Dear Simon,
The first half of the Ortiz book describes how to work w/ adding more
notes to a simple line so you may have everything you need there. As
the lutenist you can add more chords to strengthen the rhythm as you
like.
A good source for seeing how to break up those chords and add a few
bass walks would be the Bassus book of the Pacaloni trios. In there
you'll find many of the same 'grounds' (Romanesca, Antico, Moderno,
etc). You may need to do a little transposing and you can take out or
add passing tones when you and your soloists decide on a tempo.
Another source is the treble/ground English repertory.
Continuo is an iffy word to use here since the long-necked lute (or
what we'd generally think of as a continuo lute) was non-existant. You
should be able to get a very nice sound from the instruments of the
day: Gamba, lutes of various sizes, ren guitar, cittern and keyboard.
The recercatas shine more from rhythmic drive than an anchoring bass.
If you do go w/ a "continuo" lute be careful of the long ringing low
strings muddying up the low registers.
best wishes,
Sean
On Mar 23, 2009, at 9:04 AM, Lambert, SC (Simon) wrote:
I have a question for our continuo experts on the list. I'm going to
accompany some of Ortiz's "Recercadas sobre un canto llano" on the
lute.
For those who don't know the pieces, they consist of a simple bass
line
in long notes of equal value (the canto llano), above which a melody
instrument (often a viola da gamba is used) has a more elaborate line,
but not as flashy as the "bastarda" style, more soulful. The
accompanying chords are very elementary, in fact most are just major
or
minor triads. And there is one chord per measure all the way
through: D
minor - A minor - G minor etc.
My question is: how would you realise this accompaniment on the lute?
Just playing the obvious chord at the beginning of each bar is not
going
to be very interesting, and because the music doesn't seem to need
to go
fast the sound would quickly die away before the next bar. I must
admit
I am tempted to try folk guitar style arpeggio patterns, anachronistic
though it may be!
Thanks,
Simon Lambert
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