This is an important point - because he does often indicate that
up-strokes should be played with the thumb - which is not very
practical - I have tried it.
In this context? How does he indicate that?
I had in mind a specific example - in the Spagnoletta on p.8. In the
second section on the first line, the 6 following Chord M seems to be
intended to be played as a single note and has a down stroke. In his fourth
Rule Fosco indicates that notes like these should be played as single
notes ---
Fourthly Particular care must be taken when playing those numbers which
are placed after an alfabeto letter. These must be played singly; that is
to say you must pluck neither less nor more strings than those which are
shown. In this way the true effect of the ornamental notes will be felt
and the parts will follow clearly one after the other which is what I
intend.
This really excludes the idea that all the passing notes should always be
accomapnied the chords even if this is possible.
The problem there is that you are introducing the fourth after the chord
rather than inserting it into the chord - so it is not comparable with
what Foscarini does - which is to introduce the 4th and then resolve it
Foscarini does that all the time.
Does what all the time? Introduce the 4th into the chord and not resolve
it. Can you give some examples. That is not what he suggests in Rule 5.
Pedruil is interesting because it does seem to be a very early example of
experimenting with the mixed style.
I see no good reason
Well you wouldn't of course. Once you have made up your mind you are not
willing to consider alternative ideas. Even if we assume that the passage
is to be strummed throughout there is no reason to assume that all the open
courses should be included in all the chords. You have left out the 5th
course in two places in your example 3 and in the final chord of your
example 5. It seems that as far as you are concerned it is more important
to eliminate 6/4 chords than meaningless dissonance. It would make more
sense to treat the third chord as a 3-part one.
This is a very obscure source and there are different ways of interpreting
it. I wouldn't myself regard it as good scholarly practice to jump to
conclusions about anything in it. There are one or two places in the
alfabeto pieces whether there are figures although I am not sure how these
should be interpreted.
I would also point out that there are dots after several of the stroke
marks. They are there for a purpose.
One other point on a different subject. In the examples in Alex Dean's
dissertation chords G, H and M are regularly used and these are all played
with a barre. Moreover all of the songs are in keys which have no key
signature or one flat so that some of the chords are not much use any. The
songs are not necessarily intended to be performed at written pitch. The
whole point of Amat's tables etc. is to enable the player to transpose to a
pitch that suites the singer. This would involve the other chords.
Monica
To get on or off this list see list information at
http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
