Dear Rainer,
I hadn't read Tess Knighton's review, but I have now. There's
something about this sort of pompous and wordy musicological
writing, which I find intensely irritating.
I've found the repeated use of Vallon for Vallet, but I can't find
Nocolas for Nicolas. I suppose it is possible that Nocolas was
corrected during the print run, and you got one of the first batch
of copies printed.
You are right about the spelling of Ouse Vader in Hemelyk. I'm
afraid I don't have a copy of Paul O'Dette's CD, so I can't confirm
whether the mistake was Ms Knighton's, or it was already wrong on
the CD. However, I've looked at my Vallet facsimile. Onse could be
misread as Ouse, especially if you have no knowledge of Dutch (or
unser for our in German). The letters u and n can easily be
confused. However, missing two letters out of Hemelryck looks
pretty careless to me; ryck is presumably the same as the German
word Reich for kingdom or empire. One might have expected a
musicologist of Ms Knighton's stature to have been a bit more
careful. Her mistakes are on a par with, Our Father, which art in
Heaven, Harold be Thy name ...
I have been wondering why you should be upset. If Ms Knighton's
mistakes were just slips of the old pen, I don't suppose you would
have batted an eyelid. After all, errare humanum est, and all that.
I suspect your reaction reflects something else, i.e. the fact that,
in spite of all the research over the past two or three decades, the
most eminent musicologists still haven't a clue when it comes to
lute music. They may regurgitate stuff they find in books on their
shelves, but they don't speak from experience, and they don't really
know what on earth they are talking about. To that extent I share
your feelings.
By the way, the _Early Music_ review also includes mention of a CD
of music by Luis Milán played by Moreno and Quinteiro, who have
turned Milan's solos into duets. I reviewed this CD some time ago
for _Early Music Review_, and was extremely enthusiastic about it.
As for writing to the journal, I'm not sure it would do much good.
The editor is Tess Knighton.
Best wishes,
Stewart McCoy.
- Original Message -
From: adS [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: Lute net [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Friday, September 24, 2004 10:30 PM
Subject: Early Music CD review
Dear lute netters,
has anybody out there read the CD review in Early Music, may 2004,
page 339-341
by a certain Tess Knighton?
She writes
The results can be innovative and exciting, rewarding and
attractive, all of
which is fine as long as the listener is informed about what is
going on...
Well said, Theresa.
Unfortunately our good Theresa is not too well informed and has no
idea of what
is going on.
In the second paragraph of this splendid review she manages
(twice!) to call
Vallet - yes, indeed - Nocolas Vallet. Well done.
For whatever reasons she later decides to call him Nicolas Vallon
[sic!] and
sticks to the new name six times.
She admits that she doesn't know much about Vallet - erm, Vallon -
and says
...for me he was a name in a textbook until I heard this CD...
I wonder which textbooks Theresa keeps on her shelves...
Unfortunately she had to face an even tougher task - a Dutch
title.
Understandably she failed once again and wrote
Ouse Vader in Hemelyk
Perhaps Stewart McCoy or Chris Goodwin should write a letter to
the editors of
Early Music. It's a shame...
Quite upset,
Rainer adS
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