Monica and Rob and others have suggested that strumming is very old -
older than the four-course repertoire as it appears in the mid 16th
century. But there is no explicit strumming at all in the four-course
repertoire.
The Braye MS has some pieces with sequences of block chords
which could be strummed - but could be plucked too.
This subject has indeed come up on a number of occasions in the past - we
seem to keep going over and over the same topics. Jocelyn may have
something to say about it when she has time.
What you mean is that there is no actual indication in the surviving
4-course repertoire that the 4-part chords should be strummed (but there is
no indication that they should be played in any other way either). The
reason for this is because these books were printed using the same font of
moveable type which was used for lute music - and indeed cittern music - and
either the printer simply didn't have the means of indicating that chords
should be strummed or didn't think it necessary. The same applies to the
manuscript - there wasn't any need to indicate that the chords should be
strummed. Players would know what to do. Morlaye's "Quatriesne Livre"
includes pieces for the cittern printed in exactly the same way as the
guitar music - but since the cittern is played with a plectrum the chords
must be strummed. It is difficult to play many of these pieces at speed
doing anything else.
There is clear evidence that chords were strummed on the lute certainly by
1536 since there are pieces in Neusidler's "Ein Newgeordent kunstlich
Lautenbuch" where chords are marked "mit durch streichen". There are also
pieces in Dalza which contain passages which are probably intended to be
strummed - again - it would be difficult to play them in any other way.
These were all included in a supplement in Lute News some time ago. Our own
CG also points out that the lute (and the guitar) were originally played
with a plecturm - so that originally any chords must have been strummed.
There was a fairly
recent discussion on this list about some modern transcriptions by
Giesbert of the Phalese (1570s) four-course music and it emerged that
Giesbert's extensive strumming indications were all his own invention!
As far as I can remember it was the way in which he had indicated this
rather than the fact that he suggested that the chords were to be strummed.
But I wonder how far before the 1550s could we reasonably expect
guitarists to have been strumming sequences of block chords - major and
minor I, IV, Vs etc.
Surely not a hundred years earlier? My amateur understanding of 15th
century music is that most of it is in three parts (but some monophonic,
and some in more than three parts). Chord sequences simply hadn't been
invented then (?) and it would be quite anachronistic to try and impose
them on the music(?). Improvisation was based around 'tenors' - lines of
long notes with rules about acceptable and unacceptable intervals, not on
chord sequences.
This is such an oversimplification that it is difficult to comment on it
without writing a dissertation. You just can't sum things up in this way.
Some of the songs in the Cancionero de Palacio are based on chord sequences
like the Romanesca........ You must make a distinction between sacred
polyphony and more popular music ...etc.........
Around 1500 the earliest music (published and in MS) for the lute include
block chords (doubling notes according to the practicalities of a
fingerboard in a particular tuning) but not chord sequences. The block
chords mingle with melodic lines - which predominate. So(?): no likelihood
of strumming there.
But that is what Neusidler indicates. The pieces consist of block chords
with the top note repeated in a tremulo effect.
I'll leave Jocelyn to comment on the rest of this.
Monica
But this early lute music also includes 'grounds' - or(?) what later came
to be called grounds. I wonder if these very early 'grounds' were a sort
of half way house between the old 'tenors' - a single line, or were
actually strummable - and actually strummed - chord sequence?
Maybe you don't want to commit yourself to actual dates - but I wonder how
far back do you think guitarists (and citternists and others) could have
been strumming chord sequences? And if they were strumming something else:
what dispositions of notes could they have been strumming?
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