A subject close to my heart!
Precisely as Burris explains - and as my own readings of Baron,
Mattheson, and Weiss would confirm - the d-minor theorbo did not have
a re-entrant top f'. I am not aware of any source that backs this up,
although of course absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
At any rate, I have tried Stephen Stubb's suggestion (he made it to me
years ago) and it does work very nicely (more of an Italian theorbo
effect, predictably), but of course it does rather change the logic of
the fingerboard: after all, the d-minor tuning is so logical and
Cartesian, so turning the tuning into a re-entrant one doesn't in my
mind stand to reason on stylistic grounds - and of course one cannot
simply play as though it were a baroque lute with the f up an octave
at any rate.
Other advantages of losing the high f string:
- strumming is so much easier without the top f since it is not
necessary to make the big stretches to double the thirds on this
course - c minor, for example, is an ouch with this tuning. And all
this annoying amount of physical effort is, remember, just to double
the same third you are already playing on the other (unison) f string
below...
- on proper-sized theorboes (85cm and up) it is vastly more ergonomic
to only have to stretch across 5 courses and not 6no mean thing.
Finally, this tuning (d' - a - f - d - A) is a legitimate baroque
guitar tuning employed by both Granata (1659) and by Botazzari (1663),
so you don't necessarily need to change everything around if you have
to double on baroque guitar for continuo gigs(although, for the
record, regular b-guitar tuning is more HIP; still, the d-minor
guitar tuning is, to my mind, a viable historical option.)
My thoughts!
Benjamin
On 4 July 2010 14:34, Roman Turovsky r.turov...@verizon.net wrote:
Tim Burris wrote a nice dissertation on the subject, with a CD on a Dm
theorbo as part of it.
I'm sure he'd have a betterly informed opinion apropos.
RT
- Original Message - From: Christopher Wilke
chriswi...@yahoo.com
To: lutelist Net l...@cs.dartmouth.edu; Baroque Lute List (E-mail)
baroque-lute@cs.dartmouth.edu; David van Ooijen
davidvanooi...@gmail.com
Sent: Sunday, July 04, 2010 7:35 AM
Subject: [BAROQUE-LUTE] Re: d-minor theorbo specs
David,
I had a conversation with Stephen Stubbs the other night (us having a
great deal in common by virtue of our both having owned theorbos with
fingerboard lengths close to 100cm, but a great deal less in common by
virtue of our respective abilities on said theorbos) and the subject of the
d minor theorbo came up. Stephen claims that there is a wide spread
misconception about the tuning. He says that it is not a baroque lute
without the first course, but rather a d-minor lute with the first string
down the octave (reentrant).
The first six courses would therefore be:
f - d' - a - f - d - A
I don't know about Stephen's historical evidence is for this, but I admit
that it does conform to Baron's statement that the German lutenists did this
so that they could use the exact same chord shapes they knew from their
regular lutes. At the very least, it would no doubt make life a little
easier for the modern lutenist who already does continuo on a d-minor lute.
Chris
Christopher Wilke
Lutenist, Guitarist and Composer
www.christopherwilke.com
--- On Sun, 7/4/10, David van Ooijen davidvanooi...@gmail.com wrote:
From: David van Ooijen davidvanooi...@gmail.com
Subject: [BAROQUE-LUTE] d-minor theorbo specs
To: lutelist Net l...@cs.dartmouth.edu, Baroque Lute List (E-mail)
baroque-lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
Date: Sunday, July 4, 2010, 3:51 AM
The definition of a lute player is an
instrumentalist who's always one
instrument short. For me, the current missing instrument is
a d-minor
theorbo.
What should be the specs? I know there a few of you playing
such
beasts (Benjamin?).
I'm looking for enough chromatics in the bass to play Bach
continuo
without too many compromises, St John Passion obligato part
as
written. Large enough for gut basses on the fretboard,
small enough
for highest course d'.
First proposition
on the fingerboard: d' - a - f - d - A - G - F
diapassons: E - Eb - D - C - B - A - G
Single or double strings?
Model?
Historical examples?
Anyone with experience?
David - where to find the money ...
--
***
David van Ooijen
davidvanooi...@gmail.com
www.davidvanooijen.nl
***
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