On Monica Hall's new website there is the updated version of her paper 'The
stringing of the five-course guitar'. In the discussion of many
controversial issues she simply observes that 'it has been suggested that..'
It is good practice to make reference to your sources in scholarly writings,
so that the reader can access the original texts.
On p 50 we can read Monica's brief summary of a 'theory 5', clearly
referring to my article 'Bourdons as Usual', which was published in The Lute
47. She writes: 'Corbetta had seen Carré's book . and copied his
instructions on stringing because he thought this was the most viable option
for inexperienced French players who were used to the re-entrant tuning. It
was intended as a concession or compromise for their benefit although he
himself (and other Italian players in Paris at the time) always used octave
stringing on both the fourth and fifth courses.'
Monica argues that this theory is 'too speculative to take seriously'. That
is a bold statement, if seen against the background of the web of
assumptions (some of which are really problematic) she has put forward in
her on-line documents.
* Spec.u.late (spek'y?-lat') v., -lat.ed, -lat.ing, -lates. v.intr. To
meditate on a subject; reflect. To engage in a course of reasoning often
based on inconclusive evidence.
Therefore some comments:
1.1) Corbetta may indeed have seen Carre's book, as most likely it was
published a few months before La Guitarre royalle was printed. It is hardly
a matter of wild speculation to suppose this.
1.2) We don't really know what moved Carre to include his advice to add a
bourdon to the fourth course. Monica seems to think that he changed his
stringing in imitation of Corbetta, and that his words in fact are a
reference to Corbetta's tuning.
1.3) I would assume the possibility that Corbetta has copied Carre's advice
into his own preface, and put it in his own words.
1.4) In his preface Corbetta complains that: 'There are always envious
people who say that my style is too difficult, because a part of my pieces
approaches that of the lute.' He must have realized that the music from his
1671 collection would not work in re-entrant tuning, and he was careful to
make it clear that, on the contrary, 'French' stringing was acceptable for
his works. In this manner, he may have anticipated more profits from the
group of French players who at that time were starting to add fourth-course
bourdons to their instruments. Most likely Antoine Carre was one of those.
2.1) Monica concludes her discussion of 'La Guitarre royalle' by saying:
'There is no reason why we should not take what Corbetta has said at face
value. The method of stringing which he refers to, with octave stringing on
the fourth course but not the fifth, is clearly the one intended for the
music in "La Guitarre royale" and probably the one he used himself
throughout most of his career.'
However, if we would follow Corbetta's instructions, we would just end up
adding fourth-course bourdons to guitars in re-entrant tuning. He has not
said anything about the fifth course. We could of course speculate on what
Corbetta would have thought of removing the fifth-course bourdon of a guitar
in 'Italian' tuning, if he really thought that 'French' tuning was the only
good option for his music. And it would be interesting to know why he has
never mentioned that.
I can think of several different explanations, from 'he simply forgot to
tell' to 'at that time no one in Paris used two bourdons'. But it is just as
likely that he did not care. In the Italian preface to La Guitarre royalle
we can read that Corbetta considered himself far superior to all the
'professori' from Paris, and he may not have been overly concerned with how
others strung their instruments, either with one or two bourdons. For the
very particular battuto-pizzicato style of his solo works 'French' tuning,
with the additional bass of the bourdon at the fourth course, gives much
better results than re-entrant tuning, even if a fifth-course bourdon would
occasionally be missed.
The objections that are raised to the use of a fifth-course bourdon, about
the (supposed inferior) quality of plain gut bass strings, the
inconveniences with campanelas and ornaments on strings of uneven thickness,
may have been completely irrelevant to him.
2.2) Contrary to what Monica seems to believe, it is really possible that
there were players in Paris who used octave stringing on both the fourth and
fifth courses (and yes, perhaps even 'always'). In my article in The Lute 47
I have explained why I think that this could have been the case with
Corbetta.
We should be cautious to assume that everybody would have wanted to use the
same stringing as Corbetta. With few exceptions, it is not known who in
France actually heard him play his own solo music, and it can even be
imagined that people who bought his 1671 book had no clear idea of how many
bourdons he used on his instrument. We even don't know if he has ever met
Robert de Visee. Corbetta was born in 1615 and it is often supposed that
Visee was born in the late 1650s. By the time that Visee published his first
guitar book Corbetta was dead.
3.1) We don't know very much about the Parisian guitar world, prior to 1670.
Monica argues that it would be quite possible that the 'French' method of
stringing originated with Bartolotti or Lully. This should be considered
mere speculation. She ends her article (also on her webpage) on Bartolotti's
'Lettere tagliate' as follows:
'Bartolotti himself makes no mention of the method of stringing he
preferred - if indeed he had any preferences. The music works well whichever
method of stringing is chosen and it is really a matter of personal taste
which method is used today.'
To me, it seems rather odd to assume that a composer of the stature of
Bartolotti may not have had clear preferences with regard to stringing. In
our time, opinions differ widely on the question if his music would work
equally well on any of the possible stringing arrangements. As I have said
before on this list, Monica's ideas on Bartolotti's lettere tagliate do not
convince me at all. I rather believe that the lettere tagliate are there to
improve the voice-leading of the bass, for example by avoiding chords in
unfavourable 6-4 position on a guitar with two bourdons.
Lex
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