Here is a lovely piece by Antoine Forqueray, played by Jean Rondeau and Thomas Dunford:
Sounds simple enough, except for all the ornaments, right? Now have a look at the score:
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That white notation stuff was supposed to go away when we moved from mensural to modern notation early in the 17th century. But maybe France didn't get the memo? Anyway, I want to transcribe this for guitar, so I am going to try and sort it out.
I believe the white note engraving was specific to the lute. I have repros of original 17th C French harpsichord scores and they are in standard black and white note engraving.
ReplyDeleteThe lute at this time did not use vocal notation, but lute tablature. And yes, nearly all French music for harpsichord and viol of this period is in standard, more or less, vocal notation. That's why this is so unusual! Because what I think he has done is simply hollow out what would have been black notes. But why? And how is it to be interpreted?
ReplyDeleteI thought the white note non tab was used when continuo was added instead of just solo lute tabs. It's been a long time since I was into this kind of thing but there was some quirk about white note engraving for the lute in 17C France. Under what circumstances they did or did not use it I either don't know or have forgotten. But I believe it was played as if in standard engraving. It is not like their unmeasured preludes for the keyboard.
ReplyDeleteQuite right, and you are thinking of the unmeasured preludes for lute. These were written in ordinary French tablature, but they simply left out the signs for note values above the staff. When this form migrated to the harpsichord they wrote everything in whole notes to suggest the same thing.
ReplyDeleteBut the Forqueray is different. It has normal rhythmic indicators with flags and dots and so on, but the noteheads are empty!