Thanks for this insightful and pracitcal take. I enjoyed the read. Eugene
----- Original Message ----- From: Stewart McCoy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Friday, March 24, 2006 5:51 pm Subject: [LUTE] Mean tone temperament > Dear Monica, > > There is plenty of evidence that players of fretted instruments had > different ideas of where to tie the frets. For example, > > 1) Certain vihuelists wrote about moving the 4th fret towards the > bridge for pieces in very flat keys, which means that at least some > of them played in some form of meantone; > > 2) Galilei devised a fretting system which was more or less in equal > temperament, and he wrote music for the lute in all keys. > > 3) Christopher Simpson wrote in his _Compendium_ about some viol > players and theorbo players having an extra first fret on their > instrument, to enable them to play in a meantone temperament and > avoid bad notes at the first fret. The implication is that Simpson > didn't have an extra fret and preferred equal temperament, which is > confirmed by the picture of a viol being played in his book on > playing divisions, but he accepts that others did. > > We have our own preferences today, just as players did in the past. > We may opt for equal or unequal systems out of ignorance (the frets > were like that when I bought the instrument, guv), or by studying > what people wrote in the past (Galilei, Simpson, et al), or by > examining old instruments (all citterns were fretted in various > kinds of meantone close to 6th-comma meantone), or by playing the > music to see what works. > > Although the same problems of temperament are faced by players of > all fretted instruments, the music which survives pushes us in > different directions. I have come to the conclusion that, apart from > people like Galilei, the lute and vihuela in the 16th century were > usually fretted in some form of meantone temperament, whereas the > baroque guitar was usually fretted at or close to equal temperament. > I am sure Howard is right to say that chords of E minor were more > often played on the guitar than chords of E flat minor, but I think > he is wrong to conclude from this that guitars were not fretted in > equal temperament. I can think of quite a bit of baroque guitar > music which explores remote keys, and where equal temperament would > have to be the order of the day. I would be very interested to know > statistically how many books of baroque guitar music there are, > where distant keys are explored. > > I have one small observation to make with regard to 16th-century > lutes and 17th-century guitars. Both instruments have similar > tunings: 4ths with a 3rd bunged in the middle. It is the string > which supplies the lower note of that major 3rd, where the biggest > problem lies. Guitarists will know only too well the difficulty of > tuning the 3rd course, tuning it very slightly flat for G major > > _d_ > _d_ > _a_ > _a_ > _c_ > > so that the G# isn't too sharp for E major: > > _a_ > _a_ > _b_ > _c_ > _c_ > > The same problem is faced by the renaissance lutenist, except the > problem occurs at the 4th course. If you tune it to a nice f natural > for F major, > > _c_ > _d_ > _d_ > _a_ > ___ > ___ > > the f# at the 1st fret is likely to be too sharp for D major: > > _c_ > _a_ > _a_ > _b_ > _c_ > ___ > > There are three solutions to the problem: > > 1) Tie on an extra fret (like Simpson's theorbo friends), or a > tastino (as some players do today). > > 2) Go for equal temperament, which I believe is the baroque > guitarist's solution. > > 3) Avoid the 1st fret of the 4th course, which is the lutenist's > solution. Why else do they so often go for awkward D major chords > like > > ___ > _e_ > _f_ > _e_ > _c_ > ___ > > instead of the much easier > > ___ > _a_ > _a_ > _b_ > _c_ > ___ ? > > Albert da Rippe avoided that last chord, preferring to end his > pieces with > > ___ > _a_ > _a_ > ___ > _g_ > _h_ > > instead, presumably because his lute was fretted in a meantone > system. > > Thomas Campion, on the other hand, is more likely to have fretted > his lute towards equal temperament, because he so often uses the > easy D chord. > > Best wishes, > > Stewart McCoy. > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Monica Hall" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "vihuela" <[email protected]> > Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2006 6:00 PM > Subject: [VIHUELA] Mean tone temperament > > > > I don't know whether there is still anyone on this list - but if > there is perhaps they can tell me what they know about Mean Tone > Temperament on plucked stringed instruments, especially the baroque > guitar. > > > > I have got these two CDs of baroque guitar music to review. One > of them says that the instrument is tuned to A=415 in mean-tone > temperament; the other to A = 440 in mean tone temperament. No more > information than that is given in the notes, but one of the CDs has > 2 photos of the artists and it seems that this refinement is > achieved by putting strips of something - cardboard? plastic?! > partly under sections of some of the frets. The frets themselves > look very thick and as if they were of a single thick strand of > whatever - gut? nylon? rather than tied in a loop like I do mine. > > > > As far as I'm aware the guitar was usually tuned to a sort of > equal temperament - at least that is what Doisi de Velasco says and > how else would they have been able to play in the 12 different major > and minor keys - as they were wont to do? But I do vaguely > remember also reading somewhere that lutenists sometimes did > something like this and even that there was a name for the > practice. > > > > So if anyone has any ideas I'd love to hear from them. > > > > Monica > > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html >
