Bienvenue ici Jean-Michel ;-)

Thanks very much, Jean-Michel, for your kind words. I'm glad that you find the information useful. I'll certainly be delighted to make a vihuela for you. You can find my contact details (phone number and email address) on the 'contact' page of my web site. All very best and welcome to this network!

I'm afraid I promised not to hand out copies of the Portuguese pieces (everyone keeps asking me for them!), but they are published in a dissertation by Rugero Budaz, available online from Dissertation Express.
I'm sure you'll enjoy your Batov instrument. He is the best!

I forgot to mention that the recording with Jonathan is indeed 'in the box', but won't be on sale before Christmas. Why it takes so long, I don't know.

Dear Jean Michel,
thank you so much for your comment! To be precise, I had studied with Paul Beier very shortly, a couple of years...I've been studying with Massimo Lonardi for 8 years, it's his school...
With the best regards, Elena.

And yes, it's Klaus Jacobsen's lute...of course. A wonderful 8-course instrument. I'll play all the spanish repertoire on a vihuella, as soon as I get one!

Bonjour Jean-Michel,
Merci pour votre message de bienvenue. Je suis contente que mon blog vous plaise. Au plaisir!

Stéphanie

Yes - in the introduction to his guitar books of 1620/1622 he describes the tuning of the guitar with octave stringing on the 4th and 5th courses. The interesting thing is that in these books he gives the tuning of the guitar in staff notation which indicates that the first course is tuned to d' rather than e'. However in the songbook the songs are certainly notated with the guitar in e'. As far as the stringing is concerned the kind of accompaniment which he seems to think appropriate is entirely strummed and it is not intended that the bass line should be realized in the same way that it would be on the lute. Really it wouldn't matter which method of stringing was used and I think it is reading too much into these things to insist that one method of stringing is preferable to another.

P.S. Sanseverino doesn't mention other instruments as being suitable for the accompaniment in the same way that other alfabeto song books do. Only the guitar is mentioned on the title page.

Dear Jean Michel,
The two Valdambrini books are, indeed, excellent, in my opinion. Unfortunately, there are, to my knowledge, no facsimiles of them available. In doing my research, years ago, I consulted them in Rome and made notes for my guitar music book. I don't know anyone who has a microfilm of them, but I remember that the late Robert Spencer owned a copy of book I in 1995. Possibly, it is now in London at the Royal Academy of Music where he bequeathed his library. You can try contacting the librarian there to see if it is.

Hello Jean Michel
I do have a microfilm of this from the library in Rome. I wrote to them, heard nothing and then six months later it arrived in the post! A friend has offered to scan it but this will take a few weeks to arrange. I did actually manage to get a photocopy of it as well from the University of Michigan in the USA. I believe Pat O'Brian has a copy of it and he is a member of this group. Try him first and if he can't help then I will organize something.

I do have copies which I got from a researcher who wrote a thesis on early guitar. I must run out to work right now but I will try to send this to you this evening when I return home.

ob

I have had various other offers including one from Jocelyn Nelson who had them from Pat O'Brian. Let's see what turns up!

Home too late to get it done tonight, sorry. Send your e-mail address to mine so I'll know where to send this big a file. About 25MB.

oblute@earthlink.net

I'll see if I can figure out what the problem is and unblock you but for now I'll send the two books of Valdambrini in manageable pieces.

ob

Yes, that should be all of the 1646 book. Good Morning!

ob

Yes - the problem with Valdambrini - and Foscarini is that they are very badly printed. They may well have engraved their books themselves - and made a mess of it. Also - this may seem strange but they may not have been very musically literate. Like pop musicians today - they could play but were not always sure how to write down what they were playing.

Hello, Jean Michel, thanks for your comments. I will be playing in Europe again in 2012, in Switzerland, G.B., Germany, and...who knows anywhere else? Maybe Holland, France... the schedule is still open. Best regards
Gabriel

Hello, Jean Michel I could send you the jpg files for the Pasacalle. Please, send me your email address. I will try to upload the files to the files section of this webpage.
Saludos
Gabriel