Ed Durbrow, INTERNET:[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >Jason: > >This report seems to come from a letter written about Milano. I read a
>reference to this some time ago, the source now escapes me. I recall they >were something like silver thimbles. I know of no one who has experimented >with this concept, I really cannot understand why anyone would want to. >>>I hope Arthur Ness, or someone else who knows well about this source, will chime in. I think >>>there were two sources for this, in fact. I also have in my mind, I don't know how, that there were >>>possibly little plectrums coming out of the silver thimbles. (???) >>>Last summer, I had the good fortune to study a bit with Crawford Young and learned that a guitar >>>string can make a good plectrum. (He simply used a guitar string so that he wouldn't wear out >>>his ostrich feathers) The point of that statement is that plectrums don't have to be flat. Feathers, >>>when turned the opposite way that you would normally think of them being used -the thin end on >>>the string, stripped of the feather part, are surprisingly like a nylon guitar string in thickness and >>>stiffness. This roundness has a unique advantage in that you can attack a string from nearly any >>>angle. I could envision a thimble with a bit of feather stem coming out of the middle of the tip. >>>Think about doing didillo strokes with that! >>>The fact that there is a possibility that Milano used thimbles would be reason enough to try them >>>IMHO. Who knows what we could learn? >>>cheers, -- Ed Durbrow Saitama, Japan http://www9.plala.or.jp/edurbrow/========================================== === Dear Ed, Yes, Francesco's use of finger picks has been known since the 1980s when Jesse Ann Owens discovered a letter dated 1524 from a Ferrarese diplomatic in Rome The writer described a performance by Francesco. He is said to have played with two silver thimbles on the inside of which were quills. It does not say on which fingers they were attached. The sound was said to resembl;e a harpsichord. It would seem that the sound of the plectrum lute was being preserved by use of these finger picks. (And plectrum playing continued into the 16th century, perhaps especially for lute ensembles.) Other lutenists were known to use such finger picks (for wire-strung onstruments?), and some are listed in inventories of musical instruments and called "Lute Nails." I wonder if any have survived. And what did a thimble look like in 16th-century Italy? And Ed, do you know what CDs Crtawford Young has issued? I just have one of his CDs titled "Intabulations." Also I heard that he was doing a facsimile of the Pesaro Manuscript. Do you know if it has been published? It contains some plectrum polyphony (yes), as well as other plectrum pieces. By the way Jessie has published a fascinating book _Composers at Work: The Craft of Musical Composition, 1450-1600_ (OUP, 1997). It includes some remarks about how the lute was sometimes used as a means for composing. That is, Palestrina may have composed "at the lute," and he even previewed the mass for a patron by playing it on the lute. She also tracked down some pieces if lute music that may be compositional sketches. There is not too much material like that because it is thought composers first wrote a piece oin a wax slate, and then when the composition was complete, ink it into a manuscript (or intabulate it?). arthur <>
