Woops!  That low e-flat escaped me.  Apologies to David & Froberger!

The wide compass needs no explanation, IMHO.

The objection to the introduction of such evidence is precisely the
assumption that it is evidence.  But it is surely no more satisfactory as
evidence of the particulars of Froberger's harpsichord than the d-flats &
g-flats in Buxtehude's organ works are satisfactory evidence of the tuning
of Buxtehude's organ.

My word "value" below refers to the value of a certain assumption.  Perhaps
my somewhat convoluted sentence rendered this less than clear?  The
assumption would be something like the following:  "Composers only composed
music for specific instruments which they had at their disposal".  Maybe
someone else will find a better formulation of this hypothesis, and then
proceed to demonstrate its validity &/or usefulness.

Regards,
Dale

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Pickett" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, November 03, 2004 2:15 PM
Subject: Re: Froberger's Blancrocher etc now: ties


> At 05:03 03-11-04, Dale Carr wrote:
>
>  >David wrote further :
>  >
>  >"""Interesting that unlike most of Froberger's works, this piece is not
>  >appropriate for the usual C/E short octave, which has no E-flat.  I
>  >conclude that Froberger wrote it while he was still in Paris, for a
French
>  >instrument with extended bass."""
>  >
>  >This piece has no low e-flat.
>
> Do you mean that the third note from the end is an E natural?
>
> There are notes below C, as in several other
>  >pieces by Froberger.  It seems likely, since Blancheroche died in
Nov.1652
>  >when Froberger was in Paris, that the piece was composed in Paris.  [See
>  >Rasch's summary of new biographical data on Froberger in "The Keyboard
in
>  >Baroque Europe / ed. by Christopher Hogwood"].  David's conclusion,
based on
>  >these data, that Froberger wrote it for a particular type of instrument
>  >relies on an assumption of a certain relationship between composition,
>  >performance, and instrument[s], the value of which has yet to be
>  >demonstrated.
>
> Then how else to explain the wide compass?  And what is the objection to
> the introduction of such evidence?
>
> Regarding value, all I can say is that I cant give a satisfactory
> performance of the piece on a C/E instrument!
>
> david