----- Original Message -----
From: "Stuart Walsh" <s.wa...@ntlworld.com>
To: "Monica Hall" <mjlh...@tiscali.co.uk>
Cc: "Lutelist" <l...@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Sent: Sunday, January 08, 2012 4:30 PM
Subject: Re: [LUTE] Re: 15th century dance: Anello (lute/gittern duo)
On 08/01/2012 12:53, Monica Hall wrote:
----- Original Message ----- From: "Stuart Walsh" <s.wa...@ntlworld.com>
To: "Lute Net" <l...@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Sent: Saturday, January 07, 2012 10:19 PM
Subject: [LUTE] 15th century dance: Anello (lute/gittern duo)
Very nice too - but it seems to me that you could dance to just the
single line. The lute does sound a bit bumpy in the recording. Where
does the picture come from?
Yes, the lute isn't so good! I was wholly focused on the gittern and the
rough lute playing maybe makes the gittern sound better. In fact I'm much
more confident playing fingerstyle lute than anything with a plectrum. But
I do like the sound of a plectrum. It's another colour to play with.
There seems to be lots of evidence of lute duos (inc lute and gittern) in
the 15th century and it's fascinating to speculate what kind of things
they (not the internationally famed virtuosi!) may have played. Maybe
dances -just for listening, or for small numbers of dancers?
In the arrangement I played, the tune was the top line of the lute part.
The top line, the gittern part was composed by Ian Gatiss. (And Ian was
very keen to have people evolve their own lines. But that's quite a
task!). There is another dance tenor, Giloxia, which is quite a strong
tune in itself but Ian nevertheless thought that it would have had a
fancier line above and a simple bass part below. I don't know what the
issues are!
I pinched the picture from google images, which turns out to be from
gutenberg thingy, so presumably copyright free. Actually I didn't know
that until I looked just now.
http://www.clipart-history.com/index.php?id=791&pic=9615
And you can see I've cropped out the actual musicians in the image,
playing a transverse flute and a drum. I thought -and still think - that
this is modern pastiche but the website says its from 1493!
Nice picture. Pipe and tabor seems to me more appropriate to dance to. I
know there are lots of illustrations of one sort or another of the lute and
gittern playing together - but I wonder whether anything so elaborate as
three parts with fancy lute parts would really be danced to. but I am not
a medieval specialist.
I seem to remember that in Mansfield Park when they have a dance one of the
servants just plays the violin. We have a tendency today to over egg the
pudding. (IMHO).
And a happy New Year. Have just returned home from a beautiful candlelit
Epiphany Carol Service. No lutes but we did have a rather nice modern
setting of the Lute Book Lullaby and some Tallis.
Monica
Stuart
You must have a whole house full of instruments - a veritable museum!
All I have is a baroque guitar and a "vihuela" which is now unplayable,
I feel quite deprived.
Monica
To get on or off this list see list information at
http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
