Dear Monica,
You write: 'I think you are mistaken. Most of these song books are
not intended for
amateurs (although amateurs may have performed cf. Schubert lieder).
This is clear from the voice part. They are intended for accomplished
singers - of whom there would have been a large number in Italy where
every church and cathedral had a body of professional singers.'
I beg to differ - what is your evidence for such a statement? Surely
the very act of publishing printed books is to sell to the wider market
than the few guitar 'professionals' versed in composition so as to make
money. Similarly manuscript collections were frequently for
transmission of dances/songs to pupils. Incidentally amatuers in this
contemporary sense does not equate to unaccomplished singers - the
affluent classes had the time as well as money to devote time to the
'arts' and deveoped some proficiency. In any event these songs are not
Rossini coloratura arias
.
Martyn
--- On Fri, 19/11/10, Monica Hall <mjlh...@tiscali.co.uk> wrote:
From: Monica Hall <mjlh...@tiscali.co.uk>
Subject: [VIHUELA] Re: Valdambrini's evidence
To: "Lex Eisenhardt" <eisenha...@planet.nl>
Cc: "Vihuelalist" <vihuela@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Date: Friday, 19 November, 2010, 12:41
Sanseverino's six (dance-) songs are accompaniments to well-known
> melodies.
Obviously you haven't seen them. (They are not the same songs
included in
the 1620 edition). They are songs which were currently in the
repertoire at
the time - Rontani's Caldi sospiri to name but one. This had apppeared
with
basso continuo in a song book printed in Florence in 1614 without
alfabeto and was reprinted in Rome with
alfabeto in 1623.
> The songs of Marini, Berti and so many others were new compositions,
> provided with the harmony of a basso continuo. The alfabeto
> could well have been inscribed by the composer himself, as we assume
of
> Biagio Marini, for example.
I am sure that it was and if you read what Marini has said and study
how he
has added the alfabeto to the songs you can see that he had in mind
something quite different from what you seem to think
> [could we please have
> this discussion in Dutch ?:~) ]
Double Dutch perhaps. What you are saying sounds like pedantry to
me.
what was going on in
>> Surely they are one and the same?
>
> No they are not.
I think you are mistaken. Most of these song books are not intended
for
amateurs (although amateurs may have performed cf. Schubert lieder).
This is clear from the voice part. They are intended for
accomplished singers - of whom there would have been a large number in
Italy
where every church and cathedral had a body of professional singers.
> We cannot tell how someone like Foscarini, of whom we have no songs,
> would have shaped his accompaniment to a song by Marini or Landi. But
we
> are
> so fortunate to have his BC instructions, even if they are late.
That is the point isn't it. They are included in the latest
(surviving)
edition of his work - 1640 - not the earlier one. But sources from
the 1620s tell a different
story. We don't even know if he would ever have accompanied these
songs - which according to you were going out of style by 1640. But
some of the pieces in his 1629 book and that of Colonna are clearly
intended to be accompaniments to songs in fashion at the time.
Monica
>
>
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References
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