Dear Peter & al. On Monday 05 March 2007 11:29, Peter Steur wrote:
> in some manuscripts for baroque lute, pieces are found that are > designated with 'Pimpinella', a word that I have always found a bit > strange. Now finally I have searched a little bit on it and found > that it is actually the Latin name for a herb that in english is > called 'pimpernel'. I wonder if someone would know the reason for > calling a musical piece with such a name. Could it be something like > 'a spicy piece'? Just wondering....? Pulcinella, Pimpinella and Pantalone are three classical characters form the commedia dell' arte. I made also some googling: Some interesting explanations of the idea of commedia dell' arte improvisation: http://www.wayneturney.20m.com/perucciandrea.htm Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commedia_dell'arte Theatre history: http://www.theatrehistory.com/italian/commedia_dell_arte_001.html A Commedia dell'Arte website: http://www.commedia-dell-arte.com/ All the best, Arto To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
