1][6]http://www.youtube.com/user/edurbrow?feature=watch > [2][7]http://www.musicianspage.com/musicians/9688/ > [3][8]http://www9.plala.or.jp/edurbrow/ -- > References > 1. [9]http://www.youtube.com/user/edurbrow?feature=watch > 2. [10]http://www.musicianspage.com/musicians/9688/ > 3. [11]http://www9.plala.or.jp/edurbrow/ > > To get on or off this list see list information at > [12]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > > -- > > References > > 1. mailto:[email protected] > 2. http://home.planet.nl/~ooije006/david/writings/kaempfer_f.html > 3. http://home.planet.nl/~ooije006/david/writings/kaempfer_f.html > 4. mailto:[email protected] 5. mailto:[email protected] > 6. http://www.youtube.com/user/edurbrow?feature=watch 7. > http://www.musicianspage.com/musicians/9688/ 8. > http://www9.plala.or.jp/edurbrow/ 9. > http://www.youtube.com/user/edurbrow?feature=watch > 10. http://www.musicianspage.com/musicians/9688/ > 11. http://www9.plala.or.jp/edurbrow/ > 12. 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
