List: The Burwell informant makes it clear that the ring finger is not used:
"For the forefinger of the right hand we mark one dot; for the second finger, two dots. The two other fingers we do not use." (Dart, 31) This is in line with the printed French sources prior to 1700 (Gault I and II, Gallot, Perinne, or Mouton), which like Mace, never mention the ring finger. Nevertheless, as Robert mentioned with the theorbo, along with my earlier post regarding the use of the ring finger (triple dot) in the angelique notation from Monin (1664), there appears to have been some use of the ring finger in the performance of plucked strings in 17th and very early 18th-century France, although not at all present in any of the surviving lute sources. It almost appears that the French lutenists did everything they could to avoid using the ring finger. So what about the ring finger in the later German (18th century) repertory? Is there a French or an English connection? Are Weiss and Baron emulating a similar style of French lute music that Bittner inherited from chez Gaultier? To me Bittner is reminiscent of the Germans that flourished in Paris in the last half of the 17th century who worked as copyists for Lully and who were responsible for bringing French style to Germany (Muffat, Bleyer, JKF Fisher, Schmierer, etc). I always thought it was kind of cool that Blancrocher (Charles Fleury) was pals with Froberger, (he breathed his last breath in the latter's arms after falling down the stairs). The keyboardist was certainly musically indebted to his Parisian associates. Cheers, Jorge To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
