Well, I can only say, from my own experience and study (such as it is) that it is not a "sacrifice" to play without bordones. It's different, but no less rich, and certainly no sacrifice... in *my* experience. In fact, it has opened up musical possibilities, as well as technical possibilities I haven't enjoyed before, and that were only hinted at by my experience with the ukulele. This is the experience of somebody who has played the guitar and other plucked instruments in a variety of styles over a period of decades -- but not the experience of a scholar. Nonetheless, I can't emphasize enough that is it no sacrifice to play without bordones, any more than it's a sacrifice to play on six rather than 11 or 13 courses... in my experience. My addmittedly limited experience with an admittedly limited exposure to the repertoire. DISCLAIMER: I'm not taking sides here. I'm just relating my experience. __________________________________________________________________
From: Lex Eisenhardt <eisenha...@planet.nl> To: Vihuelalist <vihuela@cs.dartmouth.edu> Sent: Tue, February 8, 2011 4:09:08 AM Subject: [VIHUELA] Re: The stringing of the baroque guitar - again Stuart Walsh wrote: > what do you mean by "elaborate treble dominated style"? Is it this: a predominantly melodic line interspersed with occasional chords? Which composers are you thinking of? > > The small amount of fancier music for the English guitar/guittar in the 18th century actually, literally looks like this - melodic lines - single melodic lines and then occasional chords. But five-course guitar music doesn't look like this at all. It looks like there's some kind of bass and treble - it looks like, at least, two part music. And, what's more, it sounds like it. This applies as much for Corbetta in 1643 and Bartolotti in c1655 as for Visee and Granata in the 1680s. This elaborate treble dominated style concept is a someting like modern myth. As is the idea that players would have sacrificed their bourdons for only a fistful of campanela's. Which, at the same time can be performed by making a double use of the lower courses of a bourdon tuning. Campanelas (the real ones) appear for the first time in print in Bartolotti's 1640 book. Bartolotti, as a theorbist, was probably familiar with Kapsberger's cross-string fingerings. In that sphere changing the stringing of the 4th and 5th courses of the guitar would only have been a small step. Considering the polyphonic nature of Bartolotti's music this is more likely than that he dropped his two bourdons. What bothers me is that we seem to be obliged to have an opinion on a very complexe issue, about a large and varied repertoire with many works that not many have ever played (or studied!) themselves. It is a situation which easily leads to over-simplified answers. Lex To get on or off this list see list information at [1]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- References 1. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/%7Ewbc/lute-admin/index.html