Juan, I too love this piece and work at it constantly. I'm not certain whether the tab I have is the JD Forget version but I don't remember needing to stop the 10th crs. However, as a maker, I can tell you pretty certainly that, of the lutes used in baroque, probably only the so called "French" 11 crs instruments allow fingering that course. I daily play a 14 crs "theorbo" (76/140cm in dm tuning) which only has 7 courses on the fingerboard and a 13 crs after Dieffopruchar/Edlinger which has enough neck cant to the bass side to also preclude such fingering or at least make it rediculously difficult. Mr. Barto is probably just "correcting" the tab (I've learned to do all my transcriptions and original ms in pencil to allow for the inevitable corrections)in the interest of rational playability.
Surely, an instrument could be built to accommodate that fingering, but it would be "non-standard" if there is such a thing. My suggestion is, modify the fingering and bass placement as needed to produce playability. Heretical as that may sound, it is the music that emanates which counts, not dogmatic adherence to an archaic tablature or style. One man's opinion. I could be wrong, Rob Dorsey, luthier Florence, KY USA -----Original Message----- From: Juan Fco. Prieto [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, May 07, 2006 6:33 AM To: lutelist Subject: [LUTE] "SWAN NECK" vs. "BASS RIDER" Dear lute friends: Excuse me in case I'm boring you with too much newcomer questions, probably "over-answered" in the past. Well, let's go to the matter. It's said all around that the ideal lute to play S.L. Weiss is the know as "swan neck" or "theorboed" model and, really, the most of the recordings published till now are related to lutenists performing on a "swan neck" baroque lute. I'm now studying the Prelude from the Suite in d minor (Dresden Manuscript, Volume 1, Suite n. 7, in the Jean-Daniel Forget public domain edition), one of the best Weiss preludes, for my taste, -extraordinarily well performed by Robert Barto (Sonatas vol. 3 track 14)- and I'm realising that Mr. Barto raises one octave up some basses that demand to be played e.g. on the first fret of the 10th course (Eb). I'm sure the reason is he's playing on a "swan neck" preventing him to play these notes as originally were written. My personal question now is whether this point is showing that Weiss composed this piece -and many others, probably- with a simple "bass rider" baroque lute in mind, and not a theorboed one. What do you think about? Always giving thanks for your tolerance and kindness. -- Juan Fco. -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
