Interesting question - I think that part of the reason at least is that
after the reformation i.e from about 1540 very little Latin church music
was composed by English composers. Byrd was an exception but actually he
is quite late and he was a crypto catholic. The vihuela books don't include
intabulations of music by Victoria for example which is late 16th century.
This may also explain why English lutenists didn't intabulate music by
Josquin etc. They may not have been very familiar with it.
There is also a cultural difference. In Spain the vihuela was often played
by members of religious orders in their times of leisure - hence the
interest in sacred intabulations. All religious orders were suppressed in
England by no less that Thomas Cromwell.
Regards
Monica.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Edward C. Yong" <edward.y...@gmail.com>
To: "Lute List" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2015 4:33 AM
Subject: [LUTE] Polyphonic Intabulations
Hello folks!
I’ve been going through intabulations of sacred polyphony for lute, and
after an admittedly brief search, I noticed something curious.
The Continentals, particularly the Spanish, seem very interested in
intabulations of sacred polyphony, but I haven’t found any examples of
English/British either doing the intabulations or being intabulated.
I’ve been looking at the Fuenllana, Narvaez etc, and I find Josquin,
Morales, Gombert, but no Tallis or Byrd. Was English/British music
entirely unpopular on the Continent?
Curious,
Edward C. Yong
edward.y...@gmail.com
To get on or off this list see list information at
http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
