Dear Monica,
Have a look at FoMRHI Comm 663 (Bulletin 41, October 1985) in which I
report on two early sources of recorded violin string diameters
(Tartini's and Riccati's) and their application to Strad's instructions
for the chitarra tiorbata.
Here's the link
[1]https://www.fomrhi.org/uploads/bulletins/Fomrhi-041.pdf
I presume Strad related more to the violin and hence their string sizes
since these were such a substantial part of his output and more
common.... I also briefly discuss the translation of his instructions
which is generally in line with what you say below.
I applied these sizes to guitar stringing and arrived at average
tension of artound 3.2Kg per string and a total tension on the chitarra
tiorbata of around 34Kg. But I thought it prudent to express some
caution then, as I'll also do now: " The speculative nature of some
of the previous analysis means that few unequivocal conclusions may be
drawn...." Nevertheless, I believed then, and still do, it gives a
reasonable indication of the tensions employed.
regards
Martyn
On Wednesday, 26 June 2019, 07:31:05 BST, Monica Hall
<mjlh...@cs.dartmouth.edu> wrote:
I have been puzzling over the Stradivarius stringing instructions for
the chitarra ttiorbata again.
I have two queries.
Why should he compare the strings of the third, fourth and fifth
courses to violin strings rather than those on the (presumably)
standard 5-course guitar. Does this imply that they should be of a
different thickness to the strings used on the guitar.
Also - the first string of the violin is tuned more or less to e''
whereas the third course of the guitar is tuned g - an octave & a 6th
lower. There is a considerable difference in string length between
the
violin and guitar. Would this make it practicable to tune the strings
to completely different pitches.
Here are the instructions.
[First & second strings: These must be like two guitar first strings
(cantini)
Third & fourth strings: These must be like two guitar second strings
(sotanelle)]
Fifth & sixth strings: These must be like two thick violin first
strings (cantini) g
Seventh string: This must be a violin second string (canto) d
Eighth string: This must be a guitar second string (sotanella) d'
Ninth string: This must be a thicker violin second string (canto) a
Tenth string: This must be a violin first string (cantino) a'
They have never really seemed to make sense to me but perhaps I am
missing something.
As ever
Monica
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References
1. https://www.fomrhi.org/uploads/bulletins/Fomrhi-041.pdf
2. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
