There is a discussion of this point in "The Guitar and Its Music", by James Tyler and Paul Sparks (Oxford Early Music Series from OUP 2002 - ISBN 0-19-816713-X) pages 259 - 60. They begin by quoting Moretti from 1799 who indicated that "The little and ring fingers of the same hand ought to rest on the table of the guitar in the space between the bridge and the soundhole or rose, close to the first string and nearer to the bridge than to the rose" Tyler and Sparks go on to say that the practice of placing the little finger on the table persisted well into the nineteenth century but interestingly I can't see that they cite any sources later than Moretti.
Eric Crouch On 12 Oct 2005, at 10:35, Rob MacKillop wrote: > I can't remember if I signed up to this list or not. Is it just > sleeping? > Have we exhausted the topic? > > Here's a question. I'm interested in the influence of baroque guitar > techniques on early classical guitar. Sor mentions the use of > placing the > right hand little finger on the soundboard when his thumb moves > over to the > treble strings (presumably when playing thumb/index passages). Moretti > avoids the third finger (like Sor) which makes me feel he too has > his little > finger on the soundboard. And there is a drawing of Regondi (hardly > early > CG) with a thimble-like contraption on his little finger, which > touches the > soundboard. > > Is there other evidence of this practice? I'm not at all interested in > discussions about whether it is a good technique or not...If it was > good > enough for Sor, then it is good enough for Sor. > > Rob MacKillop > www.musicintime.co.uk > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html >
