Jack Campin wrote:
>
Another table is pertinent to a discussion we had a few weeks ago;
> the lists of historic fundamental pitches beginning on p.495 show how
> fantastically implausible it is that anyone in Britain in the mid-to-
> late 18th century would have used a pitch below A=390, even for such
> an obscure instrument as the guittar, without saying explicitly that
> they were doing something really, really weird and foreign).
In this I think Rob MacKillop has changed his Ephraim Segerman-inspired
viewpoint. The Abbe Carpentier's notes on the late 18th century
notwithstanding, Rob has now tuned his guittar to a true A=440 C
hexachord, and uses this, along with higher capo positions, for his
Oswald Divertimento recordings. That's a full 2.5 tones up from the
pitch of his earlier recordings and it sounds quite different; brighter,
clearer, less twangy and more accurately intoned.
I have raised the pitch of mine as far as the string lengths will
permit, it ends up being in B not C, but it's improved dramatically in
sound and the pitch matches the comments made about vocal accompaniment
in Bremner. I plan to make some new strings with a shorter untensioned
length and better loop twists, to be able to take it up to a true modern C.
It is really the instrument itself that says 'this is the right pitch'
as it becomes infinitely more robust and playable - and by no means
mandolin like, still very much a more airy and harpsichord-like sound.
David
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