Hi, just goofing hindsightedly (469 yrs.), trying to see what Neusidler was really saying. [My brackets]
"Here follows the Jew's dance, and whoever wishes to play it, must tune the Lute differently. Here is the tuning. First tune the 5th course and the small strings which lie next to the 5th course. Tune them to the cipher 4 [which equals the 2nd course loose]; and the 4th course has to sound equal to the 5th course, as said before [cipher 4]. The 5th course and the strings next to it, and the 4th course, all three (!) must have the same voice as the cipher 4. And the 1st course has to be tuned to the [cipher] "+" [2nd course 5th fret]. Then the tuning will be correct. One may also play many other dances with this tuning. The Jew's dance: It should be played fast, otherwise it will not sound well." Questions: 1. What are all those 5th course strings he mentions? (Three of them?) 2. Why did H. Neusidler specify tuning for 1st course? Did he use other tunings for 1st course? (Not likely) 3. Has anyone edited his 3 works yet, especially his instructons? (excl.Moenkemeyer and Towne's ft2:s). [btw. whose german instructions did Dowland use? Gerle 1533? Why? Are they that good?] 4. Does anyone recognize this "jewish" melody from musical or religious tradition? Otherwise, I think it would be very interesting, to make an inventory of the pieces in the collected lute canon there are for 5 course lute (and also 5 course vihuela for that matter - i.e Mudarra?), as they imply works that are from the 15th century or earlier, and therefore especially worthwile of study, as there isn't a lot of lute music from that time. (But perhaps some medieval lute enthusiasts have done this already?) A little anecdote: We have a fine weekly EM radio program here, and this week they bc'd a french vocal work from the late middle ages which sounded almost surrealistic. The music was definitely what you would today call "avantgardistic", although still (barely) inside the musical idiom or fold of the times. The text dealt with the word "fumé". I always believed "fumé" came to Europe with the discovery of tobacco after Columbus 1492. So what was this "fumé"? Tobacco, or something else? The radio DJ:s were musing on this subject and said: " The EM community have snubbed the drug theory and seen it more as an allegory or symbolically". Intriguingly B.R. G. On 6/6/05, Ed Durbrow <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > On Jun 6, 2005, at 2:59 AM, Denys Stephens wrote: > > > Dear Ed, > > I'm afraid that transcription misses one of the points > > of Neusidler's tablature (which Arthur referred to in his > > mailing) - when notes higher than the fifth fret are indicated > > the alphabet is started again with a line placed above the cipher > > to indicate the higher position. These are present in the original, so > > the tune starts on the 7th fret, not the second. It's easy to miss > > because > > the lines placed over the letter look almost like a continuous line > > below the rhythm flags. > > Ah yes. Now I see them. Clear as a bell, actually. If I would have > really studied kanji while living all this time in Japan, my brain > would be attuned to subtle visual differences. > > > So Michael Morrow's transcription is correct. > > > > Tricky stuff German tablature...... > > Perhaps. This would be an excellent piece for starting with though > because it just consists of a few notes over and over. > > cheers, > > Ed Durbrow > Saitama, Japan > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html >
