Hi, I suppose that the origins of the re-entrant tunings may be different for theorbo and guitar. There are people on this list who can explain in detail about quest for an optimal instrument for accompaniment of the voice in the early opera (Naldi, Piccinini). Greater stringlength on the chitarrone was necessary and therefore the first and second course had to be lowered.
For the guitar I see an entirely different cause: like the ukelele the instrument needed to be heard in the open air (imagine Spain or the New World). By having as many strings in the alto register as possible the guitar became louder in rasgado style playing. Lower strings at the basses, in combination with the relatively short scale, were not too useful. Much later some composers started to use the high notes that are available on the 4th and 5th courses in treble melody lines. L. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Craig Allen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Lute List" <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, October 13, 2006 1:19 PM Subject: [LUTE] Why re-entrant tuning? > Dear Collective Wisdom, > > The subject says it all. Re-entrant tuning is used on the theorbo and if I recall the gittern. But why? I have not played an instrument tuned this way so don't have any practical experience with the sound or feel. Why are these (and presumabley other) instruments tuned this way? > > Regards, > Craig > > > > ___________________________________________________________ > $0 Web Hosting with up to 200MB web space, 1000 MB Transfer > 10 Personalized POP and Web E-mail Accounts, and much more. > Signup at www.doteasy.com > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html >
