Hello, Today I had the time to look through part of the facsimile of Vol. 1 of the Peters Edition of Weiss (London Manuscript). My search was specifically for pieces by Weiss that use only 11 courses, not 13, since I am lucky to be picking up a new 11 course lute in October. I came across some simple things that set me wondering (by the way, I am a harpsichordist by training, not really a lutenist- yet, so if my thinking is skewed, just say so.)
I got puzzled by the Sonata 12 in A major (starting on page 51v) where everything is clearly for 11 course lute, going down only to the 11th course with a (4) below staff...Except for ONE note in ONE movement, the Menuet on page 54r, measure 15 which uses one single note on course 12 (5) for B. I find this utterly strange, but maybe I am missing something here. Why is this strange to me? Well, if we assume the one note on the 12th course was on a 13 course lute, then why did Weiss avoid using the low A of the 13th course for a piece written in A Major? It seems rather unnatural, even peculiar to me. Indeed, it is not in keeping with they way he uses low notes in other pieces. In addition, the other Sonata in A Major No. 16, within volume 1 of the London Manuscript on the other hand makes full use of the 13th course A everywhere... In my mind, only four reasons are possible for this =8Clone note' as far as I can judge: -Was this Sonata meant for a 12 course lute, so there was no low A available, just a B which was used just once? -is this perhaps an example of one of his first pieces written for the 13 course lute and he (or his pupil ?) were getting used to it? -A mistake or addition? -The piece originally belonged to another suite and was copied here inadvertently without regard to the =8C13 course nature' of the other pieces in (Volume 1 anyway) of the London manuscript? (The ms is not chronological as Time Crawford and others have already clearly noted, so could this be an earlier piece to begin with?) If any of the experts who inhabit this list could give me any ideas or comments about this, I would be really keen to hear from you, as I am really intrigued by it. Thanks in advance, Theo -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
