Traduction Doc Rossi
Compositeur : Damiani Andrea
Instrumentation : Luth
Publication Date: 1999
Series: Teoria e Didattica della Musica (Theoretical and Educational Texts)
Pages: pp. 208
CONTENTS
*  Preface
*  Introduction
*  CHAPTER 1. TUNING AND TABLATURE
Tuning - Tablature (French tablature - Italian tablature - Rhythm symbols - Fingering and other symbols) - Stringing and doubling - Tuning practice (Practical advice on tuning - Tuning problems) - Strings
*  CHAPTER 2. BASIC TECHNIQUES
Posture and position of the lute - Right-hand position - Right-hand functions - Sound production (Positioning p - Forearm movement - Attack - Positioning i) - Alternating p and i - Finger articulation for polyphonic passages (Positioning p - Positioning i) - Preparatory exercises - Differences from guitar technique - Body control
*  CHAPTER 3. THE RIGHT HAND
Forearm and accentuation - Fingering
*  CHAPTER 4. THE LEFT HAND
General principals - Preparatory exercises - Avoiding stiffness - Differences from guitar technique - Hand coordination
*  CHAPTER 5. SCALES
Right-hand scale technique (Forearm movement - Finger articulation - Integrating the two techniques)
*  CHAPTER 6. EXERCISES FOR TWO LUTES
Exercises on a ground bass - Contrapuntal exercises - Articulation - Dances and ground basses
*  CHAPTER 7. SHIFTING LEFT-HAND POSITIONS
Fundamental principals - Position changes using the same finger - Position changes by substitution - Position changes by jump
*  CHAPTER 8. EXERCISES FOR TWO LUTES WITH POSITION CHANGES
*  CHAPTER 9. RIGHT-HAND TECHNIQUE IN POLYPHONIC MUSIC
p-i articulation - Positioning m - Rest stroke with p - Left-hand positions and movement - m-i articulation - Combining p, i and m - Easy pieces in two voices - Two-voice scales
*  CHAPTER 10. COUNTERPOINT
Voice progression and intervals - The species - Florid counterpoint - Imitation - Syncopation - Suspension
*  CHAPTER 11. CONTRAPUNTAL PIECES IN TWO VOICES
*  CHAPTER 12. THREE VOICES
The right hand - Combining chords and single notes - Repeated chords and monophonic passages - Arpeggios - Chords and counterpoint
*  CHAPTER 13. CONTRAPUNTAL PIECES IN THREE VOICES
Technical aspects: three-voice scales, the barre - Contrapuntal pieces in three voices
*  CHAPTER 14. CHORDS OF FOUR OR MORE NOTES
The ring finger (a) - Five- and six-note chords - Chords played with p
*  CHAPTER 15. IDIOMATIC LUTE COMPOSITIONS
Chords and divisions - Characteristics of lute composition
*  CHAPTER 16. TRANSFORMATION OF LUTE TECHNIQUE DURING THE 16th CENTURY
Evolution of right-hand position - Exercises for m-i alternation
*  CHAPTER 17. TECHNIQUE
Scales (Full-length scales in all keys - Scales with divisions) - Speed - Left-hand legato and ornamentation - The barre (Preparatory exercises - Barre exercises) - Scales in two and more voices (Two-voice scales - Three-voice scales) - Polyphonic patterns - Right-hand exercises
*  CHAPTER 18. RENAISSANCE PERFORMANCE PRACTICE
Interpretation (Rhetoric - Sound quality - Rhythmic inequality) - Ornamentation (16th-century sources - The first half of the 16th century - The second half of the 16th century - The first half of the 17th century - The Elizabethans)
*  CHAPTER 19. TEMPERAMENT
Meantone temperament - Equal temperament

A rare work for the Lute-based Theorbo. Below is the programme note from the composer.In July 1998 I decided that I would use a theorbo in Havoc a piece I was writing for the 1999 Proms (premiere September 8th 1999). Since my knowledge of the instrument was negligible I contacted David (The Orbo) Miller and appealed for help since I knew he would be playing in the Proms piece. He kindly and with admirable patience showed me how the instrument worked and I began writing groundwork as a technical exercise - hence one meaning of the title. The other is that it is a set of variations over a ground bass.Since the theorbo possesses eight diapason bass strings - whichare plucked like those of a harp not stopped with the left and - it seemed sensible to use these for the ground bass which consists simply of a rising eight-note scale using all diapason strings in turn. This ground is stated at the beginning and developed through 16 variations. Nos 1 to 7 are straightforward except that some of them compress the ground into itself. Nos 8 to 16 are in stretto: they are gradually overlapped with each other the new ground beginning one note earlier each time. The climax of the piece comes at variations 10 to 11; variations 12 to 14 bring it gradually down to earth; no. 15 is quiet and puts the decorated ground in relaxed canon with itself (in octaves using the top and bottom strings of the instrument). Variation 16 strips the ground of decoration putting tight scrunchy chords over it and the piece ends with the lowest diapason string (G) a quiet raspberry ripple of the other seven diapason strings and a final harmonic G to tell us that our little journey is over. I hope you enjoy the scenery.Giles Swayne