Afterthought on Fosco's scordatura. If you tune down from the first course
e' - the pieces will be in C# minor rather than B minor. B minor is not a
difficult key to play in of the baroque. guitar - but C sharp is not so
easy. Has anyone tried plahing it a a higher pitch?
Monica
----- Original Message -----
From: "Monica Hall" <mjlh...@tiscali.co.uk>
To: "Stuart Walsh" <s.wa...@ntlworld.com>
Cc: "Vihuelalist" <vihuela@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Sent: Saturday, August 14, 2010 2:33 PM
Subject: [VIHUELA] Re: Corrente by Foscarini and scordatura
I'm intrigued that you find this tuning 'sinister'. I had a go at
playing three of the scordatura pieces a couple of years ago and I found
this tuning almost intoxicating. I've dug out a rough old video and
uploaded it again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6tjQfcvqbQ
Thanks for that - very interesting to hear someone else play them. What
I
find unsatisfactory about the pieces is the octave doubling. But also
tuning the first course down a tone with gut strings - assuming that these
sound best at near to breaking point - alters the tone quality not for the
better because the string is too slack. I think the tablature tuning
grids
in Italian books may be a bit misleading in this respect - all they are
supposed to is to indicate the altered interval pattern. It would be
better to tune down from the first course - as in the Gallot manuscript
or
from the third course as in Santa Cruz and the French books, although that
wouldn't make any difference to Fosco..
I played through the scordatura pieces in
Corbetta's 1643 book recently - which uses a different scordatura in quite
a
different
way and thought them attractive.
The Sarabanda is the really strange one.Lex has written about it in the
latest edition of 'The Lute' (as you know). It's very chordal but
completely free of alfabeto and the usual chord shapes and sounds which
have been familiar for centuries.
Actually it generates its own chord shapes with which you quickly become
familiar - and in that respect the pieces are easier to play than
Corbetta.
But the harmonic language which results is more limited than with standard
tuning. I would argue that there are at least some misprints - e.g. in
the alemanda - the second 5-part chord should be played with a barre at
the 2nd fret. It is easy to get muddled with changes of tuning. I don't
want to get bogged down with harmonic analysis but at the end of the
sarabanda if the fifth course is omitted from the penultimate chord it is
a chord of the dominant 13th with a 4-3 suspension
F# B C# D
F# A# C# D
B F# B B D
According to my harmony book - the 13th was originally an appoggiatura of
the 5th of the chord (C# in this instance) but my harmony book also says
that "It is obvious that the 5th of the chord cannot accompany the 13th".
But Mr. Kitson had probably never encountered Foscarini or the baroque
guitar. Whether Fosco has included the open 5th course as well because
it is easier to play or whether it is a misprint - well that's another
story.
Lex sees it as French and slow and
sultry. I - and I'm just an amateur floundering about in these waters -
had been reading about the sarabanda as a dance that had been banned in
some places because it was so lewd! I thought it was quite fast. (But, I
suppose, a dance can danced sexually either slow or fast).
I think this business about the sarabande being lewd is a bit overdone.
There is in fact a difference between the Spanish zarabanda - which
features
hemiola and sarabande and zarabanda francese in Italian books. Hard and
fast rules are not very
helpful.
Also it is a matter of "What's in a name". Granata has called the same
piece Pasacaglia.
With all due respects to both of you who have recorded the piece - I think
you have both got it wrong. Stuart plays it much too fast so that the
harmonic effects are blurred and it is certainly not easy to play at that
speed. But Lex plays it too slowly which makes it sound like a funeral
dirge and emphasises the sinister quality. I am all for a happy medium.
Monica
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