On Apr 30, 2008, at 7:12 AM, Ron Andrico wrote: > When singing part music, a singer only had one part to read, and > did not have the luxury of scanning the complete score to see where > he or she could add bits here or there.
Neither does the first oboe player in an orchestra playing Handel or the lead guitarist in a rock band, but it doesn't stop them from ornamenting. A skilled singer who understood the style (and all skilled singers understood the style) wouldn't need a score to know what was going on, particularly if the music was actually rehearsed. > The object was to blend and to be a pleasing part of the whole. > > Zarlino, in _Istitutioni harmoniche_, 1558, wrote: "Matters for the > singer to observe are these: First of all he must aim diligently to > perform what the composer has written. He must not be like those > who, wishing to be thought worthier and wiser than their > colleagues, indulge in certain rapid improvisations that are so > savage and so inappropriate that they not only annoy the hearer but > are riddled with thousands of errors, such as many dissonances, > consecutive unisons, octaves, fifths, and other similar > progressions absolutely intolerable in composition. Then there are > singers who substitute higher or lower tones for those intended by > the composer, singing for instance a whole tone instead of a > semitone, or vice versa, leading to countless errors as well as > offense to the ear. It sounds like ornamentation was common in part-singing, unless Zarlino was inclined to waste a lot of ink on a non-existant problem. None of this is dispositive on the question of whether a lutenist should ornament polyphonic lines. As usual, two readers can examine the historical sources and come to different conclusions. I am fortunate not to have to confront the problem in practice, since I am sufficiently untalented that simply getting the written notes is more than enough to occupy my hands. -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
