Early English Instrumental Music

Started by Mandryka, October 27, 2015, 01:42:21 AM

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Mandryka



This one has a really lovely thing, a pavan and galliard written for lute by Thomas Morley and arranged for harpsichord by Fedinando Richardson.

(The record is a good one for adjusting the subwoofer volume!)
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka

#221


Ferrabosco's solo viol music is really serious contrapuntal stuff, the same sort of seriousness as Vincenzo Galilei's lute music. The performances by Biordi are unsmiling and inexpressive, objective. A very different approach is here

Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka

#222
Quote from: Mandryka on October 12, 2021, 11:20:27 PM


Lanvellec, haven't worked out if it's actually for sale yet!

10 breathless in nomines, organ recorded and played in a way which makes it sound like a portative. Bugger!

I'm drying my tears and comforting myself by listening to this

Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Que

Quote from: Mandryka on October 31, 2021, 12:21:00 AM
10 breathless in nomines, organ recorded and played in a way which makes it sound like a portative. Bugger!

No worries. This is the Bull organ disc you (and ayone else) needs:



Played on an organ in an English church that survived in Normandy. How cool is that!  :D

bioluminescentsquid

#224
Quote from: Mandryka on October 31, 2021, 12:21:00 AM
10 breathless in nomines, organ recorded and played in a way which makes it sound like a portative. Bugger!

I'm drying my tears and comforting myself by listening to this



It's out already? I guess for the physical CDs but waiting for it to reach streaming (if it ever will).

That's a shame, the audio samples sounded amazing.

Thilo Muster, I have mixed feelings with. Sometimes feels too straightforward, just like Bates Arauxo. I like Etienne Baillot more consistently.

Mandryka

Quote from: bioluminescentsquid on October 31, 2021, 07:58:46 PM
It's out already? I guess for the physical CDs but waiting for it to reach streaming (if it ever will).

That's a shame, the audio samples sounded amazing.


Yes well I played it again this morning and it sounded much much better, amazing in fact, and it certainly is good to have the in nomines collected together as a cycle. So delete what I said yesterday and buy it. Sorry, but yesterday nothing sounded good. Am I the only person who that happens to? 

By the way, the service from Amazon.fr was exemplary. Delivered within five days from France to the UK, which was two days later than anticipated because it took longer than expected to get through customs. And then this morning I found this email

QuoteBonjour,

Nous avons constaté que votre colis Amazon a été livré en retard. En conséquence, nous avons effectué un remboursement du montant des frais de livraison, soit 3.07 euros, sur le mode de paiement utilisé lors du passage de votre commande.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka

Quote from: bioluminescentsquid on October 31, 2021, 07:58:46 PMI like Etienne Baillot more consistently.

Have you heard my favourite ?

Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

bioluminescentsquid

Quote from: Mandryka on November 01, 2021, 01:24:38 AM
Have you heard my favourite ?



Yes! Loved the Walsingham variations especially.
Another very successful Walsingham on organ, I might actually like this even more than Rampe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhWbQOHSI48&list=OLAK5uy_nNNNj9lIknQVYzspHWZSLBs_6ODIbOuC4&index=10

Mandryka

#228
Quote from: bioluminescentsquid on November 01, 2021, 01:39:44 AM
Yes! Loved the Walsingham variations especially.
Another very successful Walsingham on organ, I might actually like this even more than Rampe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhWbQOHSI48&list=OLAK5uy_nNNNj9lIknQVYzspHWZSLBs_6ODIbOuC4&index=10

Listening now to the Rampe's Christe Redemptor. There used to be a Walsingham Variations by Berben on YouTube using a harpsichord which I thought was outstanding. I'll check that link later, I'm using an iPad right now and it means that YouTube is too full of ads for comfort.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka

#229


Enjoying this this afternoon. The selection is very reminiscent of the earlier recordings that Colin Tilney made, things like Go from my window, in that the emphasis is on music which is melodious, rather than music which is intricately contrapuntal. Colin Booth's harpsichord playing is noble, nuanced and expressive, and what he does with the music always sounds natural, organic. Well recorded and nice instruments - a good Byrd harpsichord CD for someone who wants just one in their collection, as it were, or for someone who wants to get an earful of what the music is like. 
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka

Quote from: bioluminescentsquid on November 01, 2021, 01:39:44 AM
Yes! Loved the Walsingham variations especially.
Another very successful Walsingham on organ, I might actually like this even more than Rampe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhWbQOHSI48&list=OLAK5uy_nNNNj9lIknQVYzspHWZSLBs_6ODIbOuC4&index=10

In fact Berben does a rather amazing Wallsingham on the Lanvellec CD
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

milk

I'm sure this is not on anyone's radar.

