PS
I've just opened my recent mailing in my inbox and noticed the =3D
signs= which have crept into the text. The Sent message is OK though -
does = anyone have any ideas what this is?
Martyn
--- On Fri, 25/4/08, Martyn Hodgson <[EMAIL PROTECTED] .uk>
wrote:
From: Martyn Hodgson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>= ;
Subject: [VIHUELA] Re: Sanz and the High G
To: "Vihuela" <vihuel= [EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Rob MacKillop"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]><= BR>Date: Friday, 25 April, 2008, 8:51
AM
Dear Rob,
How exactly is your guitar strung?. Presumably you are obliged to lower
=3D the general pitch of the instrument (say a minor third or so) to
avoi=3D d frequent string breakages of a high third course. A gene=3D =
ral
lowering of pitch will have a deliterious effect in the 'bass'
register=3D which might not be to everyone's taste. This, of course,
assumes you=3D 're using just gut throughout: with wound strings in the
basses or mo=3D dern high tensile strings on the high third course, all
sorts of things bec=3D ome possible.
In practice, I've found that whatever tuning is used there's always
some=3D thoeretical anomaly in the continuity of the 'bass' line -
this
is surely =3D a particular characteristic and, indeed, charm of the
instrument.
Martyn
--- On Thu, 24/4/08, Rob MacKillop <[EMAIL PROTECTED] ooglemail.com>=
;
wrote:
From: Rob MacKillop <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>=3D ;
Subject: [VIHUELA] Sanz and the High G
To: "Vihuela" <[EMAIL PROTECTED] .dartmouth.edu>
Date: Thursday, 24 April, 2008, 8:19 PM
H=3D
ere are two versions of Gaspar Sanz's Fuga 1:
a) no bourdons and unison third course:
http://www.songoftherose.co.uk/mp3/bg/sanz/RobMacKillopSanzFuga1.mp3
b) no bourdons and high octave third course - the highest octave on the
thumb side: http://www.rmguitar.info/mp3s/Rfuga.mp3 (on an original
instrument, mid-17thC)
Now, Sanz stipulates (Cf http://www.monicahall.co.uk/) bourdons for strumme=
=3D
d
music and no bourdons for plucked music. Nowhere does he say 'use a high
octave pairing on the third course'. We've had a few debates on this
list
about bourdons and high ocatves, and I've always accepted that Sanz should
be played with unison third course and no bourdons, but this fuga makes me
wonder. In the vast majority of Sanz's music we meet moments where lines
leap about in octaves, and it never bothers me - I quite like it, in fact;
it seems to be part of the charm of the instrument. However, when it comes
to this fuga...almost every line makes musical sense, EVERY line, with the
high octave on the third, but not so with unison third: this really
stretches the bounds of musicality, not just to our own aestehtics, but to
what was around Sanz at the time.
Someone like Sanz would have had many different guitars - different
stringing arrangements, different construction, even different pitches. Is
it not reasonable to suggest that one of these guitars might have had a hig=
=3D
h
g, but the guitar he used most for punteado style had a unison g? This fuga
sits perfectly on a guitar with a high octave third course.
Cue Monica...
Rob
PS Monica - I agree with everything you say on the subject of stringing, bu=
=3D
t
this particular piece...
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