When to Her Lute Corinna Sings
In the lute songs of the Elizabethan and Jacobean composers, music is at the service of poetry. This age of Shakespeare, Jonson, Spenser, and Donne saw English verse rise to heights of expressivity still unsurpassed. To sing to the lute is an art barely separate from the art of declaiming verse. It requires clarity and beauty of tone, a natural flow of language, and a delicate sense of dialogue with the lute, the instrument of courtly love. In this course, Dr. Morrongiello will discuss the repertoire and approaches to performance practice, including topics such as rhetoric, Elizabethan pronunciation, historical gesture, ornamentation, and varying the instrumentation or voices to better suit individual verses and dialogues. All singers and instrumentalists are welcome to attend and participate.
Interpreting Elizabethan & Jacobean Lute Music
Drawing upon his musicological research into the music of Daniel Bacheler and his contemporaries, Dr. Morrongiello will lead us through a broad study of forms common to England’s “Golden Age” of lute music. Fundamental problems of editing, analysis, ornamentation, and interpretation will be explored. Participants are encouraged to prepare pieces for discussion and coaching.
Fundamentals of Renaissance Lute Playing
In this course, Chris will cover the basic physiological mechanics involved in playing the Renaissance lute well. He will deal with the fundamentals of right-hand thumb-under technique, the principles of left-hand finger placement (with special emphasis given to the thumb and little finger), and the “order,” or method, of choosing felicitous fingerings. He will also provide a checklist of problems to avoid, while offering insights into various ways of holding the lute, practicing, producing good tone, and playing in a relaxed, focused manner.