Enjoying exploring my new 13c, and slowly getting the feel for right-hand string spacing and thumb placement. I'm determined not to look at my right hand, just feel my way. So, I've been slowly growing in confidence...until I read through Weiss' L'Infidele.
It's years since I listened to anyone play this suite, and it was a great joy to start reading through the Entree: 'Hey, I can do this!'. I read the Courante slowly, but thinking it a possibility I will one day be able to play it up tempo. The Sarabande, like all Weiss Sarabandes, is sublimely beautiful. The minuet lies under the fingers. So, I was beginning to think this is a suite I can get my teeth into. Then I hit the Musette... Bar 4 demands the thumb on the 13th course, the index on the 5th and (presumably) the ring finger on the 1st. The string band on my lute is 153mm, and I have large hands. I should be able to do this, but is is very hard. I can manage it, but, clearly, at a stretch. 153mm does not seem excessive, and is pretty much bang in the middle of all surviving 13c bridges, in other words an average size. Will practise of this passage make my stretch longer? Anyone else have problems with this passage? I seem (in desperation, maybe) to recall someone arguing that originally the low A was up an octave at the 6th course, and the 13th course was written in later. Any info on that? Rob MacKillop www.robmackillop.net To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
