Another point about nails... Playing with nails naturally gives one a more bright sound. This, as we all know, is not the aesthetic favoured by French baroque musicians in general. The construction of most instruments of the period - harpsichords, organs, viols and woodwind instruments - mostly point towards a lower pitch, i.e. a darker sound. I am sure players who own both a large Italian and smaller continuo French theorbo will notice this difference with their thicker strings and shorter string lengths on their French instruments.
Jorge can argue his point, but there is also music written for the instrument specifying an instrument in A, isn't there? Shaun Ng On 04/05/2007, at 5:30 AM, Mathias Rösel wrote: >> 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, > > If Piccinini died in 1639 and Visee flourished around 1700, there are > some 60 years between them. Piccinini tells his readers how to play > the > chitarrone, while Visee's music survives mainly in the Saizenay ms. > and > a few other manuscripts without any instructions. Piccinini was a lute > player and used his RH nails for the chitarrone, recommending his > students to do so. Visee was a guitarist to the king. That's all that > springs to my mind for the moment. > > Which leads to two conclusions: > 1. We're pretty well informed about playing techniques of Italian > chitarrone players up to 1640. Kapsberger is another source, by and > large confirming Piccinini's instructions. > > 2. There is close to no evidence about how the last French theorbo > players used to play their instruments. (Nails? Third finger of right > hand? Position of RH?) > >> even though >> virtually the same instrument is being played? > > Jorge Moreno has argued that solo music for the theorbo was > performed on > a lesser theorbo in France. IMO it's most probable that Roman > chitarroni > weren't used for solo music. > -- > Mathias > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
