Dear Christopher,
----- Original Message ----- From: "Christopher Wilke" <[1]chriswi...@yahoo.com> To: "A. J. Ness" <[2]arthurjn...@verizon.net>; <[3]baroque-l...@cs.dartmouth.edu> Sent: Monday, October 31, 2011 8:34 AM Subject: [BAROQUE-LUTE] Re: D# Minor Suite > Arthur, > > --- On Sun, 10/30/11, A. J. Ness <[4]arthurjn...@verizon.net> wrote: > >> But one wouldn't transcribe it in D# minor >> (SEVEN sharps), as Eklund does, but >> rather as Sterling indicates in E flat >> minor (only six flats<g>). >> Dear Christopher, > > I agree that the key signature of 7 sharps is rather cumbersome to read, but there is precedent for it in the baroque. In Book 1 of the Well Tempered Clavier, Bach pairs a prelude in E-flat minor (key sig, 6 flats) with a fugue in D# minor (7 sharps). (A very complex fugue, by the way, with much ingenious use of stretto.) In Book 2, both prelude and fugue are written in D# minor. <<AJB>> I have an even better one for you. In the chaconne composed by Tomasso Vitali, one variation has the violin in D# minor and the basso continuo in E flat major. (It--incidentally--is by Vitali: the original 18th-century manuscript is in the Dresden Landesbibliothek; his father also wrote wierd music--a kind of 18th-century Chas. Ives & Son.) <<AJN>> The second suite in the manuscript (Uppsala, Instr. mus hs 20:13) is in Gis dur. That would require 8 sharps (F gets two sharps, = double sharp), and surely the composer intended A flat major. Consistency would suggest E flat minor for the first suite. I find Ekland's arguments for Dis moll to be rather weak. He doesn't understand that the key designations are derived from the scale for German keyboard tablature. > As for the major mode pieces occupying the space between D and E, Bach writes all of those in E-flat major (3 flats). <<AJN>> I'm afraid you're confused, Christopher. In German keyboard tablature the spelling of the note between D and E is Dis, not Es (E flat), as you write. Recall the Eroica in Dis. Only B is indicated with a "flat" in German keyboard tablature. Otherwise keys with flats are "spelled" with the enharmonic sharp spelling. You need to reread my explanation. That's the questrion that started this thread. The ciphers for various keyboard tablatures are diagramed in my article "tablature" in the New HDM. > In the end, I think the issue is moot when dealing with a piece notated in tablature since sources like Burwell and the concerti of Radolt show that various pitch levels were used for different sized "baroque" lutes.[*] <<AJN>> We are discussing pieces with a specified key identified in the source with ciphers used in German keyboard tablature. With lute of different sizes the key is specified, regardless of the actual sounding pitch. Naming the "key" as a kind of title provides guidance to the player. The fingerings for scales, chords, etc., in A flat are going to be different from those for E major. So it's not moot. The rubrics in Daza's tablature book (1576?) serve a similar purpose in orienting the player and singer to the mode. *Also take care. Sometimes it is the voice part that is to be transposed!!!!! AJN. > Chris > > > Christopher Wilke > Lutenist, Guitarist and Composer > [5]www.christopherwilke.com > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > [6]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- References 1. mailto:chriswi...@yahoo.com 2. mailto:arthurjn...@verizon.net 3. mailto:baroque-l...@cs.dartmouth.edu 4. mailto:arthurjn...@verizon.net 5. http://www.christopherwilke.com/ 6. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html