Subject: Re: [VIHUELA] Re: alternative tunings for Baroque guitar - and
campanella!
Thanks for saying it's an interesting topic! There is a lot more (oh no!)
...with pictures wherever too.
Well - I couldn't find any more.....
The nice thing about the Internet is that
it would be quite a coup in itself if absolutely no one was interested.
Anything to do with the baroque guitar is so fascinating that I have just
spent an hour working out the scordaturae in Corbetta and Granata which are
as follows...if they don't get mangled in transmission
Corbetta 1643 4 4 3 3
a d g bflat d
Corbetta 1648 3 4 4 4
a c# f# b e
Granata 1659
p.82 4 3- 3 4 D minor
a d f a d
p.86 3 3- 4 3 A major
a c# e a c#
p.88 3 4 3 3- F major
a c f a c
p.93 3 4 4 4
a c# f# b e
p.95 4 3 3- 4
a d f# a d D major
They seem to re-arrange the intervals within the basic compass on the
whole.
I was hoping there might be similar alternative tunings to Foscarini's. On
the other hand there is yet another fascinating issue: why guitarists
wanted to play in strange keys? It's not what plucked instruments
typically do.
I haven't had time to do Campion in detail but his scordaturae are similar
to Granata. The Gallot ones have always defeated me because they are so
difficult to read. One possible explanation is that it enables one to use
more open course but also simplifies the left-hand fingering. In Foscarini
a lot of the chords consist just of a barre across all five courses.
I'm not sure that I do. But I uploaded a photocopy of a painting of some
children with an English guitar a while ago. I can't find it anywhere
though.
I've put it on my guitar.ning site if anyone is inteested.
Going back to Foscarini and his alternative tuning: he writes campanella
passages. Now it's probably possible to do campanellas in just about any
tuning but it's a lot easier in some than others. One easier way is
(Foscarini's) tuning in thirds (taken up in a sophisticated way by the
much later Russian guitar). Another way is re-entrant tuning. Foscarini is
writing campanellas around 1632. Is anyone else writing campanellas at
his time or before? Old Fosco couldn't have been setting a trend could he?
Well - his book is the first to have appeared in print (as far as we know)
but things have usually been round a while before anyone gets to printing
them. There are dozens of Italian mss. most of which I haven't seen and at
least one of them has mixed chords with lute style counterpoint. There are
no campanella's in Corbetta's 1639 book but by 1643 they begin to be a
feature.
They are also associated with the theorbo so may have been used by lutenists
earlier.
Monica
----- Original Message ----- From: "Stuart Walsh" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Vihuelalist" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2008 9:04 PM
Subject: [VIHUELA] alternative tunings for Baroque guitar
I have been looking at some Foscarini pieces in an alternative tuning
and,
just for the hell of it, I'm trying to do a little website about them.
My
idea is to do the website as a sort of blog - a bit at at a time.
But blog software (I'm using WordPress) only lets you put postings in
reverse chronology - the latest post is first - whereas I'm wanting to
build up the thing the normal way around.
I've given it the title, "Foscarini's 'la cordatura diferente', Russian
guitars and erotic dance" (!) Anyway it amuses me... No part of it is
quite ready yet but there are a few provisional posts already: here:
http://www.tuningsinthirds.com/Foscarini/
(anyone who's interested in these things will no doubt see where it's
going)
Anyway what I'm after is information about alternative guitar tunings
(for
Baroque guitar). I've never tried any other than Foscarini's but I know
there are lots. It would be especially interesting if there were other
guitar pieces that use Foscarini's alternative tuning - lowest course
raised a tone and top course lowered a tone B-d-g-b-d' .
The online pdf thesis of Julian Navarro Gonzalez discusses alternative
tunings on pp344-345 but I can't follow it and I can't even see
Foscarini's alternative tuning.
Any advice or sources of information on alternative tunings and any
comments, fatal flaws etc would be welcomed ( I think).
Stuart
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