I seem to have set the cat amongst the pigeons! Yet again - but I think
these questions are worth asking.
I have done a transcription of the whole passage which perhaps Stuart will
put on his site.
If he does - I have put in the open courses in red where I think they should
be included and I have put a red bracket under the passage where it seems
that you are to strum just the two lowest courses.
What I am really asking the rest of you is - Is this really the best way to
play this short passage - up and down with the thumb or one finger?
For the rest of your comments
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).
Because it is time consuming to do it this. The whole point about baroque
guitar tablature is that it is very time consuming to write out by hand.
Therefore there are all sorts of short cuts. What he has done here is quite
a common device in later tablatures. Figures are put in once with just the
note values after. Corbetta does it a lot.
On other pages he has fancy drawings - he doesn't seem
like the sort of chap who needs to worry about saving time.
Well - these fancy scrolls aren't difficult to do - and may have been put in
by the engraver - rather than Foscarini himself.
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.)
But also the single notes will usually be played with the first finger and
will therefore be up-strokes. So it is logical to put up strokes for them.
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?
Apart from Bartolotti - I don't think so and not the two lowest courses.
Invariably with Corbetta where there are only two notes in the tablature
there is a third open course which you can include.
Indeed is there much evidence of strumming only the inner three courses?
This is more common - but not easy to do well.
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?).
No!!
It is difficult to say how far other compsers were influenced by Foscarini.
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.
This is my point - you shouldn't always take things at face value.
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):
It is very difficult to comment on the rest of this - which is why I have
sent you my transcription (not guaranteed 100% accurate)
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).
Yes - this is typical of the stage between just strumming chords and real
mixed style. Most of Corbetta's 1639 book is like this.
So I think I'm agreeing with Monica that some strum signs in Foscarini
aren't actually strums.
Oh good!
If Martyn is still reading this the SPES facsimile edition of Fosco's book
includes Book 5.
Monica
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
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