For pipi runs, it isn't explicit in the manuscript, but what about the last variation of the Sanz Folias? There are passages with runs on the 4th and 5th courses -- to play them with thumb-only down strokes imposes a strict speed limit (and he tells you to run away with this variation), and even played slowly it lacks fluidity. I have found that pipi works very well for this variation, on the lower and the higher courses. Again, I have no authority to say what the actual practice would have been. But logic of the hand dictates something other than ppppp. cud __________________________________________________________________
From: Lex Eisenhardt <eisenha...@planet.nl> To: Monica Hall <mjlh...@tiscali.co.uk> Cc: Vihuelalist <vihuela@cs.dartmouth.edu> Sent: Sunday, December 4, 2011 3:45 PM Subject: [VIHUELA] Re: Guitar bridges >> Normally the fingers and the thumb stay in their own domain, on lower and >> higher courses. Also on the guitar. > > I don't think so. Certainly not in guitar music. Use of alternating > finger and thumb over different courses is a feature of the music in > Bartolotti's first book and elsewhere. e.g. The Bartolotti ciaccona seems to be the one exception. In the rest of the book there are very few right-hand fingerings (with dots), for some single notes on the 4th course. Certainly no p-i-p-i runs, and completely unproblematic with bourdons > There are lots of place in Foscarini - where passing notes on the 4th and > 5th courses really belong to the upper melody - the Corrente detta la > Fauorita on p.60 for example. How do you know? Foscarini used bourdons, and he was not really a campanela man. [about Bartolotti's gigue from the 2nd book, p 7] > I actually made a staff notation transcription of the opening bars of this piece some time ago including the octave doubling - and no, I haven't misunderstood. The first four notes sound in the upper register (they do when you play it anyway). Then the intervals of the theme are inverted so that the theme is split into two with a little question and answer which creates some variety instead of having it exactly the same. It doesn't have to belong to the bass at all. This is only true if you have no bourdons at all, as three of the first four notes are on the 4th course. Since you imply that you have listened carefully to my recordings, I fear that your ear is insensitive for lower frequencies. Almost no one who performs Bartolotti's music seems to think that it is written with re-entrant stringing in mind. > Stadivarius instruments are apparently regarded as untypical. Bartolotti wouldn't have played one (he was dead by 1688) and may not have had a slotted bridge so wouldn't have been able to make the adjustments you say you make. Bartolotti lived in France. Some Voboams seem to have slots. Who knows who invented those. Besides, I'm sure we don't know all about Italian guitars. > And he would have been using plain gut strings not nylgut. Please explain what would be the difference, for voice leading etc. Lex To get on or off this list see list information at [1]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- References 1. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/%7Ewbc/lute-admin/index.html