Thanks Andreas
I would give here my small contribute
Today the use of wound strings for the german d minor lutes is well
demostrated
You Andreas discovered the Lexicon of 1715 that actually was the fist german
source discovered.
Then I was lucky to discovered some more sources that mentioned wound
strings for the 11 and 13 d minor lutes: a german source of 1763; a french
source of 1765 and a german source of 1795. There are some other sources
but unfortunately In have some problem with the language and so I am not
sure if these are mentioning lute wound strings
The problem today is not to know if the german lutes has wound strings: this
is now very clear.
The problem is: which is the identity of these wound strings?
In those times they can be done using gut or silk cores only; they can be
done close or open wound
well, for some technical details (for example the thinnest metal wire
available in those times and the relate metal drawing technology available
etc etc) to me it is clear that they were open wound only (the 11 bass of
the kupezky painting is probably an open wound: see that there are small
little white spot in the string, exactly like in some 18 th C french violin
paintings in matter of the 3rd string that in France was open wound)
Incidentally these open wound were of common use in several instruments
around the lute like the 5 course guitar, the 6 course mandolin, bass gamba
4th, violin 3rd.
Why not on the lute?? The open howver question is: what about the swan neck
lute basses? I have the hole gauges of many bridges of these swan neck lutes
that ranging from 1.4 mm till 1.9 mm on the 13 th bass course
Pure gut basses? they are too dull, there is no any advantage on a 13
course lute with the reader AND with wound strings. Wound strings? it is
much more better and they give improvement (basically more sustain and clear
sound)
So open wwound basses is the option, to me.
The surviving small piece of open wound strings of a raphael Mest lute can
be a clear indication
Silk or gut cores?? this is a question that is not possible to solve easily.
What it is clear is that they were OBLIGED to employ an open wound structure
due to the fact that very thin metal wires were not available in the market,
in those times. The thinner gauge available is the N 12 of the Nurnberg
scale of wires and it is of .15 mm. On a close wound one can do just the 9
bass down, no the 8,7,6, bass strings. on a 13 course lute with swan necks
thuing are even worse.
I have tried an silk core open wound: guess thast?? The sound is terrible
even changing the ratio between metal wires and the core ect etc
At the end of the day, using the octave string and then made it half wound
or a bit more ( Le Coq 1723; Corrette 1740's) ) make exactly an octave down
at the same tension whose string density became twice of gut. so the octave
is still necessary in the course
Mimmo.
-----Messaggio originale-----
From: Andreas Schlegel
Sent: Saturday, April 8, 2017 8:54 AM
To: lute list ; Baroque Lute List
Subject: Kupetzky image
Dear all,
Thanks a lot for all support!
The important detail on this picture is for us the bass string of the 11th
course which seems to be a string which is overspun with silver wire.
Important other details for the datation are given by Jiri Arnet:
http://baroque-lute.webnode.cz/products/portrait-of-david-hoyer-playing-lute/
But the most important question is the date of the portrait. The date is not
1711 as written in some articles and as file name, but 1716. I found this on
p. 25-28 of:
http://www.mdz-nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn=urn:nbn:de:bvb:12-bsb10915517-1
Johann C. Füssli: Leben Georg Philipp Rugendas und Johann Kupezki, Zürich
1758
So it's one year after the Frauenzimmer-Lexikon, in which the first time the
use of overspun strings on a lute instrument is mentioned - as far as I
know. (The Piccinini citation is very unclear and it's not very probable
that he meant overspun strings.)
All the best
Andreas
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