Sorry like David, replied to the wrong list Dear Chris and All,According to Miguel Serdoura (p111-123) in his Baroque lute method, there is one explicit mention of damping in Mace (1676). He indicates the damping of a note with two small dots before it., and calls this effect "Tut". "The tut is a Grace always with the Right hand ... strike your Letter, (which you intend shall be so Grac'd) with one of your Fingers, and immediately clap on your next striking Finger, in doing you suddenly take away the sound of the Letter ..." Mace Miguel goes on to say "In the works of Adam Falckenhagen and Johann- Georg Weichenberger, we find the sign (//) which, in our opinion, indicates the same effect." Miguel considers that French musicians also used this technique, but preferred not to give indications, keeping as much as possible to themselves.
Miguel can't believe that harpsichordists used damping and sustain, but that lutists completely ignored this practice.
As to whether the use of wirewound and pure gut makes a difference, MS cites tests showing that where wirewounds have a sustain of about 6 to 8 seconds, pure gut has about 2 to 3 seconds (loaded somewhere between, about 4 to 6, I would guess). Even so, Miguel argues "that this is still too long in passages in which the harmony may change in a fraction of a second".
I have heard pieces damped that seem to become too stacatto (loss of liason), and damping should not necessarilly be used just to avoid a clash (the clash might be desirable). However, a judicious use of damping could be part of the lute players panoply. Those who want to verify Miguel's theory could listen to his latest recording, and see whether he has used damping to good effect.
Bets wishes to all Anthony Le 1 janv. 09 à 16:54, <chriswi...@yahoo.com> a écrit :
I don't know whether its a modern practice. Absence of written evidence may mean that it was done so often that it didn't need mentioning. Even with modern strings, I'm becoming convinced that we fixate on it a little too much. It is much more obvious for the player than for the listener. Since the lute has such a quick attack and rapid sustain, what a player imagines sounding like an out of control pedaled grand piano often sounds pleasantly resonant to someone in front of the lute, even up close. This is particularly true for fairly slow moving lines or bass parts that move in thirds, fourths or fifths. I'm speaking of maybe 60-75% of general bass parts. One still has to put in the effort to articulate a line for musical reasons, however. If its appropriate to the character of a bass line we often have to go to considerable lengths to keep it from sounding like a nondescript legato mush. In sections in which the Affekt calls for a staccato character and there are a lot of leaps, its a real workout for the thumb! Chris --- Edward Martin <e...@gamutstrings.com> wrote:I believe it is a modern practice, to utilize the damping effect. I though here actually is a mention in the Gallot instructions about damping basses, but (I believe we discussed this on this list 10 years ago) I had read this in a modern translation, and others pointed out that the translation into English was faulty, so my previous argument in favor of finding a reference to damping was wrong. So, to answer your question, the old treatises do not mention damping basses, anywhere. Yes, I think it is a modern practice, to help deal with wound metal bass course, which have too much brightness and sustain, requiring we must do something to tame them down. Since about 1995, I have played only gut on baroque lute, and I have forgotten how to dampen basses, because it is absolutely unnecessary. Happy NY to you, too! ed At 02:36 PM 1/1/2009 +0100, David van Ooijen wrote:--=======AVGMAIL-495CC8700000======= Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Could it be that the damping of bass strings forbaroque lute, towhich much attention is given in many if not allmodern methods forthe baroque lute, is a 20th century phenomenon thathas to do withmodern bass strings? Or are there historicalsources mentioning thispractice? David - happy 2009 to all. Here's my card:http://home.planet.nl/~ooije006/david/homepage_p.html-- ******************************* David van Ooijen davidvanooi...@gmail.com www.davidvanooijen.nl ******************************* To get on or off this list see list information athttp://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html--=======AVGMAIL-495CC8700000======= Content-Type: multipart/alternative;boundary="=======AVGMAIL-495CC8700000======="--=======AVGMAIL-495CC8700000======= Content-Type: text/plain; x-avg=cert;charset=ISO-8859-1Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Disposition: inline Content-Description: "AVG certification" No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com Version: 8.0.176 / Virus Database: 270.10.1/1870 -Release Date: 12/31/2008 =8:44 AM --=======AVGMAIL-495CC8700000=======-- --=======AVGMAIL-495CC8700000=======--Edward Martin 2817 East 2nd Street Duluth, Minnesota 55812 e-mail: e...@gamutstrings.com voice: (218) 728-1202
