Dear baroque lutenists, a little while ago I wrote about three pieces I played in more or less in the "croquis" way, not "prima vista", but perhaps "terza" or "quarta vista". Now I made a couple of pieces to 11-course lute that most certainly were not "croquis"!
Why is it always so that when the name "Gaultier" is connected to the piece, the piece is demanding? :-) And even when the pieces look like easy, they really take time to become even playable... And the easiest looking places can be the hardest. And also some hard looking places turn out to be most cleverly written to the fingers, who just happen to be there, when needed... Those two pieces are E. Gaultier or Mesangeau: Sarabande, and E. Gaultier: Chaconne. Both from Saizenay mss. Some comments and links to my far too unpolished versions: 1) E. Gaultier or Mesangeau: Sarabande (ms. Saizenay II p.94): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07cb4AP83XM http://www.vimeo.com/9467350 The piece looks like an easy one. It is not! I guess I spent several hours with the "easy" second bar embellishment, and it still isn't natural at all; the decorations that are part of the melody are really, really difficult! In this Sarabande I tried to achieve more of a dramatic effect than an elegant feeling - I think too often French baroque is taken too elegantly. Well, I guess my version is perhaps too rough - you know we Finns are primitive... ;-) 2) Ennemond ("Vieux") Gaultier: Chaconne (ms. Saizenay p.20): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItlcqokJUMc http://www.vimeo.com/9467697 This piece looks like a tricky one. But it isn't that tricky. Here the fingers just seem to happen to be in the right place at the right moment. That doesn't mean _my_ fingers always were there... ;-) Anyhow, it is interesting to find out that the difficulties and easy/natural places of pieces are in unexpected places... One other thing: I've tried the right hand position of Mouton (in the famous picture). It seems to work and also produce good sound. Especially in the tricky Sarabande I managed (in places...) to use that - every now and then much better than in the "tube" version! But the relative "easyness" of the Chaconne just took my right hand every now and then to the position I am so jused to... :-/ All the best, Arto To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
