Hi Bill,
This is my interpretation of "baroque" lute right hand approach...
You need to differentiate between French and German lute style, pre-1710,
post 1710 (give er take 10) Pre-Weiss/Logy, post-Weiss/Logy.
French lute will notate thumb all the way up the chanterelle, probably for
the affect it alone can produce there, but not for general usage.
The french lutenists (almost) never used the right ring finger,
preferring the slight arpeggiation of brushing the index finger, usually
from treble toward bass, across two or more courses for chords of more than
three notes.
The french theorbists, however, did use the ring finger to pluck chords
and (speculating here) did not move the thumb from it's basses into the
confusion of the re-entry zone of the first three strings. (still more
speculation...) This may be the base upon which German style lute technique
was built. Most professional lute players after the French gave up playing
lute were accompanists in ensembles for much of their careers, crunching out
big, rhythmic chords, so they needed all four notes to sound at once. Bring
in the ring finger. But only for four note chords.
The Germans did use index-middle all the way down to the eighth string.
Again, seldom and very late in the life of the lute.
The upshot...You need to practice the pieces of French music that call for
the thumb-use high in the string wall, prepare for it. And learn to use ring
finger sparingly, if at all.
Dale
----- Original Message -----
From: "William Samson" <willsam...@yahoo.co.uk>
To: <baroque-lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Sent: Friday, October 07, 2011 9:31 AM
Subject: [BAROQUE-LUTE] RH technique?
Having come from renaissance lute with all its thumb/forefinger action
on the treble strings, I'm finding that having my thumb on, say, the
third course is making life difficult when it has to leap down to the
tenth course, for example.
I would think the answer is to do more with i,m and a on the high
strings and keep the thumb primarily for the basses. My question is,
"Is there a course beyond which the thumb should not venture in normal
circumstances?" For example should the thumb only be used on the 5th,
6th and diapason courses?
I would be interested to hear your views and experiences.
Thanks,
Bill
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