Thank you Professor Tayler!
Excellent points, exquisite playing, and -from what I can hear on my
wretched computer- a correct & satisfying tenor line. That would have
been a bit slow tempo for me some years ago, but as I age it's becoming
pleasant to take more time with things. And enjoy the work of others who do.
In my own career as a lazy consumer of lute food, I just plays 'em as I
finds 'em. If one version doesn't smell right for one reason or another,
I search until I find one that does. And a few times, I have also bit
the bullet and corrected inner voices- to the best of my relatively
limited, less-educated ability. Many, many of the solos exist as lute
songs- and of course the "Lachrimae, or Seaven Teares..." consort
edition- and these sources can provide some guidance for improving the
helter-skelter lute solos. And mentally slapping my own wrist as I try
to monitor my impulse to dribble out some crass ornamentation at times.
(Tourette's Syndrome on the lute can get ugly if not kept in check.)
One of these days you should do another local luter's workshop- this
time on the Dowland solos, (and maybe a couple of Danyel, Rossiter, &
Holborne tunes as well). I'll supply the single malt, maybe even the
premises, if that helps...
Dan
On 11/13/2012 12:33 PM, David Tayler wrote:
Most of Dowland's lute solos come down to use a sketch--two outside
lines, a few chords, and some "noodly appendages"--ornaments added by
lutebook owners or their copyists.
Many conclusions can be drawn, but the basic question remains, what to
do with all of these sources? Obviously, performing them "as is" is one
solution, and perfectly fine--a snapshot in time of what a lute player
of the time would have played. Absoutely OK, and there it is, in the
ms. But suppose there is more?
The other path is to add inner voices and strip out the noodly
appendages. I've given this quite a bit of thought over the last
twenty-five years, and I have a few simple guidelines.
1. Eliminate parallel fifths and octaves. Dowland never wrote bad
counterpoint, so these have to go. Famous example is the version of
Lachrimae with the parallel fifth in the opening phrase, even though
Dowland's published version is different.
2. Strip out "orbiting" noodly appendages. One sure sign of cookbook,
color-by-number ornaments are those that present a set of added melodic
sequences that start and end on the same note. Accomplished composers
rarely use these, they are intended mainly for students. By returning
to the same note, you mostly avoid the problem of parallel octaves and
fifths, thus, an amateur who could not read music and did not study
counterpoint could provide "correct" counterpoint in simple ornaments.
Ornamentation treatises mention this trick as a way to dive in to
ornamentation: nothing wrong with it, but it is for beginners--not
Dowland.
3. Make sure cadences have leading tones somewhere in the bar, and end
chords with thirds in the harmony. Although you see open fifths in mid
century lute works, by 1590 you mainly see full harmony. A skilled
player would not play G Major with a third and C "Major" without the
third just to avoid fifth position, and you see this in the ms sources.
Whether these open chords were simply sketches, or intentionally left
to the play to fill in, foreshadowing later works such as Visee, these
need leading tones.
4. Inner parts. Dowland's works at an absolute minimum always support a
tenor or alto part, or both. If they are missing, they need to be
supplied. There are a myriad of examples in the lute solos and lute
songs, and they follow simple rules of counterpoint. If you study the
chromatic fantasies, you can see complex inversions and imitation, but
ta simple, well-written line will do. After analyzing all of the works,
I can see that they were composed with inner parts in mind--that is,
there are no works that paint contrapuntal corners where inner parts
are not possible, which you see in other composers.
Following these rules, I have created a very simple example. In one
place I changed the harmony to make sure the form was "rounded," that
is, a sort of mini refrain but the rest is pretty straightforward.
http://youtu.be/Pr7jtlXk-OU?hd=1
I'm interested in new ideas going forward, before I tackle some of the
more complex works. Please feel free to make suggestions.
dt
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