I am inclined to agree with you. Given that the bourdon in any case will
be slightly higher the the treble string as it is thicker it is not
difficult to give it prominence where necessary. A plain gut bourdon on the
fifth is so thick that it is hard to miss!
One reason why I have been pondering on these matters is because the Royal
College of Music has published a catalogue of the stringed instruments in
their collection. They have some interesting guitars and there are nice
photos with quite a lot of information about them - although not as much as
one would like.
Monica
Hmmm .. we agree that it makes plucking just the lower of the octave
pair easier if one wishes to do this (eg possibly in scalic passages
from the third to the 4th course), But it makes things like campanella
play trickier - where one wishes much of the sound to be in the same
register as the upper course notes of the passage. So I'm really not
so sure about the general desirability of what you suggest below - this
seems to me to be advocating the dubious position of always requiring a
low 'bass' line rather than simply accepting the unique idiomatic sound
of the period instrument.
regards
Martyn
--- On Tue, 29/11/11, Lex Eisenhardt <eisenha...@planet.nl> wrote:
From: Lex Eisenhardt <eisenha...@planet.nl>
Subject: Re: [VIHUELA] Re: Guitar bridges
To: vihuela@cs.dartmouth.edu, "Martyn Hodgson"
<hodgsonmar...@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Tuesday, 29 November, 2011, 13:40
> Of course, it'll make plucking just the high octave a bit trickier
if
> playing close(ish) to the bridge but, conversely, will make playing
> just the bass of the pair a bit easier.......
or actually not 'just' the bass, but it will be really easier to give
more emphasis on the lower string of the pair, to make it sound like a
bass.
Lex
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