To defend my fellow players: We have a problem that researchers don't have. We sometimes are forced to make decisions to be able to perform the music. And on top of that we have to find ways to understand the music (and preferably appreciate it as well), otherwise a good performance cannot be the result.
About your points 1-6. In the past 30 years, attempts were made to revive the works for the baroque guitar. Some players have been seeking solutions for practical problems in points 1 and 2. I would not qualify this as 'a very narrow interpretation of the rules of music theory.' When speaking of 'following the wrong star' I meant to say that researchers as well as players have thought that there is a relation between campanela's and the re-entrant tuning. The fact that campanela's are there does probably not tell us that bourdons are absent. Items 4, 5 and 6: no comment. Then point 3. That's me! (not the part about the 1st year harmony course... we had to write serial compositions a la Anton Webern. I learned to appreciate dissonants there). As a matter of fact I did not invent the theory about leaving out notes with Corbetta. You'll find it Richard Pinnell's thesis from 1976. I think it is a credible theory. If we do not approach la Guitarre Royalle like this, we end up with a huge number of very unusual (sometimes really ugly...) harmonies. The question is only how to work with it. Of course I am very much aware that it is a serious crime to leave out notes from a piece of music. But if these are just fingerings (notated for 'convenience' -as Pinnell remarks), not meant to be played then who's a fool? He who plays them or he who leaves them out? Once I had chosen to work like this, I had to make decisions on every single strummed chord (only the ones with a barre). On my Corbetta CD I did in fact play quite many 6/4 chords. Lex > > The emphasis is on narrow interpretation. Included in my definition are the > following > > 1. Players who think that a high octave string should be used on the 3rd > course to eliminate all skips of a 7th in the melodic line. > > 2. Players who think that octave doubling in campanellas should be > eliminated by selective plucking > > 3. Players who think all 6/4 chords should be eliminated simply because > they were taught that they were unacceptable in their first year harmony > course - in spite of the fact that > > a. they are clearly notated in the tablature > b. the left hand fingering is even given for them in some sources > (including Corbetta) > > 4. Players who think that the only dissonances allowed in the 17th > century were chords of the 7th and 4-3 suspensions. > > 5. Players who invent their own rules of musical theory and try to make > the music comply with them rather than studying the original sources to try > and understand what different composers were trying to achieve with the > resources at their disposal. > > 6. Players who think that there is one big Rule Book in the Sky which all > composers adhere to religiously. > > I think most "scholars" are actually more broad minded and intellectually > inquisitive than many people who play the baroque guitar. > > M > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html >
