Priase God for the voice of common sense.
Monica
----- Original Message -----
From: "Stewart McCoy" <lu...@tiscali.co.uk>
To: "Vihuela List" <vihuela@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Sent: Sunday, December 18, 2011 9:22 PM
Subject: [VIHUELA] Caccini's instrument
Dear Lex,
There is nothing wrong with the bass line of the theorbo crossing above
the tenor here and there, because those high notes are still perceived
as the bass line.
I have on my lap a copy of _Yorke Solos for Double Bass and Piano_, ed.
Rodney Slatford (London: Yorke Edition, 1984). If the solo part were
played at the written pitch, e.g. by a cello, the piano part would
underpin it, and no-one would bat an eyelid. However, the double bass
sounds an octave lower than written, which theoretically would create
all sorts of unwanted inversions. In practice you hear the lowest piano
notes as the bass line, even though many of them are actually above the
melody notes of the double bass.
The same phenomenon occurs with tenors singing soprano lines down an
octave.
Best wishes,
Stewart McCoy.
-----Original Message-----
From: lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu [mailto:lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu] On
Behalf Of Lex Eisenhardt
Sent: 18 December 2011 19:51
To: R. Mattes
Cc: Vihuelalist
Subject: [VIHUELA] Re: Caccini's instrument
But this isn't the problem at all! There's nothing wrong with
voice crossings per se, only if the voices involved form a fifth,
which
would change into a (frowned upon) forth. I have yet to find one
example
where this would happen with a theorbo ...
Cheers, Ralf Mattes
Crossings with the outer voices involved are often considered
problematic.
There are probably very few examples of a figured bass, rising above the
other melodies. In this specific example of the Caccini song it is the
tuning of the bass courses of the theorbo in A which invites the idea of
playing some notes in a higher octave, above the tenor. It is strikingly
different from what he has notated in his own printed score, which may
represent what he has played himself.
Lex
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