So true, Martin, that it's difficult to hold some notes as written or
asterixed. I sometimes find myself refingering a few bits to keep
things ringing better. Phalese's intabulations certainly 'evolve' over
the publications and being others' in the first place I'm not sure to
whom I should be beholden to to 'go by the book'.
It often helps to find the original chanson, madrigal or motet to be
sure what's what. Thankfully more and more are appearing on IMSLP and
other sites.
Sean
On Jan 3, 2014, at 10:37 AM, Martin Shepherd wrote:
Ooops, sorry Sean, meant to send this to the list:
Hi All,
Hold marks are found in many lute tablatures, often with the
explanation that they are an indication to hold the finger on a note.
But you don't have to do too much experimentation to find that often
it is impossible to hold the finger in that place and these marks were
used to indicate voice-leading rather than fingering. Even in quite
simple pieces, the fingers can't always literally keep the voices
going, and the art of lute playing is to give the illusion of a full-
voiced texture.
This is another example of how lute tablature is a score, a
representation of a piece of music on one sheet of paper (try reading
simultaneously from four partbooks and you'll see what I mean) rather
than a simple set of instructions on how to place the fingers.
With best wishes to all for 2014,
Martin
On 03/01/2014 19:24, Sean Smith wrote:
Dear theoj89294,
It's my understanding that they represent instances of "let this note
ring". In nearly all cases it helps the voice-leading in the polyphony
or keeps a bass note going until the next chord change.
One finds this practice in many previous lute books (though not all),
such as Antonio Rotta (a double-cross), and Simon Gintzler (asterix) -
both from whom he borrowed heavily for his publications. DaCrema, on
the other hand, not so much. SG's fantasies are labeled "Simon
Sentler" and his intabulations are (typically for Phalese)
unattributed. The major Josquin motet intabs in PP '52 are by
Gintzler. Howard Mayer Brown's Printed Instrumental Music before 1600
is an immense help in sorting out many of those anonymous settings.
Sean
On Jan 3, 2014, at 9:50 AM, [email protected] wrote:
I was looking through Pierre Phalese, Hortus Musarum, 1552
(available online - search "Phalese Hortus IMSLP" )
Phalese puts an asterix (*) on the staff often sometimes multiple
ones, and in very specific placement, and I realized these must be
markings to 'stop' a string from sounding? I am very curious about
this. Are there other examples of notations used in lute tab to stop
strings? Does this suggest the sustain of lute strings back then might
have been more robust than we may think? trj
--
To get on or off this list see list information at
http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
---
This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus
protection is active.
http://www.avast.com
