Danny, Good question. The French baroque lutenists do use F# minor a lot.... Gaultiers, Gallot, deVissee, DuBut, Emond, Pinel, de St.Luc, and Mouton use it a great deal. Also, for the Germans, leSage de Richee (is he German?) and Bittner use this tuning as well. Weiss did compose some earlier F# minor pieces, I think in Vienna. It was known as the "goat's tuning", and it was well utilized. There are many recordings of this key, namely French baroque lute recordings by Hoppy (his V & D Gaultier, Mouton, Gallot recordings). The extant piece by Pachelbel is in F# minor as well (recorded by Bailes). Toyohiko's French recordings are loaded with F# minor pieces.
B minor is a different subject. Bittner opens his book with a suite in B minor, but I know of no others, with exception to the 1st violin Partita by JS Bach. Although it is not lute music, many have done it on lute. Most have transcribed it to a minor, however. So you are correct about B minor, but F# minor is very common, and a favorite tuning of many. Take care, Danny. ed PS - does anyone know of other pieces in B minor? At 12:27 PM 9/22/2006 -0400, you wrote: >As I have begun to explore the Baroque lute literature in D major and >A major tunings, I'm struck by the relative paucity of pieces in the >corresponding minor keys (F# and B). Lundgren's book doesn't have a >single piece in B minor and Weiss, while writing a fantastic F# minor >sonata, seems to otherwise avoid these keys. > >Is there a simple musical explanation for this that I am missing? Or >am I simply missing a literature that is really out there? > >Thanks > >DS > > > >To get on or off this list see list information at >http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html Edward Martin 2817 East 2nd Street Duluth, Minnesota 55812 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] voice: (218) 728-1202
