Hi Ed,
I was lucky enough to find a book of this type of music on eBay. It is rare
and out of print. It is the Canti B Numero Cinquanta Vol. II by Ottaviano
Petrucci
Edited by Helen Hewitt. The pieces are arranged in 3 or 4 parts each with
a single note at once. No chords are written for any single part taken
separately. If you wanted to, you could play each single line with the
plectrum but with only two people playing one could use a plectrum but
the other one would need to use fingers or miss some of the parts.
Are you sure that Crawford Young used a plectrum? He could have chosen
that but how did he get that sound quality? Do you know what kind of a plectrum
he used? Where and how is he striking the strings to get that quality?
I have tried to play the lute using a plectrum and but so far, I cannot
duplicate
that sound quality. Do you suppose the plectrum techniques for lute differed
in those days from those we use today? Then again I don't have a lute in A or
in E.
Best,
Marion
-----Original Message-----
From: Edward Martin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Mar 29, 2005 7:08 PM
To: "Dr. Marion Ceruti" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Sean Smith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Lutelist <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Subject: Re: Montagna's lutes
Marion, I do believe Crawford Yound used a plectrum on the upper parts.
ed
At 06:19 PM 3/29/2005 -0800, Dr. Marion Ceruti wrote:
>Dear Sean,
>
>Thank you for posting these pictures. The same picture is on the cover of
>Karl-Ernst Schroder and Crawford Young's CD, "Amours amours amours"
>released in 2002 by Harmonia Mundi HMC905254. In fact two A lutes were
>used in this recording as well as a lute in E. If the music on the CD is any
>indication of what the concert depicted in the picture was supposed have
>on the program, I doubt that a plectrum was used.
>
>Best regards,
>Marion
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Sean Smith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Sent: Mar 29, 2005 4:00 PM
>To: Lutelist <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
>Subject: Montagna's lutes
>
>
>Having lived in the 6-course world for a while now I'm very interested
>in the left lute in this painting by Montagna:
>http://www.xs4all.nl/~amarin/Page1-Pages/Image198.html
>http://www.xs4all.nl/~amarin/Page1-Pages/Image199.html
>
>It appears M. tried to be very realistic in the proportions, colors and
>detail and I think there may be enough information in it to actually
>build a copy. Granted we don't know the string length or the back shape
>but some of this could be educatedly guessed at.
>
>Has anyone had a lute built in this shape (or built one) and if so what
>are your conclusions? Might it make a good F or A lute? (I'm set for G)
>Are there any surving lutes, complete or not, that might suggest a
>precedent for this triangular, wide-belly shape?
>
>By the by, some have rumored to have seen a plectrum in this painting
>but in the detail, I honestly don't see it. Granted this is a
>ficticious concert (angels, etc), and while the weight lately has been
>to give most lute playing in this era a pick of some kind (or to one of
>the players), I don't see the plectrum support in this instance. On the
>other hand, so to speak, I see support for playing 15th century music
>in the same polyphonic way as the next. Fascinating right hand
>technique on the blond plucker, too.
>
>And my thanks to Alfonso for posting this page of lute iconography.
>Here's the rest of it:
>http://www.xs4all.nl/~amarin/Page1.html
>
>all the best,
>Sean Smith
>
>
>
>To get on or off this list see list information at
>http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
Edward Martin
2817 East 2nd Street
Duluth, Minnesota 55812
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
voice: (218) 728-1202
