I took delivery of my brand new 8 course Frei Renaissance lute, and after getting it (slowly) tuned up to modern pitch, I was surprised to see that the 5th course was at octaves, rather than the unison I had seen on other lutes. I know that 6 course instruments often have the bottom 2 courses in octaves, but is there any musical and/or historical reason that would drive this decision? I find the sound with the octave 5th course unpleasant, especially in runs that involve it, but that may be more due to force of habit. In addition, this new lute has a much "brighter" sound than what I have been used to (may be the brand new strings) and the octave 2nd string seems to accentuate that.
Bottom line, I plan to change to unison stringing on the 5th course, but are there circumstances where people prefer the octave? DS
