I guess you are right about the character of this music as show-off.
It's just fun to listen to someone developing variations.
If you don't listen, the mood is constant and doesn't distract.
It's basically Jazz or Blues, as Victor Coelho put it.
Definitely the fanciest ideas I found in the Wurstisen Lute Book Vol. 6.
On 10.08.19 10:26, Sean Smith wrote:
As far back (at least) as Paladin's 2nd Libro Primo there seems to be a
tradition(?) of the Galliard Antico switching to a major key for the
Represse. section. In the Adrianssen it not only switches to major but
alternates between the I and the V. This interestingly echos the
Traditorella (see the Munich 266 ms) where the represse alternates
between I and V.
Getting back to Adr. there are dozens of variations on the Antico (per
book!) and I get the idea that if it wasn't to be danced to then it was
wallpaper music. (V. Gallilei boasts of hundreds in his Intavolatura)
Rather fancy sometimes but background music in that I can't imagine
anyone paying attention to all those variations beside the players
themselves. And unless you can rattle through those passaggi like, say,
Alan Holdsworth or John McLaughlin, it'll be hard to keep up with a
spirited galliard dancer. So maybe it was player "fun" or even
excercises; hard to say. They may even fit together as duets, trios or
beyond. Once you had the progression memorized and a few tricks up your
sleeve there's nothing stopping you from playing all night, solo or
otherwise. So maybe it was "show off" music, too.
The dances in 266 are a bit easier and I'm sure a good player like P.P.
Borono or Marco would be able to keep up with even the rowdiest of
dancers. Add a cittern or two, another lute or three and a gamba and
you might even make enough noise to compete with the boots, babble and
brandy. At this point the meantone argument becomes moot.
And seeing your current note, you're right. I must have been thinking
of the '92 Adr. The collections of Anticos in Phalese make an
interesting progression from '63 through the Adriaenssens. You'll find
yet more overlap between the '71 and the Adr '84. And how about that
Passemezzo ficta? Is he just messing with us now?
my slack 2 cents, Sean
ps And those variations you first mentioned would be a nice texture
under a gamba or fiddle solo.
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