Chitarra Batente

[Bill Brettschneider]

I am wondering if anyone has any thoughts on the similarity between historical baroque guitar rasgueado and modern chitarra batente technique? I was on youtube and discovered that there is a modern folk idiom for chitarra batente in southern italy, and it looks to me to be very similar to the strumming notation I have seen in baroque sources. Monica? Anyone?

of course, I could be out to lunch.

[Bill Brettschneider]

Anyone? Any ideas about the chitarra  Batente at all?

[Monica Hall]

I don't really know anything about the modern chitarra battente except that I think that it is wire strung and possibly played with a plectrum. Also the soundboard is bent back towards the nut - can't remember the correct term for this - to offset the stress of wire strings. Sometimes baroque guitars were adapted to take wire strings but I don't think this was earlier than the 18th century. When it comes to playing I suppose it may well use the same old chords.  L'Arpeggiata don't really claim to be performing in a historically accurate manner.

[Yuri Liman]

I am not sure about similarity...  but as far as I know Marcello Vitale plays chitarra batente (at least I never heard him play solo baroque guitar repertoire but lots of folk Southern Italian music) and in L'Arpeggiata he plays baroque music in the same manner in early baroque repertoire...   I am not sure how one can qulify this. To me L'Arpeggiata has fantastic performance level, but musically it is often not quite what I would prefer to do with the same repertoire. They sound like they have deliberately chose the concept of mixing folk urban street music with early music repertoire. Maybe they are right - I am not sure...