Subject: Re: [VIHUELA] Re: Guitar bridges
That may be the case with the lute - but it is not true that the thumb has
an entirely separate function from the fingers on the guitar.
Campanellas
are the obvious example but it goes much further than that. I don't want
to
get endlessly involved in this but just to give some example
I have looked at the examples. It is true that melodies are spread over
'high' and 'low' courses (5 & 4 vs 1,2 & 3). That is different from the
lute, but something similar also occurs on the theorbo.
Normally the fingers and the thumb stay in their own domain, on lower and
higher courses. Also on the guitar.
And yes, Bartolotti has written many melodies going from the 4th or 5th
courses to higher ones, as you describe.
But it doesn't change anything, in these treble melodies the high octave
string can be singled out if you like (or you can play the course in such a
way that the high octave will dominate). The point is that we can choose.
The 4th and 5th courses can be used as either a bass or a treble. I thought
that this was commonly understood.
would there be any
reason why the bass should not be clearly audible? And played with good
tone?
In theory perhaps. But I don't think he does very often write a bass in
counterpoint to treble melodies although it may seem like it to you!
There may be odd places - for example in
the E minor gigue on p. 7 of book 2 where there is an imitative entry in
bar 6 on the first stave which appears to be in the bass because it is on
the 4th and 5th courses. Because of the octave doubling - which even you
with whatever strings and technique you are using can't eliminate - sounds
to me in the treble with inappropriate doubling in the octave below.
So you have misunderstood. With or without doubling in the high octave, the
entry is in the bass. (I guess you are only thinking of the first two
notes?)
Last week I was at a rehearsal with a marimba player. I complained about the
overtones in the bass register, an E producing a very loud b (the 3rd
harmonic) in a diminished chord E -g - b-flat. He told me that you have that
all the time, cannot be avoided but he still loved the instrument.
Why I was asking these questions about bridges and such was because I
think we tend to approach the problem the wrong way round. The music is
the way it is because that is how the instrument was, and the instrument
was like that for practical reasons.
What practical reasons?
Lex
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