--- LGS-Europe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Accompanying Dowland is to move with the text.
> Forward, hold a litltle,
> emphasis here, crunching chords on crunching words,
> purely instrumental
> melodic interest in the middle voices to slow things
> down or speed things
> up, hanging dissonant bass note on E-flat resolving
> half a bar later in a D
> to give relaxation with the text, alternating warm
> sound with harsh sound
> where appropriate with the text.
David,
My, my, but this does sound rather dogmatic.
Perhaps there are other ways to go about it? For, the
record, I agree with your interpretive style as stated
above - but perhaps only because it was the way I was
taught. I'm open to other approaches.
The main point is that we can do what we do, informed
by different perspectives, but we don't absolutely
know that's how it was done. Its just a guess.
I once accompanied a student singer on some
Dowland, who's teacher kept telling me to do things
that were against every lute-playing technique I'd
ever been taught. For instance, he insisted on that
EVERY chord be rolled with the bass note coming before
the beat. First of all, I didn't like rolling _all_
the chords, even two noters, as it seemed in such bad
taste and destroyed much of the polyphony in the lute
part. Secondly, playing thumb under, it was downright
difficult to begin with a weak note with my thumb and
force the strong note to be done with my middle or
even ring finger. By reflex, I either kept wanting to
put the bass on the beat or didn't quite know where it
should be. Very uneven throughout.
After trying this for a while with bad results (the
student's voice teacher kept having to go over the
passages because of my uneven-ness using his approach)
I explained to him that this felt very unnatural,
given what we knew of Renaissance lute technique and
theory. (Most of those chords are in root position -
why subvert that feeling of solidity?) Could we try
it the way I was accustomed? His response was "I
don't care what you want! What I want is the only way
it's done."
Yes, I suppose for his Schubert-Lieder world that
seemed totally correct. But he KNEW that this was the
ONE TRUE WAY. No exceptions. Ok, I'll do it. But
later on with the student singer I privately explained
that we'd do it the other way in concert. We did and
it turned out very nice.
Chris
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