Dear Donatella, it seems one of the mysteries to be solved in the future are those of string making. Mimmo is doing a great Job as well as manufacturer as as researcher but I think I won't be wrong if I would say: We still don't have an idea of how the strings were produced. We just need to accept the fact that there were players using nails playing gut strings - conclusion could be that our string material is not of the same quality than that they had.
Dear Danyel, could you provide an email, a postal adress and/or telephone number of Nick Baldock. I've already heard of him and that he would produce great strings but lost the contact details. Possibly others on this list would be interested, too. Best wishes Thomas Am Sonntag, 30. Oktober 2005 00:01 schrieben Sie: > Hi Donatella, > > that is very interesting. > As for gut strings surviving nails, we should bear in mind that prior to > the 1940s all kinds of instruments were played with gut strings, including > Milanese mandolins, the oud etc.; I don't know what gut strings you use, > but the ones provided by Nick Baldock survive years of strong plucking with > a stiff eagle feather on a daily basis. the third course on my Timurid lute > has been on ever since I got the instrument 3 years ago and hasn't even > frailed yet. I think gut is actually a very strong material. > Is the story about Francesco not more like a legend? > > Best wishes, > danyel > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Donatella Galletti" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[email protected]> > Sent: Saturday, October 29, 2005 11:26 PM > Subject: [LUTE] Re: Gut strings and nails- Dalla Casa > > > Dear All, > > > > I'm just going through the book by Dalla Casa ( BTW, some pieces are in > > tablature on my web site, perhaps anybody out there is willing to add a > > piece? ), and there is a portrait of him playing his "arciliuto francese" > > ( which is in fact an archlute). > > Cristoforetti in his introduction of the SPES edition says the strings > > were > > > made of gut , nevertheless Dalla Casa played with long nails, as it can > > be seen in the picture. Doesn't a gut string get worn out in two days, > > when played like that? Were gut strings different from ours? Any > > suggestions? > > > > Francesco da Milano used to play with long silver "nails", and this is > > also > > > something which exceeds my understanding of gut resistance.. > > > > Thanks > > > > Donatella > > > > > > http://web.tiscali.it/awebd > > > > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- Thomas Schall Niederhofheimer Weg 3 D-65843 Sulzbach 06196/74519 [EMAIL PROTECTED] ab 15.7. neue Adresse: Wiesentalstrasse 41 CH-8355 Aadorf ++41 (0) 52 365 00 04 http://www.lautenist.de http://www.lautenist.de/bduo/ http://www.lautenist.de/gitarre/ http://www.tslaute.de/weiss/