Mandryka

#232
Quote from: Mandryka on June 11, 2016, 11:04:18 PM


Martin Souter plays English music at Knole.

Martin Souter does not seek to thrill or impress or entertain. He uses very little rubato, his basic tempos are often slow and there is little variation in tempo, the registrations are sober. The voicing is transparent and quite lively.  He creates  tension and release despite the complete absence of exuberance, the music is not dead. I'm not sure how he does this - I think it has to do with the way the textures change, the voices accumulate. His style is studied. As a listening experience it is both sweet and stimulating: the adrenaline never flows but he woos you.

Farnaby is treated in the same way as Byrd, who is treated in the same way as Bull. I particularly enjoyed the Byrd G minor Fantasia.



A very similar thing to be said about this. I came across it while exploring recordings of Byrd's Qui Passe, Souter's is unusual because of the elapsed time. The whole CD is interesting and serious, Souter is interesting and serious.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka

#233
Quote from: Mandryka on August 20, 2022, 11:43:45 PM


Giulia Nuti recorded a CD of French music which I thought was very successful indeed.


16th century Italian virginal, well engineered sound. Attractive selection of English material, played poetically and with modesty. Nuti can play with fiery energy,  and she can play sensually and lyrically.  Once you start to listen, you can't stop. What's not to like? Well, I would say that she plays it with the brio of Italian baroque music, no doubt partly influenced by the instrument. There's nothing mellow here. I think that's not a problem, on the contrary - see what you think.


She says that there was no significant school of English virginal construction. However I note that there are  excellent English instruments in the Ashmolean (the Leversedge virginals) - they sound very different, mellower. 

Booklet here

https://www.highresaudio.com/en/album/view/hrkqd7/giulia-nuti-the-fall-of-the-leaf
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka



For me the great interest of this CD is having all 12 of the In Nomines collected together, so that you can hear them as a cycle. What rich and complex counterpoint! What a distinctive voice Bull has! It goes without saying that the Lanvellec organ is lovely to hear - well recorded.

Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka

#235
Janet Pollack's (excellent) essay from David Ponsford's Parthenia recording. I have learned a lot from this.

PARTHENIA


Parthenia or the Maydenhead (1613) is the most important of all early' publications of English keyboard music. The title. Parthenia, comes from the Greek for "virgin," an appropriate term from a book that was the first printed music for virginal, the first attempt in England to print music from copper plates, and the first carefully arranged miscellaneous anthology of keyboard music anywhere. The title's reference to antiquity and the cult of Athena, and its allusion to the character of Parthenia in Sir Philip Sidney's popular romance Arcadia, further alerts the reader to the hook's many layers of significance. This relatively slim volume of twenty-one attractive keyboard pieces by three or England's finest composers - William Byrd (1543-1623). John Bull (1562:3-1628). and Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625) - was offered as a wedding gift to Princess Elizabeth Stuart, the only daughter of James I and VI. and her betrothed. the Elector Palatine of Heidelberg, Frederick V. The dedication begins by saying, "To you [Princess Elizabeth] even from the byrth she was entended." and follows with an offering to Elizabeth on her marriage, "the high and holy State wherein to you shortly must be incorporate." It also makes clear that the pieces are to be played by the young bride for the loving ears of her soon-to-be husband. Frederick.

