Hi Chris, I recall this damping discussion well over 10 years ago on this list, and, many years ago, I contributed something which was disputed by one person (I cannot recall who the person is). There may be one source where we are instructed to dampen, and this is in Gallot's book.
I shall repeat what I wrote, and I will leave it up to the reader if this is true or not. The dispute was in the translation from old French to modern English, where the person stated that the translation does not accurately reflect what Gallot was saying. If Lundgren's translation is accurate, then this is one example where a baroque lutenist [Gallot] was attempting to convey instructing the reader to not allowing bass courses to ring on inappropriately. Stefan Lundgren published a book, "Baroque Lute Companion". In this book he included all the forwards/instructions from the published books of Reusner, Denis Gaultier, le Sage de Richee, and Gallot. What he translated from the Gallot book was on item # 4: "Dampen lower strings with the right [plucking] hand thumb where appropriate to avoid bad sounds [i.e., false or muddy harmonies]." The original statement in French is: "Arrester le pouce sur toutes les cordes qui se trouvent dessous pour eviter les mauvais sons." If correct, this is an example of instructing us to dampen basses. ed At 08:47 AM 2/24/2013, Christopher Wilke wrote: > All, > There is period evidence for the employment of bass damping > technique. A staccato symbol (a dash above the notes) is found in later > ornament tables, specifically the "Falckenhagen" Nuremberg table and > the very similar Manieren chart from Johann Christian Beyer's > collection of "Herrn Professor Gellerts Lieder..." > In the Falckenhagen example, only fretted notes on the fingerboard > are shown, but Beyer includes an open bass. An example of its use is in > Straube's G Major Sonata at the end of opening gesture, were the > staccato symbol is used with a 12th course bass and again with an 8th > course bass. Very short articulation is further underscored by the > symbol being followed by a rest. Sometimes, the actual word "staccato" > is written in, as in the Polaca movement of the anonymous D-minor > sonata in the Rosani lute book. There, a series of fairly quick chords > with both stepwise and leaping open basses is marked "stacc." The > passage is repeated at different pitch levels with other open basses. > The physical distance between the basses and treble courses makes it > impossible to damp the low courses with anything other than the right > hand (for example, there's not enough time to place the left hand > across all 13 courses and get back in position to fret the next > chord). Not stopping these low notes would result in a muddy campanella > mess beneath crisply articulated sonorities in the treble: hardly > likely, even with "self-articulating" gut. > While this does not prove how regularly bass damping was employed, > it does demonstrate that right hand damping was within the conception > of players and that some technique for it existed. In the tables, there > is no explanation of how to actually execute this damping, which > implies that players would be expected to know how to do it because it > was already part of the standard technique. > Chris > Dr. Christopher Wilke D.M.A. > Lutenist, Guitarist and Composer > www.christopherwilke.com > > -- > > >To get on or off this list see list information at >http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html Edward Martin 2817 East 2nd Street Duluth, Minnesota 55812 e-mail: [email protected] voice: (218) 728-1202 http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1660298871&ref=name http://www.myspace.com/edslute http://magnatune.com/artists/edward_martin
