At 03:56 PM 10/27/2006, you wrote: >Looking at Andrew's table (based on Dolata) and looking at the cents for >the frets given for these three instruments is utterly baffling. Partly >I'm stuck because Andrew's table concerns a 'g' top course and the top >course of a cistre is 'e'. The first fret of a 'g' instrument could be >g# or a flat , and the meantone differences are huge. I'm not sure how >to transpose this to an instrument with an 'e' top course. Is the first >fret on an 'e' top course the equivalent of a g# or an a flat on a 'g ' >instrument?
The chart I included on my page was originally intended for a Ren. lute with a top string of G. The funny thing about temperaments is that you can decide where to place the wolf fifth, so some changes may be necessary for differently "keyed" instruments, depending upon which keys you plan to play in. I have to confess, I don't know much about these later citterns/gitterns/guittars/etc., including tunings, so I may be of little help there. However, in looking at the three charts Stuart sent and by comparing the cent values to those on the chart on my page, it looks to me as if they are supposed to be equal. One possibility to account for the discrepancy is that some simplified form (such as the "rule of 18") may have been applied, which gives one an octave which is not quite true. If one then shifts the bridge so as to obtain the correct octave placement, the cent values for the other frets should then go up. That, coupled with human error or imprecision in placing the frets, would give the slight variation in both instruments 619 and 620. (Note that all of the frets are "sharp" except for the 12th). This does not explain 618, which may have had a slight shift in temperament away from equal (1/10 comma, perhaps? done by ear?). The other thing for which to account is the fact that the actual fret placement may be slightly different than an absolute scientific value due to the sharpening in pitch that occurs as a result of the string being additionally stretched when depressed (maybe making 618 a more desirable model?). -Andrew http://www.studia-instrumentorum.de/MUSEUM/ZISTER/0618.htm http://www.studia-instrumentorum.de/MUSEUM/ZISTER/0619.htm http://www.studia-instrumentorum.de/MUSEUM/ZISTER/0620.htm To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
