Interesting idea, Chad. I had always thought the energy of the string was transmitted to the body through the bridge but it makes sense that some energy must go to the stopping fret as well.
There is the view that the lute should be held as loosely as possible and a lesson with Ronn MacFarlane showed that when the lute is minimally supported by, say, its lower edge, only slightly resting against the chest and the right arm barely touching, it creates a much larger, fuller sound --something that Jacob Heringmann and others strongly advocate, too. For the longest time I didn't understand where the extra volume was coming from (maybe the back vibrating more freely from the volume of air?). It was amazing how the sound opened up when I released my "fore-arm grip" on it! So maybe as the fret and string have better purchase, the neck will send that energy to the body? I'm tempted to think that one end would cancel out the other but on the other hand, the bridge would vibrate up and down (relative to the bridge) while the neck would forward and back (relative to the bridge). Pure speculation, mind you. And I appreciate the irony of learning about greater volume from a clavichordist ;^) Sean On Jun 21, 2005, at 7:06 PM, Chad McAnally wrote: > > Michael Thames wrote: <<<If one really thinks about it, half the sound > goes into the bridge, and half goes into the neck, via the frets. So > to not consider the effect the frets > contribute would be silly.>>> > > Now I know this is a lute list, not an early keyboard list, but I have > come upon a direct parallel that may be of interest to lutenist and > luthiers alike. The same phenomenon mentioned above by Michael was > recently has been noted also on clavichords in an article by Martin > Skowroneck in "Clavichord Intenational" ( Vol 9 #1 May 2005) > ; Half the energy of the strings goes into the bridge and half into > the tangents, equivalent to the "frets" of a clavichord. > > It appear the some of the old builders realized this and made their > tangents progressively heavier toward the bass end of the instrument, > or tried to concentrate more the weight of the key levers closer to > the tangent end, both in an effort to make the key "reflect" more of > the energy of the string. Also critical to this was making the tangent > more stable in the key than the traditional hammering in of the > tangent. Some makers used addition small wooden wedges to tighten the > tangent into the key to accomplish this. > > So, I began to experiment with all this on an instrument I'm working > on. The result was not only a slightly louder clavichord but the tone > was totally different. Very much like Michael's description of the > impact the double fretting has on Baroque lute tone, the sustain is > increased, but not so much as to muddy the instrument and the overall > tone colour was rounder, much closer to the antiques in good condition > I've heard and played. > > So, I wonder if the stability of the frets via double fretting > transfers more energy to the neck resulting in a better tone or like > the clavichord tangent, the double frets help reflects the motion of > the string better into the air? A new puzzle for builders! > > Chad > > > > -- > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html >
