Of course, there is one plucked instrument from Bach's time that can
easily and idiomatically accommodate all the notes: the Lautenwerk
(gut-strung harpsichord). Forget I just wrote that. We need the work
each Easter season.
Chris
[1]Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone
On Monday, March 19, 2018, 11:43 PM, John Lenti <johnle...@hotmail.com>
wrote:
Betrachte is a problematic number. It can't be played without
alteration on gallichon or archlute or swan-neck or theorbo or German
theorbo or teorbe de piece or guitar or banjo or mandora or bandora
or
mandrill or budgerigar. A 13-course bass rider lute is the only thing
I
know of that can play the whole shebang without octave displacement
of
a couple of bass notes. That may be significant.
Sent from [1]Mail for Windows 10
__________________________________________________________________
From: [2]lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu <[3]lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu> on
behalf
of howard posner <[4]howardpos...@ca.rr.com>
Sent: Monday, March 19, 2018 7:01:02 PM
To: [5]lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
Subject: [LUTE] Re: Betrachte meine Seel
I'm back at home, looking at "Bach's Continuo Group" by Laurence
Dreyfus. Kuhnau's 1704 memorandum to the mayor of Leipzig asked for
money to buy "colochonen," Kuhnau didn't give a number, but
"colochonen" is plural. Kuhnau explained that the colochon was a
lute,
but had a penetrating sound. Perhaps the explanation was necessary
because the mayor was not musically knowledgeable, or Kuhnau knew
better than to underestimate a bureaucrat's ignorance. Martyn
Hodgson
directed the list in 2013 to an article that said the town council
turned down the request; i.e., my earlier post was incorrect about
Martyn. Apologies. I was unable to confirm whether any colochonen
were purchased.
In Das neu-eroffnetes Orchestre, Mattheson wrote that in churches and
operas the sound of the lute was too small "and serves more to put on
airs than to help the singer," and the colochon was better suited to
the task.
It seems unlikely to me that the Leipzig lutenist (Hoffman?
Weyrauch?)
played continuo on a gallichon, then picked up another, weaker-toned
instrument to play what is essentially an arpeggiated continuo part
with a bass singer and two violins. But who knows?
And of course, Bach replaced the lute obbligato in the St. John
Passion
with organ, and replaced the lute obbligato in the St. Matthew
Passion
with viola da gamba; it's possible he decided that an obbligato on a
lute of any sort was out of place in St. Thomas, which is a big
place.
> On Mar 19, 2018, at 12:38 PM, Howard Posner
<[6]howardpos...@ca.rr.com>
wrote:
>
> The only evidence available about Leipzig in the early 1700s is
that
the mandora/gallichon was the commonly used lute continuo instrument.
Bach's predecessor as thomaschule cantor, johann kuhnau, asked the
town
council for money to buy a couple of them so he wouldn't have to keep
borrowing them. Somebody, probably mr. Hodgson, has pointed out
secondary sources that say the request was granted, though the
sources
on which they rely aren't clear on the point.
>
> Is anyone aware of evidence for archlutes in 18th-century Saxony?
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