First, as I've said before: a guitar accompaniment is not a vaild source for continuo realizations! Guitar players where actually known for there inability to play sophisticated music (and that's why everyone and their grandmother sneered at them).
This is an outrageous remark. Certainly there were some people in the 17th century who disliked the guitar and had their own agenda to pursue. There are apparently some in the 21st century too. But there is a substantial repertoire of fine music for the guitar - by Bartolotti in particular, as well as Corbetta, De Visee and many others. Several of the guitar books include literate example on how to accompany a bass line. These do sometimes indicate that compromise was necessary because the instrument has a limited compass. There are for examples in Granatas 1659 book where although the bass line indicates a 4-3 suspension over a standard perfect cadence with the bass line falling a 5th he has rearranged the parts so that the 4-3 suspension is in the lowest sounding part. There is no earthly reason why this should not be acceptable. And no reason why lutenists should not have done the same if this was inconvenient.
Monica
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