On Jan 16, 2015, at 4:10 AM, Charles Mokotoff <mokot...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Martin, this quote from you: > "In fact there are many passages in John Johnson, Francis Cutting, > Anthony Holborne and even Dowland where octaves even up to the 4th > course seem to be implied..." > I was just wondering how octave stringing is implied by these > composers? I have always wondered about this, so am very curious how > you reached that conclusion. The voice-leading implies the stringing. One example that comes readily to mind is the third measure of Up Merry Mates from A Pilgrimes Solace. The lute part has in the bass (the only moving line), starting on the open fifth course, C-D-E-F# leading to this chord: __e__ __a__ _____ _____ _____ __a__ Dowland could have included the G on the fourth course without making it difficult to play. His not doing so means either that he didn’t care that the bass line dropped a seventh for no good reason, or that he assumed octave stringing on the sixth course, supplying the middle G. To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
