On Nov 14, 2006, at 1:04 PM, Jim Abraham wrote: > Well, if that's the case, why use tablature? Really. Is there any > other > reason?
Good question. One asnwer lies in the "H" word: "historically." Historically, tablature was the most efficient way to put polyphony on a single staff. Renaissance lute composers wrote polyphonically for the lute, and used tablature because putting more than one voice on a single staff using the old diamond-head notation was very clumsy, if not impossible sometimes (it's also clumsy using modern staff notation ). Music was written in tablature for instruments that were capable of playing more than one voice at the same time: keyboard instruments, harps and lutes. Why tablature continued to be the standard lute notation I don't know. Usage perhaps? They were used to it, so why change? Why didn't Baroque lutenists start using grand-staff notation, like harpsichodists and organists? I don't know. The basso continuo players on the lute certainly knew how to read staff notation, in tenor clef as well as bass clef. But the soloists? Dunno. I'm sure there are others on the list who can explain this stuff far more eloquently than I can. We use tablature today so that we can go to the original sources of lute music, which were in tab., and play from them. David R [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.rastallmusic.com -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
