Just a tiny comment to add to the well thought comments by Howard:
When listening to a baroque orchestra, it has happened quite often that I hear the theorbo even when there is none in the orchestra! :-)
Arto On 17/03/14 16:12, howard posner wrote:
You play continuo, don’t worry about it, and relax knowing there isn’t any pressure on you to carry the part. It doesn’t matter whether the violinists think they can hear you. If you were playing with a big French harpsichord and baroque instruments, they might say the same, most of the time. And I’ll bet they can’t distinguish the sound of one of those cellos from the other two, and none of those cellists is writing to the cello list about his predicament. About once a year on this list I have occasion to remind someone that playing continuo isn’t like playing a lute concerto. It isn’t necessarily about being heard as a distinct, identifiable sound. You’re part of the mix. In a big group you’re there to make the overall sound fuller, or mellower, or brighter, or whatever. The group should sound better when you’re playing and worse when you’re not, even if it isn’t obvious why. You’ve done your job when the listeners like the sound, not when someone in the third row says, “really nice voice-leading on that last six-four chord by the guy playing that weird giant mandolin.” And if the sound is really so thick that it doesn’t matter at all what you play, just do your best, enjoy the show and chalk it up to practice time. -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
