The Fundamentals of Lute Playing, Episode 33: Your Next Piece

[@MrDyne01]

A great teaching. Looking forward to more!

[@vanessagreen3986]

😊

[@luteshop]

Just a footnote - it seems likely that Dalza (unlike Albert de Rippe or Marco dall'Aquila) never used the ring finger (for example he never plays a C major chord with the top three notes on the top three courses) so all his chords of 4 or more notes are played either with the thumb alone, or the thumb plus one or more fingers. The case you mention is very interesting because (if the "no ring finger" hypothesis is true) then maybe the upper three notes of the chord are played by the thumb or a single finger. Food for thought...

[@laudonschuett3019]

It is very interesting! It definitely seems like Dalza tried to avoid the A finger whenever possible. There are a couple subtle spots that make me hesitate to say he never used it. Check out the last line, second measure of this page: browse.lutemusic.org/facsimiles/DalzaJ/Intabulatura_de_Lauto/v.4_1508/55.png. My instinct is to play that thumb on the first bass note and then use I,M,A for the upper three notes that follow (especially at faster tempos).....but it would be interesting to play around with it and see how it sounds thumb going through or index stroking up (though I would expect to see a dot for that). I will also just say that sometimes the thumb strokes/or PPMI rolls don't sound as good to me in the intabulations on the four note chords as they do in the dances. This is a taste thing though, and he certainly may have liked it or not been bothered by it! Of course, all this assumes that our primary goal is to play it as Dalza did and yet our whole concept of the "Dalza" stroke is preserved in German sources, by other players.His preface just gives us so little information.... My personal view is to try to sound like a "reasonable" lute player from the period (some combination of Spinacino, Dalza, Capirola, etc.), though I also think there is great value in trying to determine the specific playing style of a composer. Anyways, I think these are very valid things to ruminate on. One of the unfortunate restrictions of making these videos is that there is no conversational element, so I always love seeing comments like this in the comment section! Thanks for posting! I'll play through the book in the next couple weeks and see if I find any other interesting spots to discuss : ) Cheers, Laudon

[@banjoboy01]

where's your rendition, a previous episode?

[@laudonschuett3019]

@@banjoboy01 I don’t generally record the student pieces that I have been giving out because I don’t want students to feel pressured to play them at my tempos : ) I have had a couple requests but I have mixed feelings about it. I don’t want people to just copy what I do… I am considering it, though!

[@banjoboy01]

@@laudonschuett3019 got it, too bad we don't have recordings from the 1500's

[@laudonschuett3019]

@@banjoboy01 it would be great to have a bunch of different players playing the same piece! That way we could get a sense of the range of styles : )