The much-anticipated marriage took place on Valentine's Day, February 14. 1613, at Whitehall Palace. Fireworks, mock naval battles on the Thames, masques, stage plays and musical performances. among other festivities. surrounded the marriage ceremony. and were followed by numerous other entertainments as the couple progressed through major continental cities, a passage that climaxed with their triumphal entry into Heidelberg, the seat of-the Palatinate. At every point of the wedding festivities literary, musical, and visual elements shared a unity of purpose and conveyed the coherent emblematic vision of the magician-King bringing order and peace to his realm through alchemical means. Parthenia can he seen as furthering this vision by its emphasis on the newest technology, its use of recognizable alchemical rhetoric in the dedication, and its promotion of the gentler theme of conciliation through its titles and arrangement of pieces (for instance, the Roman Catholic Sir William Pore, the dedicatee of the first pavan and galliard co-exists comfortably alongside the recently deceased Protestant Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, the dedicatee of the next pavan).

Although much is known about the pieces and composers, there are many mysteries surrounding Parthenia's publication and puzzles about its significance for the royal couple: Where did the engraver get the idea for such an unprecedented book? Why the specific selection and order of pieces? What could the references to emblems and "hierogliphicks- in the dedication he telling us?


Models


The idea of engraving keyboard music and assembling an anthology of pieces to place on sale fix the general public may have come from a series of publications issued in Rome by Simone Verovio beginning in I 5 8 6 . Verovio was the first to include engraved keyboard intabulations and established the norm for early engraved music hooks in which the engraver selects and orders the pieces. and writes and then signs the dedication, a practice then adopted by William I tole. But was the English Parthenia devised from the start as a commercial enterprise analogous to the Italian one? Did William Hole alone mastermind it. as Verovio appears to have?

All accounts of Parthenia suggest that the wedding gift was masterminded by the engraver William Hole. Hole's name is featured prominently at the bottom of the dedication to the royal couple (found in the unique 1613 Huntington Library copy), and Hugh Holland's commendatory verse preceding Parthenia 's first piece praises Hole for his "Triumviri of Musicke." Yet many aspects of Parthenia's make-up suggest that Hole used more than one model for inspiration.

Hole must have looked not only to Verovio and Rome for models but to a number of previous English publications, perhaps William Barley's 1596 A New Book of Tabliture, the lute-song books published between 1597-1613 by John and Robert Dowland, and Byrd's earlier publications of vocal compositions. Barley's anthologies possibly gave Hole the idea for a miscellaneous collection of instrumental dances ("Collected together out of the best Authors") to be used as daily practice, and the lute-song books may have suggested overall size and appearance. A concern for tonal coherence, careful ordering of pieces, and preoccupation with arcane meanings resemble Byrd's earlier published collections of vocal music.


Physical Description

Parthenia  is divided into three sections, with each section devoted to the music of one of the three composers: eight pieces by William Byrd. seven by John Bull, and six by Orlando
Gibbons. Immediately following the title-page of the presumed first issue is the dedication to the nuptial couple. It is possible to link Parthenia's original "royal'' dedication to only one copy now in the Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, California. Later issues of the volume circulated with the page of the royal dedication removed, new title-pages added, page layout altered, and the dedication amended to read 'To all the Masters and Lovers of Musicke." On the top half of the first page of music are two commendatory poems by Hugh Holland and George Chapman. Copies now survive in libraries in England (9). Ireland (11) Scotland (11) France (1) and the United States 131. In all there are 15 surviving copies from a number of different pulls, but the order of the pieces remained fixed, although the layout and arrangement slightly varied: the last two pieces. The Queenes Command and Gibbons's Preludium, sometimes face each other, sometimes not. All editions are oblong folios with pages measuring between 11-3 4 to 13-1:4 inches in length and 7-1 2 to 9 inches in width. Folios are not numbered in any edition. rather every page of every piece of music receives a Roman numeral.


