Hello all,
The last thing I want to do is rehash what has been said here already
regarding fingering, but Jan's last posting reminded me of something I
wanted to say.

As harpsichordists, and as human creatues, we tend to want to codify things.
And this invariably leads to simplicity.
However, simplicity often leads to putting a gloss on history that erases
details.

Take for instance the widesread use of 415Hz, as if all that music were
played at that pitch all over the world during 200 years....A perfect
example of 'erasing' details by using an'historically responsible' pitch.

Similarly take all these statements about avoiding using the thumb, and
avoiding the crossing of thumb under other fingers in early keybaord music,
like 415Hz, equally nonsensical, but convenient for everyone to re-quote
endlessly as de facto truth.

When we consider that some composers were already advocating scales played
with 12121212 and passed fingers over thumbs for polyphonic keyboard
writingat the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17the century, it shows
'the ancients'  knew perfecly well how to use their thumbs long before the
dawn of the 18th century and compositons in all the major and minor keys
abounded.

Fingering is, and was, always a question of taste, ability and knowlegde of
the player or composer that varied from country to country as well as from
period to period and instrument to instrument, and for every statement one
makes about fingering, there will be numerous exceptions to every 'rule'.

Ciao tutti,
Theodore

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