Martyn Hodgson wrote:
'
My dog's pennyworth:
Why doesn't it make sense to strum? Surely it's a particular effect he's after: I think he does indeed want it strummed.
The entire section gradually gets 'higher' and it's all part of a long rising phrase. I'm using a bourdon on the 4th but even with both 4ths at the upper octave (I just took off the 4th bourdon to try) there is still the effect of a gradual rising throughout the section and this is probably what he was aiming for. Yet another reason to give him the honour of the greatest of the 'baroque' guitarists: isn't it a great shame there's no other music, other that is than for guitar, by him to survive.
I agree there is the problem of whether to play some open courses. However, I do think he generally assumes a tie over so that, for example, from the double bar the chord (with the 5th first etc) is not 02 of course but 12. so the sequence starts from just before the double bar:
02 isn't in the tablature, is it? There is just a single note on the
fifth course at this point (line 7 bar 4).
10---/_12---,03---/_13---,310--/_312--,-033-/_-133-,-321-/_-323-,--543-/ etc lovely stuff...
- means unplayed course
_ means previous chord played on first beat
Martyn
Martyn, are you saying that all of Foscarini's strum marks are actually
to be strummed? This sounds like a bit of a daft question. But Monica is
suggesting that some strum marks aren't actually functioning as strums
but as something else.
So here's the passage, marked in red.
http://www.pluckedturkeys.co.uk/FoscoToccata-1a.jpg
Monica suggests it should be played pizzicato, lute style, with the
stroke signs indicating that you repeat the note or notes until they
change. But why didn't Foscarini just write out the notes twice (or
three times). On other pages he has fancy drawings - he doesn't seem
like the sort of chap who needs to worry about saving time. And why are
there both up and down strokes to indicate this one thing? (Monica says
it's just a sort of hangover from alfabeto.)
And Martyn suggests that the passage is strummed. Now in this passage on
line 7 there are three single notes and you can't strum a single note.
And what about the double notes. Yes, they can be strummed but is there
much evidence from other Baroque guitar music of strummed note pairs?
Indeed is there much evidence of strumming only the inner three courses?
Perhaps there is. Perhaps this is what makes Foscarini special. (But I'm
getting to get a bit sceptical now. Foscarini is supposed to have
influence others. Are there, for example, lots of passages in Corbetta,
for example, with longish passages in thirds on adjacent strings that
are unequivocally to be strummed?). What I'm saying is that if every
strum sign is Foscarini is taken literally, you are going to be using
techniques which are not much visible in other Baroque guitar music. On
this ground too, you might wonder if the strum signs really do mean
strums in all cases.
Either way, plucked or strummed, it's an ascending sequence.
As far as note lengths are concerned I think it is like this (from the
beginning of the sequence in red):
line 7: bar 3: full letter H (Bb) for a minim,then Bb and d plucked
(Monica) or strummed (Martyn). Bar 4: has four crotchets. (1)Bb and d
(2) e, (3)A and f (4)A and f.
Bar 5: (1) A and f (2)Bb and f (3) c and eb (4) c and eb. etc Mostly, in
this sequence, the notes played on the final beat of the bar are
repeated at the beginning of the bar.
In Martyn's version there is a quite tart Bb and e. Maybe! He adds a g
to the c and eb (line 7, bar 5). Maybe. And then in bar 6 he inteprets
the single note on the third course as part of an implied chord with
that note added to the previously played notes. That's what I used to
think was going on. This principle of adding a single note with a strum
stroke to a previous strummed chord, turns out mostly believable
results in this passage. But line 9, bar 2. Is the Eb to be added to the
previous G minor chord. Pretty colourful. Maybe. But now look at line 2,
last two bars. You can't add the single note (with the pluck stroke) to
the previous chord. The third position N chord (Bb) with add e is just
not 17th C harmony. (Well! I don't think it is, at least not without
resolving in some way. It's not part of some elaborate harmonic
sequence.) The third position M chord is actually physically unplayable
with the b on the first course.
Anyway, I think Foscarini has established almost from the beginning, in
the little alfabeto pieces at the start of the book, that there are
single notes (but with strum signs) interspersed with chords .For
example there may be a chord strum, a single note followed by an up
stroke, then that same chord strummed again. (The Spagnoletta on page 8,
for example. Second strain, in particular, has a third position C chord
with a Bb on the first course).
So I think I'm agreeing with Monica that some strum signs in Foscarini
aren't actually strums.
Stuart
Monica Hall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I wonder if I can elicit another Pavlovian response from Martyn - or anyone
else.
There is a Toccatta in Foscarini's 5th book on p.105.
Stuart has put it on his website for the benefit of those who don't have it
to hand at
http://www.pluckedturkeys.co.uk/FoscoToccata-1a.jpg
There is a particularly interesting passage on stave 7 starting after Chord
H at the double bar outlined in red - in particular the three bars which
follow the double bar.
It seems to me to make no sense to strum those notes on the 4th/5th
course - and it doesn't make much sense to include any open courses other
than
those he has indicated himself throughout the section although in some
places it is possible. It is just a
bit of 2/3 part counterpoint which should be played in lute style.
What I think is that to save himself some trouble he has put in the
figures only once and the stroke marks
are there to tell you how many times to play the single notes or chords
before moving to the next ones. The stroke marks are not there to tell
that you must play the notes with a finger or thumb up and down.
This is Suart's website again
http://www.pluckedturkeys.co.uk/FoscoToccata-1a.jpg
Answers on a postcard to...
Monica
To get on or off this list see list information at
http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
---------------------------------
Support the World Aids Awareness campaign this month with Yahoo! for Good
--
