recursive tuning would certainly be useful for a nigerian single stringed lute . It sounds a bit like the Theramin! Charles
-----Original Message----- From: Alain Veylit [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 08 June 2004 17:43 To: bill; Jon Murphy Cc: James A Stimson; lute society Subject: Re: really bad deals and reentrant tuning >On Marted�, giu 8, 2004, at 07:10 Europe/Rome, Jon Murphy wrote: > > > What is "re-entrant tuning". --I thought re-entrant tuning was when you stop the other guys from playing so you get a second chance to tune. --In a solo setting, re-entrant tuning means to stop mid-way through a piece to adjust the tuning so that difficult fingerings are made easier to play. Jimmy Hendrix used it a lot, but because he was a sloppy player, he did not bother to stop playing. --Re-entrant tuning is to be distinguished from "recursive tuning": recursive tuning consists in successively tuning the same string to all the pitches needed for your instrument. --To tune a lute: tighten the chanterelle carefully until it breaks, then unwind a quarter turn. Finally, tune all the other strings on the chanterelle. --Tuning: the act by which a perfectly good instrument is made to sound totally off. --Temperament: the state of mind or mood that follows an attempt to tune your instrument. Traditionally, among lutenists, temperaments go from choleric to depressed (or melancholic). --Equal temperament: a state of persistent despondency following many failed attempts to tune. Sometimes results in an attempt to tune all the strings to the same pitch to make it easier. --Chromatic scale: the results of applying different colors to all the courses on your archlute so as to give a chance to your right hand to know which one is which (see also under "Rainbow coalition") --"High-fifth": what two lutenists give to each other after tuning to each other. --Thumb under: what 2 lutenists get for failing to tune successfully to each other --Re-entrant tuning is also used to describe the particular sound of a lute hitting the ground really hard after yet another failed attempt at tuning it - probably by analogy with a re-entry into the atmosphere. (see also under "sonic boom") --D minor tuning: as opposed to major tuning, i.e. when you only bother to tune all courses up from the fourth one, carefully leaving the bourdons untouched. --Octave tuning: describes the attempt at replacing a broken bass string with fishing line --Sonic boom: the sound made by a theorbo that was tuned just a tad too high, thereby separating the neck from the bowl. --Pythagorean ratios: an act of revenge taken by mathematicians on musicians --Tuning with gut is generally more difficult because it involves letting your instinct tell you exactly where 415MHz is as well as chose what gauges to use for each course. --Ashcroft tuning: designates a long period of silence in a classical music concert hall. --Ashcroft tuning (2): the attempt to tune your lute as if it were a 5-string banjo in order to be able to apply for an NEH grant. (generally followed by a sonic boom) --Tuned in fourths: when you only bother to tune every fourth string --Tuned in fifths: no one is lazy enough in the lute world to do it, but widely in use in the violin family of instruments If you don't get all the jokes above, you have not been playing the lute long enough... Alain
