Having just attended classes on the Baroque Guitar at La Semana de
Musica Antigua in Gijon, Spain...
Eduardo Eguez pointed out that the Sanz manuscript is a book of
ensenyanza... that is, you're learning the pieces. Most certainly,
any player above the beginner level would have taken these as
suggestions, and would have improvised on these themes. That was how I
took Eduardo's message on that front, anyway. Yes, there's music that
is composed to the fullest extent, but Sanz (at least) seems to have
made illustrations more so than compositions, per se. It may be that
most of the existing guitar works are intended to be taken with a
similar grain of salt? (Still thinking about that...)
I have noticed a relatively recent movement in terms of Baroque guitar
performance that tends toward improvisation. Xavier Diaz Latorre does
this wonderfully, I think.
In the same festival I attended a series of classes on disminuacion and
ornamentacion. Again, the idea was that melodic lines were meant to
include the addition of passing phrases from one note to another,
and/or ornamentation -- all at the discretion of the performer. In a
word, improvisation. And again, I notice that players are achieving
this today. Interestingly, we had another set of classes that covered
a flame war between Monteverdi and Artusi, where Artusi complained that
Monteverti's dissonances would be fine in the context of improvisation,
but a serious composition should not have such things. Then back to
the improvisation class where we saw an example of Monteverdi writing a
series of disminuaciones and ornamentaciones in a singer's part -- to
be performed exactly as written! Ostensibly, they were to "sound"
improvised???
And of course, there's continuo, which is essentially structured
improvisation.
I think the bottom line is, there were lots of cases where
improvisation was appropriate, and lots where it wasn't. In other
words, um... er... Well, you know...
cud
__________________________________________________________________
From: Eugene C. Braig IV <brai...@osu.edu>
To: List LUTELIST <l...@cs.dartmouth.edu>; Vihuelalist
<vihuela@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Sent: Fri, July 30, 2010 11:39:51 AM
Subject: [VIHUELA] Re: Four c. guitar
Such improvised indulgences seem to me to find home amongst a greater
proportion of 4- and 5-course guitarists (Lonardi, Lislevand, Ferries,
etc.)
than lutenists or players of modern classical or early 6-string
guitars. I
wonder why that is. Sometimes it sounds quite nice, but is sometimes a
bit
distracting.
Eugene
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [1]lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu
[mailto:[2]lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu] On
> Behalf Of Stuart Walsh
> Sent: Friday, July 30, 2010 11:20 AM
> To: Eugene C. Braig IV
> Cc: 'List LUTELIST'; 'Vihuelalist'
> Subject: [VIHUELA] Re: Four c. guitar
>
> Eugene C. Braig IV wrote:
> > Craddock's recording is now super-hard to find. I would love to
have a
> > copy, but can't seem to track one down at a reasonable price.
> >
> > Also look into:
> >
> > Lonardi, Massimo. 2006. Comienc,a la Musica para Guitarra.
Stradivarius.
> >
>
> Massimo plays very well indeed but for many of the little dances he
adds
> a sort of intro/outro (and sometimes interlude) vamp. Listeners who
> didn't know the originals might have thought these (modern-sounding,
> folksy) vamps were in the original tablatures . I can see that he's
> trying to frame them and make them special but I've often thought of
> actually taking the trouble to edit them out.
>
>
> Stuart
>
>
>
>
> > Marincola, Federico. 1994. Pieces pour Luth/Pieces pour Guitare.
Disques
> > Pierre Verany.
> >
> > Smith, Hopkinson. 1992. Alonso Mudarra: Tres Libros de Musica en
Cifras
> Para
> > Vihuela. Auvidis/Astree.
> >
> > The former is all 4-course guitar and quite nice to my ears. The
latter
> two
> > features mostly lute or vihuela, but include a fair number of tasty
> guitar
> > solos and are also quite nice. ...Not to mention Jocelyn's fine
recent
> > effort: [3]http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/nelsonbartram. Even Anthony
Rooley
> > indulged in a little 4-course guitar on Renaissance Fantasias, but
only
> a
> > little.
> >
> > Best,
> > Eugene
> >
> >
> >
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: [4]lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu
[mailto:[5]lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu] On
> >> Behalf Of Laura Maschi
> >> Sent: Thursday, July 29, 2010 11:05 PM
> >> To: Bruno Correia
> >> Cc: List LUTELIST
> >> Subject: [LUTE] Re: Four c. guitar
> >>
> >> Also check michael Craddock wonderful recording released around
2008...
> >>
> >>
> >> Enviado desde mi iPod
> >>
> >> El 29/07/2010, a las 23:40, Bruno Correia
<[6]bruno.l...@gmail.com>
> >> escribio:
> >>
> >>
> >>> I think John Williams never read anything about the history of
his
> >>> own
> >>> instrument. Check at 1:38. Couldn't believe he said that,
specially
> >>> after watching those great videos by Jocelyn Nelson.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> [1][7]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_LNU1-s4BE&feature=related
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> --
> >>>
> >>> References
> >>>
> >>> 1. [8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_LNU1-s4BE&feature=related
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> To get on or off this list see list information at
> >>> [9]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
> >>>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
--
References
1. mailto:lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu
2. mailto:lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu
3. http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/nelsonbartram
4. mailto:lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu
5. mailto:lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu
6. mailto:bruno.l...@gmail.com
7. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_LNU1-s4BE&feature=related
8. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_LNU1-s4BE&feature=related
9. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/%7Ewbc/lute-admin/index.html
