On Feb 13, 2008, at 3:46 PM, Edward Martin wrote: > Generally, the lute in mid to later 17th century France was the d > minor > tuning. The top string was usually at "f". For a length of 68 cm, > generally, a gut treble can go to f at a=415. If you exceed 68 cm, > the > standard for "a" probably dropped a bit, as with my many years of > experience, the treble will break prematurely. > > For example, if your lute is 72 cm mensur, the standard should be a > bit > lower, .e. a = 392.
No lie. 392 seems to have been the standard pitch. at least in Paris, judging from the woodwind instruments that came from there in the later 17th century. You might want to give it a try even on a 68 cm lute and experiment with the lower tension. In spite of what you may have heard recently in this part of cyberspace a propos of theorbos, French musicians generally and lutenists in particular probably were less concerned with loudness than their Italian counterparts (contemporary accounts indicate they didn't play nearly as loudly), so in stringing there are aesthetic considerations at work other than the breaking point of the high string. -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
