Dear Paolo, No doubt people at the time of the Renaissance did all sorts of silly things, but there's no reason why we should copy everything they did. Making mistakes is not normally worthy of imitation.
Relying on one's ears or one's memory no doubt accounts for many of the errors which found their way into copies of music in the past. You have only to read what Thomas Morley and John Dowland wrote about imperfect copies, to understand the frustration musicians experienced long ago, while working with bad copies. Look at the marginalia of Sir Nicholas Lestrange in his viol manuscripts to appreciate his desperate attempt at salvaging something approaching a reliable text. Listening to records to learn music may have some merit. One learns to listen attentively. I did it myself over 30 years ago, listening to records of banjo music slowed down to sound like five-string double basses. It was a painstaking time-consuming process, but I had no choice, because I couldn't get hold of the written music. I think I would have become a better player, if I'd spent all that time practising, instead of crouching over a record player or tape recorder. If the music is available in print, why not use it? Best wishes, Stewart. ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "sam" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: "lute" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, December 10, 2004 1:29 PM Subject: Re:Question about lute courses/strings > Even if a personal trascription by ear is near the practice of the Renaissance, or not? > > Paolo > > > > Dear Joe, > > > > It is easier to get hold of the music than transcribe it by ear from > > a record. To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
