Nigel,
I'm going to leave the "virtually the same
instrument" part out of the question for the moment.
The whole debate over double vs. single string as well
as Italian vs. French performance practice could get
ugly.
I use the essentially the same technique for
Castaldi, Pittoni, Hurel and de Visee. What I do is
basically thumb-over using thumb-index-middle maybe
75-80% of the time. The re-entrant tuning of the
theorbo means that I use the ring finger more
frequently on theorbo than, say, baroque lute.
We know that Kapsberger did not use the right
hand ring finger at all since he planted it along with
the little finger on the top. He also uses the % sign
- meaning some variation of individually-fingered (as
opposed to strummed or raked) arpeggio depending on
the number and disposition of notes in the chord - on
all chords with more than three notes. He does this
even on four-note chords that could easily have been
blocked using the ring finger. I make a real effort
not use the ring finger in Kapsberger's music because
I find that it has a huge effect on the interpretation
and sound of the music. I don't remember what
Piccinini specifies, but the three-finger approach
seems to work pretty well for everything I've played
by him, too.
In general, other than the case of Kapsberger, I
try not to be too pedantic about it. I think right
hand fingering for theorbo needs to be the most
flexible and indiosyncratic approaches to a lute
instrument - just look at how many times you end up
using the index or even ring finger on the strong
beat!
Chris
--- Nigel Solomon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I have been following the thread of how lute
> technique changed over the
> years to suit new instruments and fashion. Does this
> mean we should not
> use the same right hand technique to play the
> theorbo (chitaronne)
> pieces by Piccinini as for De Viséé over a century
> later, even though
> virtually the same instrument is being played?
>
> Nigel
>
>
>
> 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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