As a Pedagogy


The rationale behind the author's selection and ordering of Parthenia's 21 pieces is still open to speculation and no one scheme fully explains Hole's reasons for preferring these particular pieces to any others that were available to him. However, the desire to impress the prince and princess (and King James) with variety and innovation above all is apparent. Described on the title page as "the Maydenhead of the first misicke that ever was printed for the virginalls's" Parthenia typifies English composers' interest in up-to-date technology and their desire to fix in print a representative cross-section of keyboard idioms that had until this time appeared only in manuscript. The pieces that the authors chose for Panhenia are fully representative of the diverse types that make up the virginalists' repertory. and from them it is clear that not only were English composers fluent in the academic, severe language of counterpoint, but they were able to combine this language with more modern keyboard idioms. Moreover. the pieces are moderately virtuosic with fast diminutions, sizeable intervals, and complex rhythmic structures, a true test for both mind and body. The essentially polyphonic form of the fantasia (also called fancy. voluntary, or verse) with its imitative structure is represented by the A minor Faniazia of four parts (XVII), one of Gibbons's finest. Variations based on popular tunes and grounds. a favourite genre of the virginalists, are represented by two pieces: Gibbons's relatively short and playful The Queene's  Command  (XX), and the even more inventive Pavana  St. Thomas Wlake and its companion galliard by Bull (X & XI). which combine features of both the three-part dance design with variation technique. However  in inspiration and inventiveness, Parthenia dances form the heart of the volume. Ten of the 21 pieces in the collection are galliards, and five are pavans. Of the improvisatory type there are four preludes, two by Byrd and one each by Bull and Gibbons. No piece in Parthenia  is based on the typically English genre of plainsong composition (namely, the in nomine from the Sarum antiphon Gloria tibi Trinitas). Although, the plainsong style is evident in Bull's Gaillard Sr. Thomas Mgt, (XI). especially in the third and fourth variations, and possibly in Byrd's marvellous The Earl of Salisbury's pavan (VII) briefly in the bass as a descending tetrachord. All five pavans are linked to one or two galliards. The remaining live galliards appear independently. English pavans (or pavins) and galliards are typically conceived as small variation sets where each of three phrases is immediately decorated on its repeat. Exceptions are Byrd's two-strain pavan The Earl of Salisbury with its two accompanying galliards (VI. VII, VIII) and Gibbons's The Lord of Salisbury and his Pavan, (XVIII) - none of which have written-out repeats, but in this recording the decision was taken to improvise decorated repeats. All pieces generally adopt the same four-part texture with embellishments occurring in any part and motivic idioms are prominent. Sequential development. considered a progressive element at the time, is observed in pieces considered more up-to-date. especially in the concluding prelude by Gibbons.

What Parthenia's authors offer is a short 'programme'. a compendium of English keyboard practice consisting of a select number of musical exemplars. Each attractive piece appears to he a notated exercise designed specifically to cultivate dexterity at the virginals and to inculcate basic musical understanding about rhythm and form. Furthermore, the authors apparently chose pieces not only to represent the various English keyboard idioms but also pieces that contrasted in specific details to complement the set as a whole. Thus while a prominent place was given to Byrd's older and much admired pavan/galliard pair Sir William Petry (II. III), it was followed by two of his most recent pieces: the melodically and harmonically complex Galiardo Mistress Marye Brownlo (V ), and the more restrained yet motivically ingenious Parana The Earle Salisbury (VI), a piece presumably composed specifically for the volume.

Sources and references to Parthenia in library catalogues, bookseller's lists,  personal accounts, and the appearance of  Parthenia's pieces in manuscripts show that the volume circulated so widely throughout England that it did indeed come lo be regarded as a "primer" and the book "used by Novices and others that exercised their hands on that [virginals] instrument" (according to the seventeenth-century Oxford historian Anthony a Wood). The book was so popular that it made its way to the continent where pieces were copied directly from the print into European manuscript collections.


