Dear Howard,
On 2008-01-31, at 18:59, howard posner wrote:
On Jan 31, 2008, at 8:56 AM, Jerzy Zak wrote:
Hm..., how many of you are playing continuo on a theorbo in 'd', if
it's so obvoius?
I'm not sure what the "it" in your question is.
Martyn Hodgson in his recent reply stated quite categorically there
are two correct options (and I think he'll not repet it agan):
EITHER nominal A or G tuned but with only the first course tuned
an octave down ie highest course is the second at e for an A
theorbo or d for a G theorbo;
OR with first two courses an octave down but at a higher
nominal pitch eg in D like Talbot MS French lesser theorboe for
lessons; note that in this case the highest pitched course is the
third at e'.
I have my opinion on it, but I may be wrong as living on the province
of the western culture, so I asked if the instrument tuned in D is in
on a par with the one in A? Do you know it from calculations or
experience?
When Ensemble Chanterelle consisted of Sally Sanford, Cathy Liddell
and Kevin Mason, their basic setup was voice, theorbo in A and
theorbo in D. That was a while ago.
Linda Sayce says on her web site that she plays a lot of continuo on
a 76cm theorbo in D.
After a second lecture in fact I've found maybe less then 1% of text
devoted to the 'French lesser theorboe' on the Linda's page:
http://www.theorbo.com/Theorbo/Theorbo.htm
Only here:
http://www.theorbo.com/Instruments/Monsieur.htm
she says:
"...I find this instrument is also surprisingly useful for continuo,
especially for chamber works and pieces where the bass line is often
simply too high for the A-tuned instrument."
but...
"To the best of my knowledge there is no evidence whatsoever for
using a D theorbo for continuo, though I find it hard to believe that
if the instrument was around, the professionals at least would not
have used it for continuo!"
I beleve her! It is extremely tempting, but what about the register
arround and below of the 6th course of the D theorbo? You say:
Answer 2: If you have eight fingerboard strings, you're chromatic
down to B-flat, so the only major problems are the low G#,F# and Eb.
That's cleare, but these are tricks! You have to learn them like solo
fragments and they'll hardly pass as naturally as anything above 'd'.
Try it on, say, Corelli or Couperin (middle to high baroque).
A small price to pay for being able to play a three-note chord over
middle C in first position?
That's the point and the most promising bit. However the price seems
to me not small, indeed, and therefore my quest for someone maybe
experienced.
Jurek
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