Re: Lute tablature

[Laura Conrad]

>>>>> "David" == David Raleigh Arnold <address@hidden> writes:

    David> Wouldn't it be best to include the piano notation for the
    David> lute part as well as the tablature?  Then you could leave
    David> out the stems altogether, and you would have a lot more
    David> people able to use the publication, and it's not going to
    David> be hard on a lute player at all.

If I ever got either a lute/guitar player or a keyboard player to come
to my madrigal group with instrumental support
<http://www.laymusic.org/renband.html>  regularly, I would be
more enthusiastic about putting the work into doing that.  

Turning the vocal parts into a keyboard part is actually pretty easy
in lily, and I suppose I could learn to read lute tab well enough to
add the ornamentation Dowland put into the lute parts and not the
vocal ones.  But for how often anyone would use them in my current
setup, it not only isn't worth my time, it isn't even worth the paper
and ink to print the keyboard part out.


    David> As you know, the standard pitch was lower than today.  It
    David> is easy to see why it rose a lot faster for organs than for
    David> other instruments, because every half step means you make a
    David> cheap little pipe instead of another expensive monster.

If you'd ever played cornetto, you would see why it was higher in
places (e.g. Venice) where cornettos were an important instrument.
Your fingers don't have to stretch as far.

-- 
Laura (mailto:address@hidden , http://www.laymusic.org/ )
(617) 661-8097  fax: (801) 365-6574 
233 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02139