Dear Chris,
You're quite right - the lap holding posture of the six string guitar
by some early 19th century guitarists does indeed pre-date Tarrega. In
fact I've a couple of engravings in my collection showing two of them
adopting this position: one is the same Carcassi depiction you mention
(which I must say looks most uncomfortable indeed with a very upright
posture etc - perhaps set up for a fashionable depiction rather than
practical playing, rather like the photograph of Frederic Brand c 1850-
see Bone p 64); but the other is more telling. It depicts Jules(sic)
Regondi: also holding the guitar in the lap but with the extension
(silver I believe) he used on the little finger to enable his hand to
play in a more extreme thumb out position than most whilst still
resting on the belly. I should have emphasised that I was really
speaking about holding the lute.
And I agree with you that no modern 'baroque' lute player appears to
adopt a "historically accurate hand position" as you put it - other
than your good self of course.
Martyn
__________________________________________________________________
From: Christopher Wilke <[email protected]>
To: Martin Shepherd <[email protected]>; "[email protected]"
<[email protected]>; Martyn Hodgson <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, 5 August 2014, 17:08
Subject: Re: [LUTE] Re: Bare spot on soundboard.
Martyn,
--------------------------------------------
On Mon, 8/4/14, Martyn Hodgson <[1][email protected]> wrote:
> Moreover, iconography etc also clearly
> shows that the lute (and theorbo
> etc) were played in a higher (ie up the
> stomach) position than the
> modern guitar which, after Tarrega, is
> commonly nowadays rested low
> down in the lap. If such a modern guitar
> posture is adopted it does, of
> course, make it harder to play with the
> historically accurate hand
> position and with the little finger close
> to the bridge.
The high position is not really an argument in favor of pinky-down.
Check out this picture of Matteo Carcassi:
[2]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matteo_Carcassi#mediaviewer/File:Matteo
_Carcassi_(1792-1853).jpg
Despite the foot stool, Carcassi is holding the lower bout of his
guitar considerably closer to the floor than modern classical guitar
players, yet obviously has his pinky planted. (Off topic, it is very
difficult to use the "a" finger with Carcassi's position. Personally I
believe that all of his famous studies are really intended to develop
"claw hammer" technique, although they are not used as such by modern
guitar teachers.)
Also, I know of no modern baroque lute players using anything close to
"historically accurate hand position."
Chris
--
References
1. mailto:[email protected]
2.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matteo_Carcassi#mediaviewer/File:Matteo_Carcassi_
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