Martyn,
I agree that seicento pluckers often played "harmony below the bass." This
is another way of saying that they recognized and used chord inversion even
though musicians weren't "supposed" to be aware of root equivalency at the
time. However, we know that guitarists certainly did with alfabeto, in which
identical finger shapes resulted in harmonic units that would change position
dependent upon the tuning used.
Lute and theorbo players did as well. For example, in the songs with bass
lines and written theorbo parts in Castaldi's "Capricci a due stromenti...", he
often inverts chords to make the part idiomatic to the instrument. There's a
passage in "Al mormorio" in which the bass line steps down, A-G-F#. In the
written out thoerbo part, Castaldi harmonizes the A with a root position minor
chord on the 6th course, but then unexpectedly places a root position D major
chord UNDER the F#. Tellingly, he then omits the G because its role is to
provide smooth voice leading between the A and F#. As Castaldi has an F natural
8th course, his whole reason for introducing the change is to accommodate some
type of harmony on the F#. He could have simply played a 6/3 chord on the F# by
placing it in a upper octave, but this would have resulted in a thinner, less
resonant sonority. It is extremely interesting to note, therefore, that he
feels free to alter the chord
position where needed to make the part more satisfying according to the
resources of the instrument.
This sort of practice must be what Caccini had in mind when he
enigmatically stated in the preface to "Le nuove musiche" that, "I have made
use of counterpoint only so that the parts would agree [on paper?]". He also
says that an aria or solo madrigal performed in this manner, "will delight more
than one which has all the art of counterpoint." In other words, the bass line
may function in much the same way as the chords on a jazz lead sheet: as a
generator of notes that a player may potentially re-arrange according to
dramatic context or idiomatic needs of the instrument.
Chris
Dr. Christopher Wilke D.M.A.
Lutenist, Guitarist and Composer
www.christopherwilke.com
--------------------------------------------
On Tue, 2/25/14, Martyn Hodgson <[email protected]> wrote:
Subject: [LUTE] Re: Bartolotti's continuo treatise
To: "R. Mattes" <[email protected]>, "Monica Hall" <[email protected]>,
"Lutelist" <[email protected]>
Date: Tuesday, February 25, 2014, 4:52 AM
Thank's for this.
I can't actually see that inverted 7
6 sequences dictate a non
re-entrant tuning - the low tessitura one
sometimes has is just part
and parcel of the instrument. And I agree
with the anonymous author of
the Facebook article you mention who
wote:
' ........in the second section of the
example bars 3 and 4 show
this. The 7 6 chain shown gets very low
and dark, the 7 6 from 2nd to
4th course would be v odd with a higher
octave 2nd course.
I personally accept harmony below
the bass with 2 reentrant strings as
a pleasant sonority. the bass played with
the thumb stretched out and
the fingers v close to the bridge
ameliorates the effect to me.
Further, when realising accompaniments I
do think there's a modern
tendency to be overly concerned about
considerations of part writing
and of ensuring a particular line doesn't
jump the octave. A concern
not always shared by early players: some
of the few intabulated
realisations we have don't often
seem too bothered about jumping
around or being focused on maintaining the
integrity of an upper
line. For example passages in Kapsberger's
1612 'Libro Primo di
Arie.....' As I see it,
the theorbo is principally an instrument for
producing a bass with, where possible,
straightforward harmony to
accompany others. A good example of this
is Corradi's 1616 'Le
Stravagaze....' which generally exhibits
simple block chords played
with the bass with little or no
independent contrapuntal lines.
'Going up the neck' is necessary if one
has a re-entrant tuning (single
or double) and a high bass note which you
wish to play at the notated
octave together with some harmony (altho
of course there's no
prohibition on taking notes/sequences of
notes an octave down). For
example, with a double re-entrant
instrument in nominal A tuning: a d
just above the bass clef must be taken on
the fourth course (rather
than the third) if one wishes to play some
harmony above it (say a f#
on the third or on the first course). With
non re-entrant one could
simply play the bass on the third course
and the 3rd and, indeed, a 5th
on the second and first
respectively. Hence why 'going up the neck'
suggests a re-entrant tuning.
MH
__________________________________________________________________
From: R. Mattes <[email protected]>
To: Martyn Hodgson <[email protected]>;
Monica Hall
<[email protected]>;
Lutelist <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, 24 February 2014, 17:23
Subject: Re: [LUTE] Re: Bartolotti's
continuo treatise
On Mon, 24 Feb 2014 08:29:00 +0000 (GMT),
Martyn Hodgson wrote
> I don't have this work either - I
think.......
@Monica: are you by any chance refering
to
[1]https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.441553512620558.1073741827
.253474818095096&type=1
(Bartolotti continuo and solo similarities
- from
[2]https://www.facebook.com/Tiorba)?
BTW, there's an image of page 52. or me
this example works _much_
better in a non-reentrant tuning (N.B: Ms.
one has an error: the
second chor should read dfbflat). Why
would Bartolotti start thist
example with horribly wrong conterpoint?
In reentrant tuning the 7-6
would transmogrify into a perfect fifth (f
c) "resolving" to a forth
(f bflat) [1]. To be followed by a chain
of 2nd chords ... Yes, we all
know that a 7-6 chain can be inverted
(double counterpoint) into a 2-3
chain but we also know this doesn't work
with a third voice running a
third above the bass (since the fith
between this voice and the 7th
would invert into a (false/wrong) forth.
We know our counterpoint -
Bartolotti didn't? This all does not
happen with a non-reentrant
tuning. The one problematic spot for a
non-reentrant tuning is Ms.13 -
here the 7th (e natural, second string)
would resolve into a 6th (d,
fifth string), a problem easily solveable
by playing the resolution on
the third string. That spot makes much
more sense in an reentrant
tuning (moving from an open string g in
ms. 10 to same note fretted on
the second string, third fret ms. 11).
> And I'm not quite sure what you mean
in the page 6-7 example. But
> doesn't the use of higher positions
suggest a re-entrant (single
> or double) tuning rather than
the reverse, since it still allows
> for some harmony to be played
above the bass line?
No. Once you are an the highest string
(string 3 for an reentrant
tuning) the strings "above" will actually
be below. That's exactly
what would happen on page 52. Going up the
neck is as common on a
archlute as it is on a theorbo.
Cheers, RalfD
[1] Yeah, that's why the called him " ...
without doubt the most
skillful upon the theorbo".
--
References
1.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.441553512620558.1073741827.253474818095096&type=1
2. https://www.facebook.com/Tiorba
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