Well - to keep the ball rolling here are a few observations.
It's interesting that you mention the Ripa fantasias - but how do we know
that they were written for the guitar in the first place? A lot of the
4-course music is arrangements of pre-existing pieces. One of the pieces in
Barberiis is also found in Morlaye's "Second livre".
The repertoires of all these instruments are interchangeable. Some music
from vihuela books is found in later lute sources.
The music itself can be played on any instrument which has the appropriate
number of courses tuned to the appropriate intervals. It wasn't necessarily
composed for one instrument rather than another and it tells us nothing
about the identity of the different instruments which were in use at the
time.
Back to square one.....
Monica
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sean Smith" <lutesm...@mac.com>
To: "lute" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2013 9:11 PM
Subject: [LUTE] Re: 6c guittar
Well, it's hard to say whether the train of this argument has run its
course or whether it's all gone off the rails now. I still think some sort
of ren. guitar would be possible in Dalza's Italy and have heard no
evidence that it couldn't. We may disagree as to the instrument portrayed
in the intarsia. Personally, I'm unconvinced it is a vihuela, or more to
the point, unconvinced it is a six-course vihuela. I'm less moved by
instruments described (or defined) significantly outside Dalza's dates and
area. There is too much leeway in definitions, too many terms and too few
descriptions of instruments used in a typical Dalza performance. I believe
his (and G. Pacaloni's) are only two of very few publications --and may
include the Castelfranco ms.-- actually written with working bands in mind
and, as such, allowed a greater variety of possible instruments than those
listed in titles and notes. And I doubt either cared about Tinctoris'
definitions.
A strummed C chord on it works fine for the formal Dalza duets (especially
with a second lute) and there are other dances and intabulations where the
melody and harmony sit rather nicely to my poor yank ears. I will refrain
from intabulating motets and writing anything more complex than deRippe
fantasies for it. (Could his have been written before coming to France?
Does his Mantouan nature make them, by definition, Italian guitar
fantasies, albeit published posthumously for a French public? and
furthermore in a book containing the frottole-era, Scaramela?) I will
continue to use it in an upcoming performance of frottole (replacing an
A-lute with a second singer singing bass) as well as proper G and E lutes
for other pieces. Instrumentation in some ways is like orthography: it is
a poor imagination indeed that can think of only one way to spell a word.
That said, I do appreciate the time and work by all showing the variety of
sources and arguments pro- and con- as well as observations on the
inconclusitivity of the evidence. I'm impressed with the going-to-the-matt
certainty wherever it developed though such bruisings are hardly necessary
in the paucity of evidence. I had hoped for more evidence pro- of course
but I will continue to take the intarsia at its probable (for me) face
value of a 4-c waisted instrument whatever its title.
I worked with a builder a few years ago to design such a 4-c instrument
based on the intarsia and we reckon the measurements and ratios will yield
a pretty instrument. It will probably be the next instrument in my zoo
when the time is right.
Many thanks to all who weighed in.
Sean
To get on or off this list see list information at
http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
