Dear Gary,
Agreed. Whether with a quartet of viols or a single lute,
16th-century polyphony is a curious mix of the vertical (harmony)
and the horizontal (melody). You hear notes in two ways: as part of
a melodic line; and as part of a chord. There are times when four
viols are each playing their line, yet it sounds like a succession
of chords, and a skilled lutenist can bring out the polyphonic lines
on his instrument, in such a way that it doesn't sound like a
succession of chords.
When writing polyphony, the composer will give the point (a melodic
theme) to each (or most) viols in turn. Each entry is important, and
must be heard clearly. If a viol is not involved specifically with
the point, it may still have an important role in filling out the
harmony, completing triads. It may be that a viol keeps playing, but
doesn't do very much of importance, neither taking its turn with a
point, nor filling out essential notes for the sake of the harmony.
It may even have rests. The viol player needs to be aware of what is
going on: if he takes his turn with a point or some important bit of
melody (the horizontal element), he needs to bring it out, and play
loudly (at least audibly); if his role is more as a chord filler
completing the triad (the vertical element), or just droning on to
fill out the texture, he needs to play less conspicuously.
It is harder for a lutenist to achieve all these subtelties, but a
good intabulator will balance the vertical and horizontal in such a
way that the lutenist can bring out the important elements. This is
part of the skill of an intabulator. He makes it look as if he is
simply transcribing music for the lute from staff notation to
tablature, whereas in fact he is constantly evaluating the
importance of any particular note, and balancing the vertical with
the horizontal.
Although you are theoretically right, in practice a quartet of viols
has a little bit more freedom to exaggerate the horizontal side of
things, even in situations like the one under discussion. Even if
the viols are well-matched in timbre, players may still draw on
expressive devices to emphasise the horizontal element - shaping
phrases, emphasising certain notes, using the bow to make notes
swell - while the lute player has his hands tied up trying to keep
the ship afloat single-handed, plucking at strings to create notes
which can only fade, and with a tendency towards uniformity of the
overall sound, where the horizontal element is less evident.
Perhaps I am oversimplifying things, but, by and large, the consort
songs (i.e. songs accompanied by viols) of Byrd and others belong
more to the late 16th century, to the age of polyphony, whilst the
lute songs of Dowland and others belong more to the early 17th
century, the early baroque, where vertical thinking in the form of
continuo accompaniment tends to replace older, more polyphonic
structures.
Byrd's consort songs are generally of two kinds: with the solo voice
singing soprano at the top of the texture; or with the solo voice
singing alto, submerged amongst the viols. These solo vocal lines
are understandably more vocal in character than each of the more
instrumental parts of the viols, yet they are nevertheless just one
polyphonic strand out of five.
Dowland's lute songs are quite different. Here the solo voice
predominates, the accompaniment is more chordal, and any bits of
polyphony which happen to creep into that accompaniment is
incidental. In fact the melodic line of the solo voice in a lute
song is so strong, that it is possible to have it sung successfully
by a tenor singing an octave lower than written. In _A Musicall
Banquet_ (London, 1610), Robert Dowland shows (by vocal cues
preceding the lute tablature) a preference for a tenor voice rather
than a soprano. Singing Byrd's solo voice parts down an octave, on
the other hand, is a dead loss.
All the best,
Stewart.
----- Original Message -----
From: "gary digman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Stewart McCoy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: "lutelist" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2005 12:26 PM
Subject: Byrd
Dear Stewart;
Regarding the situation you described of two viols playing:
____________
__a__c__d___
____________
____________
____________
____________
and
____________
__d__c__a___
____________
____________
____________-
____________
it occurs to me that unless the timbres of the two viols are very
different the listener may indeed hear the passage as
____________
__d__c__d___
__f______f___
____________
____________
____________
as per the lute intabulation.
Best Wishes,
Gary
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