PS to my last post, I recently found "The Art and Times of the Guitar" by Frederic V Grunfeld, Macmillan 1969 in a second hand book shop. This is fairly lavishly illustrated including: "Girl Playing the Guitar" (1847) by Gustave Courbet which definitely shows a little finger on the soundboard; and "Woman playing the Guitar" (1897) by Auguste Renoir which appears to show it there;.
Eric Crouch On 12 Oct 2005, at 14:48, Eric Crouch wrote: > 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 >> >> > >
