When looking at the quality of his music, I find the question whether
Dowland was a one-offA not asA interesting as his stringA advice.
David
On Saturday, January 17, 2015, Dan Winheld <[1]dwinh...@lmi.net> wrote:
To answer my own post and expand a bit- Tobias Hume may have been a
one-off; I never heard of any other viol player or viol tradition
using pairs of bowed strings in any form. This leads to another bit
of icon bashing- so many lutenists, historical and modern, have had
so much trouble with the 6 course unison (esp. with historic gut or
or good modern equivalents) that despite Dowland's admonition it
seems that most lutenists- even Baroque lutenists whose 6th course
is A- use (or used) the 8ve option. And the 10 tied fret neck option
for 9 or 10 course lutes seems to be really a tough tweak for the
luthiers- so I have to wonder: Was Dowland himself a bit of a
"one-off" in regard to most common, standard practice among even
other elites of the lute world of his time- not to mention later?
Dan
On 1/16/2015 2:25 PM, Dan Winheld wrote:
And may I offer one off-the-wall bit of perspective on the matter of
8ve strings on 6,5, and 4th course?
Tobias Hume, in his Bass Viol/"Leero Viole" book published in 1605,
advises viol players thusly:
"If you will heare the Viol de Gambo in his true Majestie, to play
parts, and singing thereto, then string him with nine strings, your
three Basses double as the Lute, which is to be plaide on with as
much ease as your Violl of sixe stringes."
A There we have it- play parts, singing with the instrument. We can
take it for granted he wasn't talking unison pairs on a bowed bass
instrument. And 1605! Granted, Hume was English; but in his
professional military career he was on the continent a lot- but not,
of course playing duets except with martial instruments.
A I have NEVER seen or heard of a modern viol specialist playing an
early 17th century English viol set up this way, and viol players
are otherwise doing everything documentable & recoverable from the
past eras. Or have I missed anything? A viol so set up would be
something to hear & play.
Dan
On 1/16/2015 1:02 PM, howard posner wrote:
On Jan 16, 2015, at 12:49 PM, David van Ooijen
<davidvanooi...@gmail.com> wrote:
A A A Dowland could have included the G on the fourth course
without
A A A making it difficult to play.AA His not doing so means
either that he
A A A didn't care that the bass line dropped a seventh for no good
reason,
A A A or that he assumed octave stringing on the sixth course,
supplying
A A A the middle G.
A A Or that the printer omitted the middle G. There are more
A A mistakes/misprints/omissions in the lute parts of Dowland's
lute songs.
Perhaps, but how many of those errors are omitted middle Gs in the
third measure of the lute part in the 19th song in the book?
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*******************************
David van Ooijen
[3]davidvanooi...@gmail.com
[4]www.davidvanooijen.nl
*******************************
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References
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2. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
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4. http://www.davidvanooijen.nl/
