On 12/01/2011 16:35, Nelson, Jocelyn wrote:
Certainly nothing wrong with dances and ballad tunes, as you demonstrate.
Is the tuning similar to the 4-course?
I'm not familiar with mandore literature, and now I'm looking forward to
learning more about it.
JN
Jean-Marie Poirier has a site devoted to the instrument.
http://le.luth.free.fr/mandore/index.html
It's French, of course but there is a pdf of an article by the late
James Tyler from Early Music. Donald Gill and James Tyler have both
tried to promote the mandore (and the mandolino) and have both written
about them.
Supposing a tuning with top d (it might be g - or something else) then a
four-course tuning would be g-d-g-d (or g-d-g'-d' or maybe I mean d'',
but you get the point!). And a five course instrument would be
d-g-d-g-d. But on both four and five-course instruments the top course
could be lowered to c, b flat etc. Also the Skene MS has a section of
pieces in lute tuning.
Stuart
On 1/11/2011 2:34 PM, "Stuart Walsh"<s.wa...@ntlworld.com> wrote:
On 11/01/2011 01:48, Nelson, Jocelyn wrote:
I really enjoyed this, Stuart. Thanks for posting!
Best,
Jocelyn
Thanks!
I have only one section of the Ulm collection and in that there are 123
pieces for five-course mandore (fingerstyle or mixed plectrum and
fingers) and a small number for four-course mandore (probably plectrum).
So the Skene and the Ulm collections make up several hundred pieces -
approaching the size of the repertoire for the four-course guitar. And
then there are the Chancy pieces and some other things.
Of course the four-course guitar's repertoire is more varied: songs,
abstract pieces, chanson settings as well as dances etc and the mandore
repertoire seems to be mainly dances and ballad tunes. Very nice though.
Stuart
On 1/10/2011 7:04 AM, "Chris Despopoulos"<despopoulos_chr...@yahoo.com>
wrote:
Thanks... My instrument is 30 cm, and actually 5-course, single
strung. I presume it's made according to historical
understanding...
I believe Carlos Gonzales is a historian as well as builder -- he's
planning a workshop on building ancient Egyptian/Coptic lutes this
April, for example. I prefer to use the thin quill of a feather as
a
plectrum, as I saw done on the R. lute once. For as thin and short
as
the strings are, it helps to have something equally tiny to set the
string in motion. And of course, the Chancy MS is to be done with a
plectrum as far as I know.
But I have to say, your playing had me fooled... It sounds like a
mandore to me! And they are lovely tunes.
cud
__________________________________________________________________
From: Stuart Walsh<s.wa...@ntlworld.com>
To: Vihuelalist<vihuela@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Sent: Mon, January 10, 2011 6:19:40 AM
Subject: [VIHUELA] Re: some Ulm mandore pieces
Thanks Chris
I should have said I'm not playing these pieces on a mandore, but
on a
small, single-strung instrument, tuned like a mandore. My instrument
has a string length of 37cms and so is larger (and, no doubt,
easier to
play) than a typical four-course, four-string mandore. On the other
hand, maybe there was a difference in size between the four-course
(four-string) plectrum-played mandore and the five-course,
fingerstyle
(or plectrum+fingers style) instrument.
I knew about the Ulm tablatures from Donald Gill and James Tyler
but it
was Jean-Marie Poirier who pointed me in the direction of the
Cornetto
catalogue.
[1]http://www.faksimiles.org/verlag.htm
I think there are three separate tabaltures in the Ulm collection
and
the Cornetto facsimiles are quite expensive. At Jean-Marie's
suggestion
I got Cornetto catalogue, 0073 which turned out to be two
nicely-produced facsimiles. The main 'book' (there's probably a
technical name for a publication roughly 8 inches by 6 inches) has
music for a five course instrument and uses a couple of tunings but
mainly one (in fourths and fifths, without lowering the first
course).
Like the Skene MS, it has to be fingerstyle or plectrum plus
fingers.
The supplementary 'book' has only a few pieces, all or mainly from
the
larger collection, but now set for a four-course instrument,
presumably
to be played with a plectrum.
Stuart
To get on or off this list see list information at
[2]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
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References
1. http://www.faksimiles.org/verlag.htm
2. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/%7Ewbc/lute-admin/index.html
