Il 03/01/2011 20:17, Eugene C. Braig IV ha scritto:
Because of the solo parts' notation in violinist's short hand (single line on the treble clef), some have speculated that Vivaldi's leuto is a 5- or 6-course mandolino. In spite of playing mandolino, I don't think that's a very satisfying sound for the works to designate "leuto" (especially considering Vivaldi also designated other works "mandolino").
Since in his Concerto RV 540 Vivaldi uses both treble and bass clefs for the lute part (treble clef for the solos and bass clef for the "tutti"), it is quite unlikely that he had in mind a mandolin for his "leuto" works. Since in his trios RV 82 and 85 the lute follows almost exactly the violin part, the use of the treble clef for the lute has (among the others) a very simple explanation: it was just a way to save time writing the part once for all... The are other examples of works in which the violin doubles one octave higher the part of a plucked instrument, like, for example, in Granata's "Novi Capricci Armonici" op. 5 (for guitar, violin and viola da gamba) or in Schiffelholz's "Sei Trio" (for two "gallichons", two violins and cello). Also, I've seen the manuscripts of tenths of Vivaldi's works: in many of his concertos the violin parts are sometimes written in bass clef -- the effect resulting even two or three octaves higher than notated, just in order to keep the music inside the staff, avoiding the extra lines and their collision with the upper staves...
A quick survey of a few efforts of which I'm aware: Lindberg with the Drottingholm Baroque Ensemble, Galfetti with Il Giardino Armonico, and Paul O'Dette in recent performances I've seen all use archlute.
Massimo Lonardi has recorded this works on an archlute in A. Best regards, Fabio To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
