Dear Rainer, I hadn't read Tess Knighton's review, but I have now. There's something about this sort of pompous and wordy musicological writing, which I find intensely irritating.
I've found the repeated use of "Vallon" for Vallet, but I can't find "Nocolas" for Nicolas. I suppose it is possible that "Nocolas" was corrected during the print run, and you got one of the first batch of copies printed. You are right about the spelling of "Ouse Vader in Hemelyk". I'm afraid I don't have a copy of Paul O'Dette's CD, so I can't confirm whether the mistake was Ms Knighton's, or it was already wrong on the CD. However, I've looked at my Vallet facsimile. "Onse" could be misread as "Ouse", especially if you have no knowledge of Dutch (or "unser" for "our" in German). The letters "u" and "n" can easily be confused. However, missing two letters out of "Hemelryck" looks pretty careless to me; "ryck" is presumably the same as the German word "Reich" for kingdom or empire. One might have expected a musicologist of Ms Knighton's stature to have been a bit more careful. Her mistakes are on a par with, "Our Father, which art in Heaven, Harold be Thy name ..." I have been wondering why you should be upset. If Ms Knighton's mistakes were just slips of the old pen, I don't suppose you would have batted an eyelid. After all, errare humanum est, and all that. I suspect your reaction reflects something else, i.e. the fact that, in spite of all the research over the past two or three decades, the most eminent musicologists still haven't a clue when it comes to lute music. They may regurgitate stuff they find in books on their shelves, but they don't speak from experience, and they don't really know what on earth they are talking about. To that extent I share your feelings. By the way, the _Early Music_ review also includes mention of a CD of music by Luis Milán played by Moreno and Quinteiro, who have turned Milan's solos into duets. I reviewed this CD some time ago for _Early Music Review_, and was extremely enthusiastic about it. As for writing to the journal, I'm not sure it would do much good. The editor is Tess Knighton. Best wishes, Stewart McCoy. ----- Original Message ----- From: "adS" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Lute net" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, September 24, 2004 10:30 PM Subject: Early Music CD review > Dear lute netters, > > has anybody out there read the CD review in Early Music, may 2004, page 339-341 > by a certain Tess Knighton? > > She writes > > "The results can be innovative and exciting, rewarding and attractive, all of > which is fine as long as the listener is informed about what is going on..." > > Well said, Theresa. > > Unfortunately our good Theresa is not too well informed and has no idea of what > is going on. > > In the second paragraph of this splendid review she manages (twice!) to call > Vallet - yes, indeed - Nocolas Vallet. Well done. > > For whatever reasons she later decides to call him Nicolas Vallon [sic!] and > sticks to the new name six times. > She admits that she doesn't know much about Vallet - erm, Vallon - and says > > "...for me he was a name in a textbook until I heard this CD..." > > I wonder which textbooks Theresa keeps on her shelves... > > Unfortunately she had to face an even tougher task - a Dutch title. > Understandably she failed once again and wrote > > "Ouse Vader in Hemelyk" > > > Perhaps Stewart McCoy or Chris Goodwin should write a letter to the editors of > Early Music. It's a shame... > > > Quite upset, > > Rainer adS > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
