On Thursday, March 4, 2004, at 06:14 PM, Ed Durbrow wrote: > ...Much of the really old stuff, like Dalza, requires it. > There are melodies where the tune disappears from the top strings and > clearly uses the fifth string octave to fill it in.
The general consensus seems to be that the earlier, smaller 6-course lutes should be octave-strung on courses 4, 5 and 6. Bear in mind, though, that those courses were intended to be played with the index finger as well as the thumb. There are plenty of examples of 16th-century tablature where notes on the 4th or 5th, and even the 6th, courses can be found indicated by a single dot. So *IF* the historical record shows octave stringing, it also shows that the top note of the octave was the one the lutenists of the day wanted to hear, at least some of the time. It seems to me that if you were going to play mostly with thumb-index, then unison stringing would carry the counterpoint better, whereas if you were going to use your thumb on the 4th and 5th courses most of the time, octave stringing would sound better. However, the lutenists of old didn't seem to see it that way. I wonder what they had in mind. David R
