Hi Howard: I agree with you. I do not think having all Lute tablature converted to staff notation will do much to aid the growth of the Lute, making its music more available. Tablature is, after all, as near perfect a system for notating music written for a stringed and fretted instrument that can be imagined. All ambiguities about position on the neck and appropriate strings are eliminated. Only voicing remains hidden within. Another point to consider is the actual visible content the music will display in staff notation. I am sure most of us have seen Milano's works published in staff notation. If I were new to the guitar and looked through some of that stuff I seriously doubt that I would be in a giant hurry to try much of it. It is very playable when it is pointed out to you the relative timing and the actual playing positions. This is the advantage of Tablature, staff notation demands that you figure it out for you on your own. Remember, we are not talking about arrangements with editorial notes and fingering notes, just the difference in notation.
Vance Wood. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Howard Posner" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, December 08, 2003 1:35 PM Subject: Re: Size of the lute world > Matanya Ophee at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > The lute has never been like any of the other instrument. It was always on > > the outside looking in, and as the Sieur Perrine noted in 1697, it will > > always continue to be there, as long as lutenists insist on a notational > > system that is not shared by other musicians. There is no reason to believe > > that the lute in our time will be more successful in reaching the status of > > the piano, or even that of the guitar, different than it was at any other > > time in history. > > > For centuries the lute was so much on the inside that it didn't even have to > bother looking out. It was so widespread that the idea of playing its music > on some other instrument hardly needed to be discussed. Some of the very > first published music was in Italian tablature, showing that it was one of > the first recognizable markets. Similar evidence can be found in the bursts > of lute song publications in England and France after 1600--nobody seemed to > think it necessary to publish keyboard versions. Even Morley, who did not > play the lute, evidently wrote in staff notation but published transcribed > tablature versions: this is evidence that it was staff notation, not > tablature, that was considered a barrier to wide dissemination. > > We have to remember that lute players, then as now, could read staff > notation, and played continuo from the first days of continuo, and often > played obbligato parts, like those by Bach, Handel and Vivaldi, from staff > notation. They did not have to write solo music in tablature, but chose to > do so because the system was useful. > > Matanya's article on tablature transcription > (http://www.orphee.com/trans/trans.html#FN3REF) says the comments of Perrine > in 1697 and François Campion 1716 were "an indication of a general feelings > [sic] of malaise regarding tablature." This strikes me as too sweeping a > statement based on too little evidence. Tab was alive and well in the 18th > century, appearing even in Telemann's Getreue Music-Meister, a publication > not directed at lutenists, by a savvy marketer. > > I'm not sure whether Matanya means to say that the lute will never reach the > status of the piano or guitar if its music is not made available in modern > notation (which I suspect is his meaning), or whether it will never reach > that status in any case (which is what he wrote); but in either case he's > correct. There's no reason to think that every other house on the block > will ever have a lute in it, regardless of how much music is transcribed. > If modern notation were the key to mass appeal, there would be a billion > harpists in the world. > > The phenomenal and continuing growth of the lute (measured by number of > players, concert ticket and CD sales, prominence of the better players, > sales of instruments) in the last few decades, and the way it has been > achieved, contradicts the notion that tablature has hindered that growth. > I'm sure nearly all of us came to the lute after hearing lute music played > from tablature (I'm guessing two thirds were Bream converts) and found that > learning French tab was vastly easier than learning to drive a car or use a > computer. Certainly it's easier than learning an instrument or earning the > money to buy it and string it. > > > Howard Posner > > >