As an Epithalamium


Not all aspects of the volume, however, can he explained by these views, and several details still remain puzzling: What do the allusions to emblems and "hierogliphics" in the dedication mean'? Why does the volume end with a prelude? Answers to these questions may be found in yet another cultural context, that of the literary practice of writing epithalamia, or wedding poems, a popular tradition in Jacobean England. Like Parthenia. the wedding poem is typically conceived of as in three parts "to serve for three severall fits or times to he song" (George Puttenham). Besides format, there are a number of epithalamic motifs and themes, which find parallels in the musical Parthenia. The nostalgic allusion often found in poetry can take the form of copying or imitating an admired poet, replicating outmoded wedding practices, or making references to past people and events. Similar quotations and references arc observed in Parthenia. The falling tonic-to-dominant of John Dowland's Lachrimae is conspicuous in the bass of Byrd's Pavana The Earle of Salisbury (VI) and in the treble (this time with sharpened 6th and 7th degrees of the scale) of Gibbon's The Lord of Salisbury his Pavin (XVIII). The Fantazia in Foure Parts (XVII) glances over the shoulder at an older contrapuntal practice. Named paeans, of which there are four, refer to past honoured statesmen, beloved patrons, and revered Saints. Bull refers to Byrd's cadential structures in his Pavana (XII), and Byrd alludes to Bull's left hand thumping rhythm in Galardo Mistresse Marye Brownlo (V). And the very title Parthenia points longingly hack to classical times and a greener Eden by extolling the older, 'true' art, the same reactionary longing to return to an ideal past that impels the Jacobean Epithalamium.

Epithalamia also employ classical symbols and familiar emblems, and typically end with prayers for a successful union (usually in the penultimate stanza) followed by wishes for continued good fortune. Like the wedding poem. Partheia closes with a piece that signifies the uniting of the nuptial couple through the use of the emblematic pitches "E" (for Elizabeth) and "F" (for Frederick) in the penultimate piece The QueenesCommand (Xi.). Not only does each strain begin alternately on the pitch E or F. but the E and I: pitches seem to be mingling inure than one would expect. demonstrating the uniting of the couple. and. by extension, the dynastic union between two Protestant powers. Gibbons's Predudium in ( ( XXI). which signals the end of the marriage service, follows The Queen's Command. The cascading treble scales towards the end of Gibbons's prelude (descending semiquaver scales first from d = to d then e = to e . tor. etc.) mimic a peal of bells typically heard at the conclusion of weddings. The doubling of key treble pitches by the inner voice serves to prolong these pitches and enhance the impression of hells ringing, suggesting the "open" ringing of a peal (that is. bells without leather encased clappers) which was specifically associated with joyous celebrations such as victories, coronations and weddings. With this in mind, we may now understand why Parthenia ends with a prelude: it makes a lilting close for a wedding tribute and a prelude to a joyous married life.

Janet Pollack 2002

Harpsichord by Andrew Garlick after Andreas Ruckers (1644. Vleeshuis, Antwerp).
Harpsichord by Colin Booth after Italian models; kindly loaned by Colin Booth.
Muselar virginal by Malcolm Greenhalgh after J. Couchet (1650. Vick:shins. Antwerp): kindly loaned by Malcolm Greenhalgh.
Pitch: A396, mean-tone temperament.
Instruments tuned by Malcolm Ureenhalgh


Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka

#236
David Ponsfords''s (excellent) note from his Parthenia recording. I have learned a lot from this.


A NOTE ON INSTRUMENTS, TEMPERAMENT AND INTERPRETATION

From the many possible types of plucked-string keyboard instruments suggested by the generic term -Virginal's- on the title page of Parihenid. three styles of harpsichords were chosen for this recording because of their markedly contrasting sounds and characters. In the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. muselar virginals were valued for their unique sound quality. With the keyboard on the right-hand side of the instrument. the strings were plucked mid-way along the
string, giving a rich. warm sound quite unlike conventional harpsichords wherein the strings are plucked close to the bridge. The muselar contrasts well with the brilliance of the Flemish-style harpsichord (alter Andreas !tuckers) and also with the Italianate harpsichord. It is likely that Byrd. Bull and Gibbons would has e been familiar with all three types, and as well as using each instrument to suit the character of each piece. I has e used them to distinguish between the internal groupings (e.g. Prelude - Pavan - Gaillard) within the collection as a whole. The individual pieces were played on the following instruments:


1,2, 3: harpsichord AG
4,5: harpsichord CB
6,7.8: muselar
9,10,11: harpsichord CB
12.13:
14: muselar
15,16: harpsichord CB
17: harpsichord AG
18.19: harpsichord CB
20: harpsichord AG
21: harpsichord CB

 





We do not know at what pitch and temperament these pieces were originally played. and so the pitch for the recording was somewhat arbitrarily chosen at A396 - a plausible Jacobean domestic pitch. which suited the instruments. Temperament was based on mean-tone, but the poor quality of quarter-comma mean-tone fifths was as avoided whilst endeavouring to retain the beautiful quality of pure major thirds as much as possible. With  both instruments and temperament we have attempted to capture the essential English sound world of early seventeenth-century keyboard music.

