On Jun 9, 2008, at 6:46 AM, Stewart McCoy wrote: > Many thanks indeed. The Amazon site gives a lot of detail about > Palestrina, and confirms that he used the lute while composing. Jessie > Owens' book certainly looks a good read.
Composers at Work? Yeah, it's a real page turner. :-) Here is the exact quote. It is in the chapter called Composing Without Writing. I just happened to turn right to it on p.73. There is also evidence that Palestrina may have used the lute in composing. A letter from a Mantuan court official, Annibale Capello, describes Palestrina's composition of a Mass for Duke Guglielmo Gonzaga: Palestrina has begun to set the Kyrie and Gloria of the first mass on the lute." Given the fact that many composers were accomplished organists or lutenists (including William Byrd, Adrian Willaert, and Palestirna himself) it is quite likely that further evidence will turn up. One thing I think scholars like yourself will like about this book is that the footnotes are at the bottom of the pages, instead of at the end of chapters or the book, and when she quotes someone she puts the original language right next to the English translation in two columns, - a nice touch. Also on p. 72 she says: It is noteworthy that the Hungarian lutenist and composer Balint Bakfark had himself portrayed in the woodcut on the title page of his first publication holding a lute while seated in front of a table that had a quill pen and an open music book" the image is of the composer playing and writing. (There is a picture.) cheers, Ed Durbrow Saitama, Japan [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www9.plala.or.jp/edurbrow/ -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
