Dear Stewart;
Indeed, the issues you raise are fascinating and speak to situations
and decisions I've had to make in my own attempts at intabulating. I've
intabulated most of the secular music of Josquin trying to be as literal as
I can. I use these intabulations as bases for spontaneous lute arrangements
adding ornaments and divisions improvizationally as an exercise. I just
couldn't figure out what in the discussion had sparked the heated emotional
exchange between Mr. Thames and Mr. Ness. I'm still perplexed as to why they
are at each other's throats over this issue. It seems to me tablature is
superior for some purposes to mensural notation and vice versa. Being
conversant in both can only be an asset to a lutenist. As regards the use of
treble clef to notate music for guitar, has anyone noticed that clarinet
music is notated in treble clef down to three ledger lines below the staff
as is guitar music. Reading through the Rose studies for clarinet was a
tool I used as a guitarist to learn to read mensural notation. I just can't
figure out why this issue has inspired this escalating exchange of insults
and flying fur. Oh well, carry on.
Regards,
Gary
----- Original Message -----
From: "Stewart McCoy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Lute Net" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Sent: Monday, July 25, 2005 6:57 AM
Subject: Byrd
> Dear Gary,
>
> The thread was originally about Byrd. I would very much like to know
> more about Byrd, and about the tablature sources of his music. For
> example, I have the impression that the lute solo settings make some
> concessions to the lute, i.e. the music is arranged to be idiomatic
> for the instrument, whereas the Paston settings are virtually
> literal intabulations minus the cantus.
>
> Paston's intabulations are often so exact that they are
> unnecessarily awkward to play. He even shows unisons, so, for
> example, where two viols play f, he intabulates it as:
> ___
> ___
> ___
> _a_
> _f_
> ___
>
> Transferring music from four viols to one lute tends to iron out the
> polyphonic nature of Byrd's music. Instead of hearing four
> interweaving melodic strands as on viols, one tends to hear a
> succession of chords on the lute, with more a suggestion of
> polyphony than a clear realisation of it.
>
> Some years ago I intabulated eight consort songs by Byrd for
> Fretwork Editions. If Paston intabulations existed, for various
> reasons I chose not to use them, and instead made my own
> arrangements. Literal intabulations can be self-defeating. For
> example, if you have one viol playing this:
>
> __________
> _a__c__d__
> __________
> __________
> __________
> __________
>
> and another viol playing this:
>
> __________
> _d__c__a__
> __________
> __________
> __________
> __________
>
> you'll have a literal intabulation looking like this:
>
> __________
> _d__c__d__
> _f_____f__
> __________
> __________
> __________
>
> The two melodies fuse to become a succession of chords. I believe
> that it is often better to simplify such passages, and omit the
> notes of one viol for the sake of having at least one melodic line
> from the other viol clearly heard.
>
> Arthur (13th July) and Rainer (10th July) have provided us with
> sources and lists of music by Byrd arranged for the lute. Can anyone
> add to those lists? Do we have a list of all the lute pieces
> arranged by Byrd for keyboard?
>
> Notation may have its fascination, but I really would like to return
> to Byrd.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Stewart McCoy.
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "gary digman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: "lutelist" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
> Sent: Sunday, July 24, 2005 10:56 AM
> Subject: Re: Re: Byrd
>
>
> > Would someone please tell me what the hell is going on here?
> Something must
> > have gone down between Mr, Thames and Mr.Ness that I missed. The
> > Matanya/Roman battle was more entertaining because I understood
> what it was
> > about.
> >
> > The Best to All,
> > Gary Digman
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Michael Thames" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > To: "Lute net" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
> > Sent: Saturday, July 23, 2005 11:43 PM
> > Subject: Byrd
> >
> >
> > > I've never met Arthur Ness, as I'm not really a member of the
> "good old
> > boys club". I'm relatively new to the lute, 4 years or so. I did
> play it a
> > bit in the mid 70's.
>
>
>
>
> To get on or off this list see list information at
> http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
>
>
>
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>
