Hi Stephen, I put your message aside for re-reading, which I have done now... I have never been truly happy with the sound of my archlute tuned in G, which explains in part why I started experimenting with other tunings for that instrument, including tunings of my own making, experiments with single strings, and the like. The big question it seems to me is that of practical applications: if an instrument's bowl indeed resonates to the 5th course, in my case this would be a "D", then would it "sit" better tuned in an old-tuning A? This causes other problems because the vibrating length is 62cm, very (too) long for an A-tuning. I tried D-minor tuning but the instrument (with single bass strings) is not really suited for that repertoire. I still haven't tried the old-tuning in F, because that may require a new set of strings altogether. So far, the tuning I have been most happy with is rather strange: from the treble down: F D Bb F D Bb / A Ab G F Eb D C Bb -- that tuning offers some really interesting possibilities for modal music, BTW, and the chord shapes are not any harder than for D-minor tuning. Maybe some day someone will find the time to verify if an increase in the size of the bowl has a direct effect on the overall balance of the instrument so that some tunings work better - I think you are right about the fifth course having relatively more importance (sort of a gravity point) and it is perhaps interesting that both theorboes in A and D-minor lutes have a fifth course in D. I hope I did not misinterpret too much what you said, even after a second reading... There must have been quite a bit of dialog going on between players and lute makers at the time, and quite a bit of trial and error - most of which is lost forever but could potentially be reconstructed. Cheers, Alain
At 02:44 AM 6/24/04, you wrote: >Dear Friends, > >this is a very interesting topic from a lutemaker's point of view. > >Back in 1976, when I was sharing a flat in south London with my friend >the late Tom Finucane, I made him a copy of the Georg Gerle 6-course >lute which is in the Vienna Kunsthistorisches Museum; this instrument >had a figured maple back (and its neck, pegbox and fingerboard were >veneered with ivory, like the original). I followed the shape of the >original instrument's body or 'bowl' if you prefer rather than make >it symmetrical (ie, the side view the same as half the front, as if it >were a semi-circular section) as many did at that time; the Gerle is a >rather full, very satisfying and subtle shape. Several more versions >were made over the following months. > >The following year I made a copy of it in ivory, as did my friend and >colleague Norman Reed (who now makes excellent modern guitars and runs a >guitar-making course in Totnes, Devon England). > >We noticed that both of the ivory lutes (and wooden versions we'd both >made) all resonated to their 5th course, c. We'd put gut strings on our >lutes, as well as modern synthetic strings (the alas-departed gut >company Bow Brand were still making harp strings, and would make special >twisted and high-twist gut if you knew who to ask) and it was possible >and certainly playable both Tom and Chris Wilson were trying gut >strings at that time on these lutes to tune these Gerle lutes to g' at >440 in gut. And so we felt that, if we'd copied the dimensions >correctly, the fifth course was the resonant note. I put a new >soundboard on Norman's ivory Gerle at the request of Shirley Rumsey >its then owner in 1983, and the resonant note remained at the fifth >course; I therefore conclude, after 30 years of making lutes, that it's >the body cavity that produces the effect, rather than any particular >qualities of the soundboard. > >We wondered if this fifth-course resonance is what had been intended by >the original maker; over the years, I've noticed several original >Renaissance lute bodies resonate to their 5th course, and when Sandi and >I visited the Vienna KHM in January 2002 to measure the Gerle again, and >check my original measurements of its body with the machine I developed >in 1986, we noticed that the original lute did indeed resonate to c when >that note is sung or hummed across the rose. > >There's an image of this machine in use, measuring the Gerle lute, on >the homepage of our website: >http://www.LutesAndGuitars.co.uk > >We have several copies of the Magno Tieffenbrucker 6-course lute here in >the workshop (as well as a copy of the Gerle) and they too resonate to >the pitch of their 5th course - a semitone down at B; we usually build >this instrument at 630mm, and tune it to f# (ie 415). The Gerle and the >Tieffenbrucker originals are both 6-course lutes, in substantially >original condition. > >I wonder how widespread this apparent feature was, and if it was >deliberate; it seems to me that it probably was. Was it something that >was designed into the lutes of the sixteenth Century, and was this to do >with accompanying singers ? What is the experience of players following >this thread, particularly those who accompany singers (or themselves) ? > >Kindest Regards, > >Stephen Barber.
