Dear Lex, There is nothing wrong with the bass line of the theorbo crossing above the tenor here and there, because those high notes are still perceived as the bass line.
I have on my lap a copy of _Yorke Solos for Double Bass and Piano_, ed. Rodney Slatford (London: Yorke Edition, 1984). If the solo part were played at the written pitch, e.g. by a cello, the piano part would underpin it, and no-one would bat an eyelid. However, the double bass sounds an octave lower than written, which theoretically would create all sorts of unwanted inversions. In practice you hear the lowest piano notes as the bass line, even though many of them are actually above the melody notes of the double bass. The same phenomenon occurs with tenors singing soprano lines down an octave. Best wishes, Stewart McCoy. -----Original Message----- From: lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu [mailto:lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu] On Behalf Of Lex Eisenhardt Sent: 18 December 2011 19:51 To: R. Mattes Cc: Vihuelalist Subject: [VIHUELA] Re: Caccini's instrument > But this isn't the problem at all! There's nothing wrong with > voice crossings per se, only if the voices involved form a fifth, which > would change into a (frowned upon) forth. I have yet to find one example > where this would happen with a theorbo ... > > Cheers, Ralf Mattes Crossings with the outer voices involved are often considered problematic. There are probably very few examples of a figured bass, rising above the other melodies. In this specific example of the Caccini song it is the tuning of the bass courses of the theorbo in A which invites the idea of playing some notes in a higher octave, above the tenor. It is strikingly different from what he has notated in his own printed score, which may represent what he has played himself. Lex To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
