Dear List, At this point I feel compelled to say something about "parallel octaves." If parallel octaves are continuous, they cease to be "parallel octaves" and become "orchestration" (e.g., organ or harpsichord stops). The parallel octaves that get red marks in a theory or counterpoint class are between two adjacent consonances and are usually part of a 3- or 4-voice texture. Sometimes they are "hidden octaves": the same thing but with an intervening note in one of the voices.
Sorry for the lecture. Mike ________________________ Michael Fink michael.f...@notesinc.com ________________________ -----Original Message----- From: lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu [mailto:lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu] On Behalf Of Lex Eisenhardt Sent: Monday, August 30, 2010 1:15 PM To: Vihuelalist Subject: [VIHUELA] Re: Bartolotti Videos performed by Lex Eisenhardt > Today the > vihuela is usually tuned in unison throughout but this may not have > been so in the 16^th century. If the 5^th and 6^th courses were octave > strung this might alter our perceptions of the music. But to what extent? Early lutes had octaves, sometimes even on the 4th course. Certain organ stops have octaves too. The whole problem seems to be how you reconstruct the polyphony in your mind. The high octaves of the five-course guitar tend to be prominent indeed (although it depends also on how you touch them, and the string tension, and even on how they relate in height to the bourdon, at the bridge) but I happen to think that it's not a matter of measuring decibels in the first place. > > The baroque guitar has nothing in common with the classical guitar. Some people seem to shiver at the idea... > most of the time it is difficult to hear the bourdon on the fifth > course because all it is doing is creating parallel octaves in which > the upper part is more audible. For some listeners there are parallel octaves, for others the bass becomes brighter and stronger, as a result of the blending of the overtones of the two strings, like on the lute or the organ (the latter has of course no strings). > In the Sarabande the bass line falls a > 7th at the cadence following the double bar - this big chord I comes > out of nowhere! I'm afraid that's what big chords do. It is guitar music after all, in this funny mixed battuto-pizzicato style. > Paradoxically the bourdon on the fourth often sounds > to me more prominent especially in odd places in the campanellas. Maybe it's not a paradox, since there are more notes on the 4th course involved. It seems to be generally accepted that the bourdon on the 4th course is needed with Bartolotti, so this happens when you play what the tablature says. In all 5 clips there are only 2 campanela runs, by the way, they are both in the prelude. The section high up the neck in the courante, for instance, could be misleading, it is just a 'regular' texture. > But neither is there any evidence that Italians thought of the guitar > as having seven strings rather than five and that used the separate > strings of the fourth and fifth courses independently as a matter of > course. Again, it is not so much a matter of using the separate strings independently, but using your ears (and therefore also your hands) in a more varied way. Or should we believe that the tablature obliges you to always play the two strings (the octave and the bourdon) in perfect balance? (This would then of course also apply for the 4th course bourdon) > It is also unfair to suggest that other people play the music > the way that they do because it is fashionable and that they havent > given careful thought to what they are doing. Maybe. All the heavyly syncopated afterbeat strumming (and percussion) doesn't sound very 17th century to me. Wouldn't it be on purpose, as a 'cross-over'? Lex To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
