> I'm looking at the SEDIM edition of Airs de Cours Pour Voix et Luth, > and I have some questions. The lute parts don't always match the > accompaniment parts in staff notation. Is this because some of the > songs were written for lute in A, some for lute in F, and some for > lute in G etc.
That seems to be the case. [In some manuscripts of the seventeenth century (both English and French) often the lute part and vocal part seem to have no pitch relationship with each other. It is as if each part is written so the notation is convenient. If the vocal lines are taken as literal regarding pitch, then the lute needs retuned at all sorts of odd levels between songs. One assumes that the lute stays at one pitch level and the voice adapts.] >Along that same line, some of > the lute parts are preceded by a dotted double barline with a > tablature letter behind it; what does that mean? The letter preceding the actual tablature part is an indication of the first pitch of the voice part. > Also, is it appropriate to simply take the bass lines of these songs > and make one's own continuo part from them? I do not know about French manuscripts for this, but in many English manuscripts there are songs with only thoroughbass (basso continuo) that appear elsewhere in printed sources with tablature. Many songs by Campion, Dowland, Robert Jones, etc. appear this way, for example, in British Library Add MS 24,665. Of course, Robert Dowland's Musicall Banquet does the reverse, takes songs originally accompanied with only basso continuo and supplies written-out tablature. (Later in date, John Wilson's songs in his Bodleian Library song book have bass lines that do not always conform to the tablature, suggesting that the bass line and tablature are alternates not intended to be performed together.) > My other question is: can any of you recommend some good recordings > of airs de cour? Two of my favourites: Airs de Cour Marie Claude Vallin & Max van Egmond; Lutz Kirchhof, lute Sony Vivarte SK 48 250 Etienne Moulinié, Airs avec la tablature do luth, Premier livre (1624) Susie le Blanc & Stephen Stubbs CBC Records MVCD1095 GJC
