The accompaniment for all the lute songs in Bataille's prints as from 1608 were conceived for the 10c theorboed lute with renaissance tuning in A. Mersenne explained the instrument in 1636, as explored by Ingo Negwer in his thesis in German (Laute und Theorbe in Marin Mersennes Harmonie universelle, Frankfurt, 2000). The rendering in staff notation is not a transposition.
The style of the accompaniment of 1608 considerably differs from the style of the courante in Lord Herbert's lute book, which was much later written in the broken style. Broken does not refer, in this case, to the breaking of the parts but to the breaking of the melody. That is the characteristic trait of that style. In his arrangement, Ron has transposed the chanson down a fifth, but not the accompaniment. Instead, he has written a new accompaniment along the lines of the solo courante. And that is remarkable, indeed, for at least two reasons. First, he could easily have transposed the accompaniment just as well, putting basses up an octave again where necessary. He didn't do that, dismissing the existing accompaniment for a new one that he wrote on his own. All is well that ends well, one might say. But second, the much later courante on the chanson was conceived in the broken style. That style was used in solo music and not in accompaniment, precisely because the melody itself is broken rhythmically. That way, the melody is distinctly and audibly highlighted. It may be an interesting task to study both Ron's and Bataille's accompaniments and find out where they differ and why and to which effect. Mathias -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- Von: lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu [mailto:lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu] Im Auftrag von Matthew Daillie Gesendet: Samstag, 15. Oktober 2016 21:11 An: Roman Turovsky; Ron Andrico; lute@cs.dartmouth.edu Betreff: [LUTE] Re: Saturday morning quotes - A HIP score On 15/10/2016 21:05, Roman Turovsky wrote: > little squeaky lutes in A are very likely a modern anachronism, > considering that the majority of voices work much better with larger > lutes tuned a whole 3rd lower - to E, or even D. > RT One does not need to use a 'little squeaky lute in a' to accompany these airs de cour (although I have had the pleasure of playing two 10-courses in a'415 that were anything but squeaky). One should obviously use whatever lute suits the singer. To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
