Subject: [VIHUELA] Re: Foscarini/Bartolotti notation and music
This is the passacaglia on p.17 we are discussing here...
It is possible to play them with a single finger up and down or possibly
even thumb down and finger up but I don't think this would be the method
of choice. Including any open courses doesn't seem to be an option.
Here's the music again:
http://www.pluckedturkeys.co.uk/Bart.jpg
I've been having a go at playing the thirds with thumb up and down (as Rob
surmises) or strumming with the fingers (as Martyn suggests). Perhaps we'
ll never know - but compared to plucking the notes in this passage, the
strumming techniques would be very much more difficult to play cleanly.
If there were lots and lots of other instances of passages like this, I'd
feel a lot more confident that some very particular, difficult technique
was going on here.
But the strumming signs are unmistakably there and up and down strum
strokes too which hardly suggest simple plucking. But again, Monica has
suggested the 'strum' signs in Foscarini may not always be strum signs and
so maybe they aren't here either.
This is what I am inclined to think especially as Bartolotti puts strum
signs under single note. I think that he is just not always making a clear
distinction between strumming and playing lute style.
I can't play that passage cleanly at all with one finger or thumb - but as I
am a very mediocre player I hesitate to say it is impractical. More
talented player than myself might do it at the drop of a hat.
There are some other things I don't understand about this page of music.
Some of the alfabeto letters have a sort of squiggle through them e.g. the
letters F in bar 5 and P in bar 7?
This is one of Bartolotti's "Lettere tagliate". As you haven't got a copy
of Book 1 you won't know that in the table of chords at the beginning
Bartolotti has included 3 of these in his Table of chords - you are to omit
the 5th course from the chord. (They are actually included in the Table in
Book 2).
This is a slightly contentious issue (what isn't?). In an article which
Gary Boye wrote for the book "Performance on lute and guitar" edited by
Victor Coelho, he has asserted categorically that the purpose of these is to
eliminate 6/4 - so everyone believes implicitly that they are. If it's in a
book it must be true...
However the real point is that Bartolotti uses them in places where it is
necessary to omit the 5th course and re-finger the chord to accommodate
auxiliary notes. In the two G tagliate - on lines 2 and 4 it is impossible
to include the 5th course in the chord and play the 4-3 suspension. (Try
it if you don't believe me!). In the place where he has used F tagliata the
advantages of leaving out the 5th course are less obvious but it does
simplify the change of fingers and make a smoother transition from one chord
to another.
The thing is that when you start combining alfabeto with lute style playing
there is a lot of awkward shifting around the fingerboard.
If Bartolotti was concerned about 6/4 chords he would have eliminated all of
them not just one here and there.
I have written an article about these - which will appear in Lute -
sometime. The relevant issue now seems to have been put back for another
year - to my chagrin....
I think Bartolotti is much more concerned about practical matters - how to
place the music on the fingerboard in a way which works best.
Secondly, bar 2. I'd be inclined to play a Bb with the D minor chord - a
sultry sort of sound on the first beat and the second beat, the letter B
with the 3, would be a dominant 7th (C7). But the last note, the note A
with an ornament, can't possibly strummed. You can't physically add a note
A to a strummed C chord (alfebeto B) and trill on it.
The B flat is probably meant to be played as a single note. You can then
get your fingers in the right place for chord B. The A must be played as a
single note. This is an example of not making a clear distinction between
strumming and single notes.
There is a related issue in bar 15 (and at the end of the page). The
alfabeto letter G, at the fifth position (with a mysterious squiggle
through it) is followed by the tab notes 7 and 6 on the third course. The
first of these notes, D, would give a suspension. But you don't have any
fingers to do it - they're all used up playing the alfabeto G chord!
As I explained above - that's why there is a lettera tagliata. You must
leave out the 5th course in order to play the 4-3 suspension.
Finally, this music reminds me of a Passacagio por E in de Gallot. The
second strain in the de Gallot Passacaglio is virtually the same as the
second one in Bartolotti. And there's generally a feel of similarity.
Maybe the de Gallot piece is a Bartollotti piece.
It is actually by Corbetta - at least it is included in his 1643 book, on
p.20. It is quite possible that he borrowed a bit of Bartolotti as Granata
accuses him of doing just that....
Here it is:
http://www.pluckedturkeys.co.uk/Pass.jpg
I printed this out a long time ago and haven't noted the page number.
It's on f.119verso....
It's
from a sequence and leads on to another Passacaglio in Bb (as far as I
remember) but it sounds fine to me, ending at his point.
That's also by Corbetta.
Monica
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