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Performing and tunings

🔗Jon Szanto <jszanto@cox.net>

5/2/2005 11:50:14 AM

Hey,

After all the talk about meantone tunings and performance practice, I
came across the following in my 'research':

Italian Virtuoso Love Songs of the 17th Century
http://www.artekearlymusic.org/loveletters.html

Drew Minter, Countertenor
ARTEK/458 Strings
Grant Herreid - lute, theorbo, guitar
Astrid Nielsch - harp
Dongsok Shin - organ
Paul Shipper - guitar, lute
Richard Stone - theorbo, archlute
Lisa Terry - viola da gamba, cello
Gwendolyn Toth, director - harpsichord, virginal, organ

From the notes: "Two temperaments were used in the performance of
these pieces. The earlier seventeenth century works by Frescobaldi,
Monteverdi, D'India, Gagliano, and Sances are performed in 1/4-comma
meantone. In this tuning, the Mazzochi lament would require the famous
19-note keyboard of Zarlino; therefore, necessity demanded we use
1/5-comma tuning. The Cesti cantata and the Gabrielli Ricercar also
clearly require a tuning system able to handle all all keys, and thus
they also were performed in 1/5-comma meantone."

Anybody heard this?

I've got it on order, but it will be listened to after I've had a
chance to spend time with Johnny Reinhard's early music CD. But I look
forward to hearing flesh-and-blood practioning of some of these arts...

Cheers,
Jon