Ive been looking at Dazas fantasias (ed. John Griffiths 1982). El Parnasso (1576) is the last of the books of tablature for vihuela.
There are some strange markings in the tablature - oblique slashes at the top right-hand side of some of the tablature figures. These turn out to be puntillos. In the four-voice fantasias the puntillos indicate the tenor, and in the three-voice fantasias they indicate the altus, so that they can be sung if desired. Ive never come across this concept before singing one of the parts of a vihuela fantasia. Its not clear whether the voice is to replace the line as played by the vihuela or whether the voice would double it presumably the latter. I wonder what would have been sung a syllable perhaps. And what would the intended effect be? Why make one voice stand out more than another? And why choose the tenor line (in the a 4 pieces) rather any of the other three? (To prevent female voices from getting in on the act?) The fantasias even the ones marked as easy are reasonably tricky. Griffiths is very enthusiastic about them but, stumbling through them, I dont feel like making too much time to work on any of them. I am wholly unable to sing so I cant try for myself but Id really be intrigued to hear one of these things played and sung. Maybe it would sound very good ! And maybe then the idea could be applied to similarly strictly written fantasias. To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
