Happy New Year

A sublimely uneventful holiday period, with few distractions and plenty of time to think and play vihuela. I've uploaded the last of the tientos by Fuenllana - an old recording recently relocated - so now all eight tientos are online. I've been working on Narvaez's diferencias on 'O Gloriosa Domina', and hope to place that online someday.

Received an email from Werner Bogula, requesting permission to use one of my vihuela soundfiles for a 'lute' podcast on the intabulations of Josquin. Permission granted, of course. http://lutecast.blogspot.com/2006/11/lute-intabulations-of-josquin-desprez.html - it's not my best recording of Mille Regres, due mainly to the fact that I was playing from memory, having last played the piece about ten years previously. I was amazed that I was able to remember it, but it has long been one of my favourite pieces.

The podcast idea is an interesting one. I might consider doing one on Fuenllana, one of these days.

Been putting a lot of thought into continuo playing. I need a continuo instrument, both for my work at Queen Margaret University, and in ensemble situations such as playing with Gordon Ferries, friend and baroque-guitar colleague based in Edinburgh. Initially I thought about a theorbo in A, then a Chittarone Francese, which could be described as an archlute for guitar players: a five-course guitar with 9 or 11 diapasons. That would be great for accompanying the guitar and small French theorbo in D, but might not be loud enough for larger ensembles.

As for the theorbo: very large or relatively small? 90cms plus, or 76cms? The former would be great for ensemble work. I really would love to play a very large theorbo strung entirely in gut, but the solo repertoire would be out. I can't imagine playing Kapsberger on a 96cm theorbo! His first book is for an 11-course theorbo only - which I imagine would be a much smaller instrument, little more than a bass lute circa 75cm with added diapasons of a longer length. So, really, one needs to buy both an ensemble theorbo and a solo-repertoire theorbo, not forgetting a French theorbo in D and a Chittarone Francese - about £20,000!!! Hmm...

My baroque guitar arrives, hopefully, next weekend or early the following week. Very excited. Here it is: http://www.vihuelademano.com/guitars/flat-back/baroque_5c-guitar.htm. I plan to start with a safe repertoire: Gaspar Sanz, still my favourite bg repertoire, followed by Robert de Visee. After that, I'll start exploring the less famous composers such as Carre and Campion. Gordon wants to do the guitar duet repertoire. Should be interesting. Might try to 'recreate' Kapsberger's lost guitar music - surely varaitions on standard grounds, with diferencias taken from his theorbo and lute works. But as a Rome-based composer, would he have had his guitar strung with no diapasons, as mentioned by Sanz? He uses campanellas in his theorbo works, so he was probably using them in his guitar works as well. It's a starting point. We shall see.