May to-dos

1. Grading papers - one week to go! Hurrah!
2. Academies paper for Reading conference on 4 July: 'Lowering the Tone: Strophic Song & the Performance of Gender & Class in Italian Academies.'
3. Travel arrangements & registration for Med & Ren conference in Bangor (must attend launch of festschrift for Bonnie Blackburn).
4. Eros paper - need to send editor the revised version.
5. That dang sprezzatura piece (very urgent now).
6. Review of Courtesan's Arts for JSMI - still doing this....
7. Paper on female vocality & dialect song (find out about conf proceedings for Angels & Devils).
8. Review of Wistreich's book on Brancaccio (due end Sept '08).

More up-to-date to do

1. Friendship piece - need to respond to LHS's comments (17 Feb).
2. 800 words for UCC Arts Research Journal by 20 Feb 2008.
3. Title of academies paper for Reading conference by 25 Feb 2008; abstract by 3 Mar.
4. Paper on bodies and music for MA in Women's Studies seminar (12 Mar).
5. Eros paper - need to send editor the revised version.
6. SMI conference paper (9 May).
7. Reading paper (4 July).
8. That dang sprezzatura piece (very urgent now).
9. Review of Courtesan's Arts for JSMI - still doing this....
10. Paper on female vocality & dialect song (find out about conf proceedings for Angels & Devils).

To do - again

1. Friendship piece - need to respond to LHS's comments (17 Feb).
2. 800 words for UCC Arts Research Journal by 20 Feb 2008
3. Paper on bodies and music for MA in Women's Studies seminar in March (check date!)
4. Eros paper - need to send editor the revised version.
5. That dang sprezzatura piece (very urgent now)
6. Review of Courtesan's Arts for JSMI - still doing this....
7. Paper on female vocality & dialect song (find out about conf proceedings for Angels & Devils)

Another to-do update

1. 800 words for UCC Arts Research Journal by 20 Feb 2008
2. Eros paper - need to send editor the revised version.
3. Paper on bodies and music for MA in Women's Studies seminar in March (check date!)
4. That dang sprezzatura piece (very urgent now)
5. Review of Courtesan's Arts for JSMI - still doing this....
6. Paper on female vocality & dialect song (find out about conf proceedings for Angels & Devils)

Hurrah and update

Friendship piece has been sent off. Hopefully it will be published this year.

Now I'm down to the following writing projects--life is beginning to look manageable for a few weeks.

1. Eros paper - need to send editor the revised version.
2. Paper on bodies and music for MA in Women's Studies seminar in March (check date!)
3. That dang sprezzatura piece (very urgent now)
4. Review of Courtesan's Arts for JSMI - still doing this....
5. Paper on female vocality & dialect song (find out about conf proceedings for Angels & Devils)

There are others, but these are the ones I'd like to get off the back burner.

Work review

Ouch--a long time since I last published. Here's an update on projects that were on the go in November:

1. Friendship paper - needs RISM numbers for one of the footnotes, and I need to state editorial principles for Italian poetry.
2. Eros paper - need to send editor the revised version.
3. Review of Courtesan's Arts for JSMI - still doing this....
4. Review for M&L Contacted them to tell the truth which was that I didn't remember agreeing to do the review in the first place.
5. Revise Castellino paper to send to Linda, and to Libby (over summer)
6. That dang sprezzatura piece (quite very urgent now)
7. Entry on gender in Irish pop for EMIR (negotiate new deadline) - withdrew since there is not enough scholarship on the area to draw upon.
8. Paper on female vocality & dialect song (find out about conf proceedings for Angels & Devils)
9. Conference version of friendship paper (by Aug 11). Done, given; went OK. Probably giving another version in May.
10. Decide whether to produce collection of papers from my conf. - Still undecided.

whiteness/race in early music

This post at my other blog is relevant to one of my Jan 2007 posts. Evidently about once a year I think about race and whiteness in classical or early music.

oh dear

it's been a long time since i did anything on this.....

a wee story

So, on 104 and 105 the lads are sitting round telling stories, poking fun at 'la plebe' and at those who don't know things/them (Anton da Lucca and Domenichi?) and don't have good judgement ('chi non gli conosce, e non ha giudizio', 104).

105

O. [Hoste da Reggio?] vi vo' dire un'altra facezia salvatica. Messer Giovaniacopo Buzzino sonando di violone il soprano, come egli fa miracolosamente, un che pareva da qualcosa gli dice nel bel mezzo del sonare: o Signore menate le dita più adagio, che fa brutto vedere menare tanto le dita sopra il manico [neck - fingerboard?]. Ed egli sopportando la insolenzia sua cominciò a sonare senza diminuire; per che il goffo [awkward, clumsy, ungainly] sentendo mancare l'armonia, vergognandosi a dirgli che menasse pur le dita; o più tosto non sapendo che si fusse suono, disse presontuosamente: sonate un poco tutti, da ballare.

B. Chi sonava in compagnia?

O. Messer Lodovico Bosso, il Signor G. Battista, gentil'uomo di Monsignore Stampa, Pre Michele, Pre Bartolomeo, e 'l Doni.

B. Gli fu risposto?

O. Il Doni gli fece rider tutti co'l dirgli: se s'ha a ballare, V.S. segga qui per me, e suoni; ch'io vuo' essere il primo che balli: o se non, sì ve n'andate con dio senza spezzarci la testa; e levatosi in piedì, gli diede l'archetto e la viola, e incominciò a ballare.

M. Or non più di questo, cantiamo, e lasciamo la plebe in suo mal punto; ch'ella si dee fuggire da gli uomini virtuosi come la peste.

Then there's the bit about changing keys, then they sing 'Lassatemi morire' and then read bits of the letter.

Diminuire presumably is to do with not using passagi, not adding diminutions, rather than relating to decrescendo....

riccio - lassatemi morire

From the 1969 edition. Does the suprising lack of punctuation suggest that the editor couldn't decide how to interpret the text?

Lassatemi morire
importuni sospir ch'il miser core
mio soccorrete nel maggior dolore.
Se le lagrime mie, se tanta fede,
nanzi a questa crudel d'amor rubella,
o pietade o dolcezza
non mi ponno impetrar, ma sol fierezza,
forse mia cruda stella
avrà per morte ancor degna mercede.
Dunque non più soccorso al miser core,
ma di dolore
lassatemi morire.

Approximate translation

Leave me to die
tiresome/untimely sighs [of] my wretched heart
give succour in the great sadness.
If my tears, if such faith,
before this cruel of love [rebel?],
o pity, o sweetness
[if?] they [my tears?] are not able to [obtain with prayers/supplication], but only violence,
perhaps my cruel fate
will have for death still worthy reward.
Therefore no longer succour my miserable heart,
but from sadness
let me die.

Well, I don't see anything saucy in this text.