I wonder why don't you ornament and embellish a lotmore. Medieval music was likely about even more ornamentation and embellishment than this. You are for the most part reading the manuscript.
Some I choose to ornament, especially the monophony, and some I choose not to ornament according to my own taste. There is next to nothing documented about gittern and medieval lute performance practice and much is by inference. If you do have some original sources supporting the practice I'd be happy to examine them.
@@kidneykutter This is exactly why I asked - because I wanted to see if the way you play was based on historical reason. While I don't have specific primary sources on performance practice, we do know that Western Medieval music was significantly influenced by Islamicate World music. Instruments like the lute and rebec came from the oud and rebab, respectively, etc. We also know that when the Europeans adopted the oud and adapted it into the lute, they continued to play it for at least more than 200 years using a plectrum or bird feather, much like their Islamicate counterparts. So if they adopted the instuemnt and even the playing style, which didn't allow for much harmony or vertical thinking generally, then it's reasonable to assume that Medieval lute playing was more complex, ornamental, and horizontally-focused, similar to traditional oud playing styles. What do you think?
I think that modal monophonic music in 13th century Spain shared many of the features of nearby contemporaneous musical cultures like oud playing. Like this: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-kKIDBlWRRcA.htmlsi=OhxUz6kxyNHopwgu I don't think that lutenists who accompanied Machaut continued to use oud playing styles despite hybrid plucking with a plectrum, but if performers today choose to do so and are pleased with the result, there's not much evidence to disagree with. Probably the best documented performance practice was an improvised introduction/prelude and I've done that occasionally, but honestly when I listen to recordings I find it a bit boring and done more to check the box of doing it, so I don't bother in my videos. But again, in the absence of evidence I'm playing music that interests me in a way that I like.
@@kidneykutter Hmm, where can I find recordings of this written-down improvised prelude and how do we know it was simply a notated improvisation? I've actually never heard or heard very little of the improvised, horizontally-complex and melodically fluent style in performances of Western Meidveal music. What do you mean by "just to check a box"? Luteists accompanying Machaut might or might not have used oud-style lute playing. But why are you leaning that they probably didn't? Troubadours, however, were likely influenced by Andalusi traditions and likely played in an improvised and horizontally-intricate style. Afterall, the first troubadour, William IX of Aquitaine, was exposed to Andalusi culture, music and poetry forms through his family and even personal experiences.
The Low G bari-tenor ukulele and the renaissance guitar are virtually identical except for not using courses of two strings. Prior to the invention of nylon for strings, gut strings were just plain unreliable and needed two of them to make a decent sound. I am old enough to remember putting gut strings on the G, D, and A of my violin when I was a kid back int he 1950’s. They were always breaking, always stretching too much, and couldn’t hold the note for shat.
@@MichaelLevine-n6y If you look through my youtube channel there are many live performances. Couple examples: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-xHpVQlyPwqU.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-A5h5DV3gl-c.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4WI9jGP8Odg.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-XAyTAI-qdd4.html
This piece have a mixolydian feel. Do you know how common it was for a medieval song to change modes, like being mostly mixolydian with some aeolian parts? I think this would be more common in harp pieces, but was it done in other instruments?
Rules were made to be broken so it's not that rare to have a modal change in non-secular music. In terms of instruments, none of this music was instrument specific until well into the late medieval/early renaissance periods. There is literally no music written (that survives) that specifies gittern and no medieval lute music until the mid 1400's (Wolfenbuttel tablature)
@@kidneykutter So it's sad, but we have no way to know for sure how lutenists played in 12th century, for instance? And, given the chromatic fretting or fretless nature of some instruments, can we suppose some people mixed modes with the same tonic (C Ionian with C Dorian - "parallel modes"), even if the church dislike it? I think the church wont mind mind using 2 relative modes (C Ionian and D Dorian) on the same pieces, though. How is it done on the Wolfenbuttel tablature or other early sources?
This is so beautiful!! Can I ask two things? 1. What tuning do you use on your gittern? 2. I'd like to try and play it on my own gittern, could you share the transcription you used? Thank you so much :)
Glad you liked it. My gittern tuning top to bottom is c g d a d (I'll tune the 4th course down to G for pieces in that mode). Here it is transposed to D to take advantage of the gittern's tuning and drone www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/fv8616rujfo0oernsabki/Tant-ma-Belis-D.pdf?rlkey=supg96qdn080mr46b107gwzi5&dl=0
