Ralf,
judged by the score of vol 1, the music would go up to the 17th fret on an instrument in
A. Examples of lute music in octave transposing clefs are too many to cite here. I too
thought of mandolin music, but the tuning wouldn't seem to fit. As becomes clear from
many chords of up to five notes, the best tuning would be a mandora in E, especially
since sonata IV requires a third and sixth course "in effetto maggiore", which
means F sharp, judged by the music. A lute tuning in E would already have that F sharp.
Maybe Anthony has a discussion of the possible instrumentation somewhere?
as the lute sound was understood mainly as a 16'-register in the
18th century, it is maybe not that much of a problem.
Which 18th century source does state this explicitly?
None. That's my conclusion based on the surviving evidence.
Regards
Stephan
Am 13.04.2014, 23:09 Uhr, schrieb R. Mattes <r...@mh-freiburg.de>:
On Sun, 13 Apr 2014 22:16:16 +0200, Stephan Olbertz wrote
Dear Christopher,
I was a bit hasty, I'm afraid, and didn't look closely enough to
Anthony's sample, assuming it was all simple octaving basses. I
purchased a pdf and found several instances where indeed the lute
bass has a different, lower note than the violoncello.
Only commenting the sample page: nowhere does the "liuto"-Bass play
below the notated bass voice. Unless you follow the theory that the
"liuto" voice is notated an ovtave higher than intended. But why would
one notate in the highest available key while much better fitting clefs
where widely in use (the combination F bass clef and C soprano clef,
pretty much the standard combination for keyboard music for quite some
time in the 18th century, works extremly well for lute music).
And let's not forget the possibility of an archiliuto tuned in A. That
would put the highest note of the minué on the 11th fret. Not too
different from the demands of late german lute music.
My first impression was actually: this looks and sound like music for
mandolin or some similar (plectrum played) instrument ...
Now, as
Daniel remarked, this actually seems strange. But on the other hand,
as the lute sound was understood mainly as a 16'-register in the
18th century, it is maybe not that much of a problem.
Which 18th century source does state this explicitly?
Cheers, Ralf Mattes
--
Viele Grüße
Best regards
Stephan Olbertz
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