Presumably even if one string of the 5th course was at the lower octave (and I don't think we know that - do we?) the other (and that struck first by the thumb - as the lower basses) would be at the upper so that with basses at the upper octave the opening of the Preludio would make perfect sense and with the chord in bar two being led by an ambiguous aA. Of course if both of the 5th at the upper octave it forces a conclusion that the basses leading up to it are also at the uipper octave.
I also think we need to think more of idiomatic guitar writing (something we have both discussed and agreed) rather than a continuo bass lines as for a theorbo or similar. Martyn --- On Fri, 28/8/09, Monica Hall <mjlh...@tiscali.co.uk> wrote: From: Monica Hall <mjlh...@tiscali.co.uk> Subject: Re: [VIHUELA] Guitarre theorbee or rather Chittarra atiorbata To: "Martyn Hodgson" <hodgsonmar...@yahoo.co.uk> Cc: "Vihuelalist" <vihuela@cs.dartmouth.edu> Date: Friday, 28 August, 2009, 5:45 PM Well I must apologise first for a very silly mistake that I have made. In Granata's Tuning B I have not included the low octave strings on the 4th and 5th courses. These gives a clearer and rather dramatic picture of the way the courses overlap. I have temporarily put the corrected tuning on my [1]www.earlyguitar.ning.com page. I am in the process of correcting this and will then get long suffering Rob to swop the files. No excuse really but at one point I was considering whether the 4th and 5th courses were re-entrant. In the opening bars of the preludio there will be a drop of a 7th at the switch over from bass strings to 5th course if this has a low octave string. I must get the correct version sorted.. Monica ----- Original Message ----- From: [2]Martyn Hodgson To: [3]Monica Hall Cc: [4]Vihuelalist Sent: Friday, August 28, 2009 3:01 PM Subject: Re: [VIHUELA] Guitarre theorbee or rather Chittarra atiorbata Did Gary Boye explain why he had thought the basses were low? Or was it just on the basis of Pinnell's old Early Music article which had also assumed this with no explanation (as discussed in our previous communications) thus perpetuating a the myth..... Regarding the representations, they may not be photographic quality but I would have thought the general sizing of the instrument (particularly the one Granata himself is shown playing) would have been roughly accurate. Martyn --- On Fri, 28/8/09, Monica Hall <mjlh...@tiscali.co.uk> wrote: From: Monica Hall <mjlh...@tiscali.co.uk> Subject: Re: [VIHUELA] Guitarre theorbee or rather Chittarra atiorbata To: "Martyn Hodgson" <hodgsonmar...@yahoo.co.uk> Cc: "Vihuelalist" <vihuela@cs.dartmouth.edu> Date: Friday, 28 August, 2009, 12:00 PM Well - I feel I am between the devil and the deep blue sea here. Gary Boye has transcribed all the music into staff notation and I looked through this. I also discussed it with him and he was surprised at the idea that the basses might be high. I didn't want to commit myself too much with Granata until I have had time to make my own transcriptions - which is very time consuming. I was more concerned to sort out Gallot first and I may make some revisions later. I do think that we need to be cautious about the way we interpret illustrations. They are not intended to show the instruments in accurate detail. The Rabel drawings in particular don't seem to me to be very reliable. Monica ----- Original Message ----- From: [5]Martyn Hodgson To: [6]Vihuelalist ; [7]Monica Hall Sent: Friday, August 28, 2009 9:15 AM Subject: Re: [VIHUELA] Guitarre theorbee or rather Chittarra atiorbata Thank you Monica. As you'll know from our earlier exchanges, I agree with the conclusions about the guitarre theorbee. However there are a couple of significant points about the chitarra atiorbata which you seem to have overlooked or ignored and which point to a rather different conclusion than you (that these instruments had the basses at the low octave): 1. A duplicated bass G is not an objection to the high tuning of the basses - Granata might have simply wished to have a continuous run of free basses. For example to allow a fast run on them without having to play the G away from the these basses and so interrupt the thumb's stroke. Indeed, a good example of this is in the opening Preludio Bar 1 ie 12 11 X 9 8 7 6 0..... 2. The engraved depictions do not show the bass extensions 'slightly less' than a theorbos - they are considerably and significantly less! - this has a real bearing on the sound the basses make. Further, to suggest that this particular feature has been incorrectly represented by the engraver and can therefore be ignored is, I think, working backwards from a presumed conclusion (ie that the basses were at the low octave and thus needed to be longer than illustrated) rather than taking the important evidence at its face value. Martyn --- On Thu, 27/8/09, Monica Hall <mjlh...@tiscali.co.uk> wrote: From: Monica Hall <mjlh...@tiscali.co.uk> Subject: [VIHUELA] Guitarre theorbee To: "Vihuelalist" <vihuela@cs.dartmouth.edu> Date: Thursday, 27 August, 2009, 4:59 PM Just to let you all know that the final version of my thoughts on the subject of the Guitarre theorbee is now on my own web page - [1]www.monicahall.co.uk It includes a staff notation transcription of all twelve pieces from the Gallot manuscript. Monica -- References 1. [8]http://www.monicahall.co.uk/ To get on or off this list see list information at [9]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- References 1. http://www.earlyguitar.ning.com/ 2. http://uk.mc263.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=hodgsonmar...@yahoo.co.uk 3. http://uk.mc263.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=mjlh...@tiscali.co.uk 4. http://uk.mc263.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=vihu...@cs.dartmouth.edu 5. http://uk.mc263.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=hodgsonmar...@yahoo.co.uk 6. http://uk.mc263.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=vihu...@cs.dartmouth.edu 7. http://uk.mc263.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=mjlh...@tiscali.co.uk 8. http://www.monicahall.co.uk/ 9. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html