I have consciously adopted fingering techniques that would have been familiar to Byrd. Bull and Gibbons - a system that was based on strong fingers for strong heats and weak fingers for weak beats. This is fundamentally different from modern lingering, which aims to encourage equal strength from all fingers so that a perfectly even legato touch is possible. Thus Byrd. with his right hand, may well have fingered an ascending C major scale 3 4 3 4 3 4 3 4. as opposed to the modern I 2 3 1 2 3 4 5. The implications of touch. articulation and phrasing are enormous. revealing more inner vitality in the music than modern techniques.

In this period. the magnificent paeans and galliards were almost always provided with fully composed repeated sections that amplified and decorated the texture. as in Byrd's Pavan and Gaillard for his patron Sir William Petri:. Therefore The absence of fully written-out repeats in Byrd's Pavan and two Gaillards, for the Earl of Salisbury (Nos. N.: IA' HA III), as well as in Gibbons's The Lord of Salisbury and his Pavin (No. XVIII) has posed questions about how these repeated sections should be played_ Some previous writers have assumed. plausibly. that Byrd and Gibbons required players not to vary the repeats. However there could be Many reasons why these pieces were not fully written out - perhaps for reasons of space in the publication, or perhaps because Robert Cecil took a pride in improvising his own repeats - but shall never know. For this recording therefore, I have taken the opposite view and have composed, humbly, my own varied repeats. matching, as close as I am able. the musical style of those great masters to whose music I feel. in Thomas Morley's words, "court' entire love and unfeigned affection.

David Ponsford

Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka

#237


Lydia Maria Blank's Byrd


So far I have focussed on the Pavans and Galliards, following Moroney's advice to think of them as a cycle. The overall impression is of a thoughtful musician exploring and experimenting.

There are two aspects of the interpretation where she's taken considerable risks. One is the tempos of the Pavans, which are sometimes unusually slow. The second is the counterpoint - everything is done to present the music as complex counterpoint.

The second, the contrapuntal risk, is IMO a valuable contribution. She's helped in this achievement by a harpsichord with clear timbral differences in the registers, a brass strung copy of an Italian baroque instrument. The sound take is close and good, you can hear all the partials. The combination of the slowness and the rich and complex harpsichord sound gives the Pavans a nocturnal quality - not so much moonlight but dusk. To find this rewarding, you need to be ready to do close listening of course.

The tempi risk is more difficult for me to assess. On the positive side, the wide variation in what she considers an appropriate pavan tempo - from slow to glacial - brings variety to the cycle. On the other hand, I think that sometimes she goes too far - but I can't justify that rationally, it's just how I felt on listening and so inevitably subject to change.

Anyway, this is a challenging release, to be heard if you're prepared to listened closely and relish the details.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka

#238


An exuberant and extrovert treatment of Christopher Simpson's Seasons from Les Voix Humaines. Great fun! They make some of the music sound spontaneous, improvised - it isn't as far as I know.

Did Simpson write a book on improvising variations?  I know he wrote one called The Division-viol, but I'm not sure what it's about.

Gibbons born in 1585, Simpson 1602. So they're a generation apart - but what a difference a generation makes according to Voix Humaines. There's none of the austere interiority of Gibbons in this interpretation Simpson! I can't say how authentic their approach is.

Anyway this explosive interpretation of the Simpson Seasons makes it sound better than Vivaldi IMO.

(I was reminded of it when searching for organ recordings by Réjean Poirier - he's recorded music from The Montreal Organ Book.)
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

premont

Quote from: Mandryka on May 12, 2023, 11:36:42 PMDid Simpson write a book on improvising variations?  I know he wrote one called The Division-viol, but I'm not sure what it's about.

Yes. You can find a facsimile of it at IMSLP containing the instructive text as well as some examples of divisions.
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