Arthur, I wrote this Thursday and lost it. I found it in my "drafts folder" tonight so I send it on without review.
Arthur, I can't disagree with anything you say. Except that I didn't mean to imply that the lute was a part of the Roman ritual. And you are right in saying it was a tenet of the sect rather than a universal practice. But new as I am to the lute and its history I see in David van Edwards' informative history on his web site (and I will allow that he may be wrong in the eyes of others, but it looks well researched to these new eyes) that much of the lute making was in Germany, not that that suggests anything other than that Germany was a place where there were many Protestant sects. Remember that the Anglicans (Epicopalians in the US) were considered Protestant and still are, and that before Martin Luther. From the top of my head as I type I can't remember where Calvin was from, but I associate him with Scotland. Then there was Wesley, and a number of other different interpretations of Christianity. The very Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth Rock in your neighborhood did so for two reasons. One to free themselves of the liturgy of the Protestant Anglicans and follow their strict interpretation of the scriptures (after all the first Protestant was Henry VIII because he couldn't get a divorce), and the second was because they ran out of beer in their great circle route to Virginia Colonies and had to put into port in new territory (a bit of poetic lisence there, but what the hell). Not all on the Mayflower were the religious protesters looking for a freedom to be strict, there were adventurers and others. A mixed bag. The point being that the arts are a sensitive animal, and that a change in emphasis whether made by the popularity of a particular sect for a period of time or by decree can influence the future of that art. None of us know what happened, we only guess. But don't categorize the Protestants as a group, they are merely defined as "non-Roman" Christians. Some are fundamentalist and some are almost agnostic (many of the founding fathers considered themselves to be "Deists"). So with regard to the music, if a significant portion of the population accepts that song whose words aren't in the Bible then they won't listen to that song. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Arthur Ness (boston)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "LUTE NET" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2003 9:48 PM Subject: Re: Holbein, addendum > <<snip>> > > Jon Murphy write: > > >>>>You are both right and wrong. It wasn't the lute per se that was > considered ungodly in the reformation, it was all music of the Catholic > liturgy. > > <ajn>There is little evidence of the use of lute in the Roman Rite. For > example, pictures of services seldom show a lute. But a manuscript copied > in Naples has next to two pieces the indication "Van Geligha," causing one > chap to declare in his dissertation that it must be a piece by a Dutch > composer. But in Italian the word means "Gospel," and so this would be a > rubric reminding the lutenist where it would be apporpiate to play the > piece during Mass. The untitled piece is Josquin's famous (in the lute > world) motet "Benedicta es coelorum Regina," with its third part (The > popular lute intabulation "Per illud ave" is left out). > > <><><>The French Psalter (1562) was a primary, but there was also a German > one and an English one (that brought to the States by the Pilgrims in > 1620).<><><><><> > > I think it is more a tenet of the sect, rather than a universal practice. > Just as some churches still consider dancing to be a sin, while others have > dancing as a part of the devotional. And the Motu Proprio of about 1900 > had a long lasting reform of Roaman church music with the revival of chant > and Palestrina style, and the ousting of the Italianate opera style of > church music. > > A Protestant minister is known to have brought two lutes to the New World > on the Mayflower, and he also had Richard Allison's _The Psalms of David in > Meter [for lute and voice]_ (London 1599). Allison is a first-rate > composer whose intense music deserves to be heard more frequently. There > is a "complete-complete" edition of his solo lute music (and bandora and > cittern pieces) publ. by the Lute Society (UK) and edited by John Robinson > and our Stewart McCoy, with an in-depth biographical sketch by the late > Robert Spencer. This is an exemplary collected edition, because all > variant versions of Allison's music are included, a procedure that is now > becoming standard practice in critical editions of lute music. > > Later the favorite instrument of the American colonist was an instrument > called the "cittern." I use the quotation marks advisedly, because I > wonder if it was a true cittern or an English gittar. It seems to have > been more popular than even the harpsichord or flute or violin. Often in > the home, the cittern was stored in the linen closet. Why? There was a shop > here in Boston that drew the metal strings. > > <<snip>> > > Speaking of Palestrina, he is said to have composed "at the lute," as some > later composers compose "at the piano." Palestrina previewed a recently > composed mass movement for his patron by playing it on the lute. > > Arthur. > <> > > > >
