Setting the top one or two courses of the theorbo an octave down has nothing whatsoever to do with the diameter of the string (as pointed out many times before - see archives). It has to do with the string length, the string material and the pitch. This leads to the breaking stress related to the pitch at which a string of a given material and length will break. Thus for two strings of the same material and length, the pitch at which they will break is identical. For example, a string of say 10mm in diameter will, of course, require a much greater force to break than one of, say, 0.01mm but it has a much greater cross-sectional area and the Breaking Stress (ie Breaking Force/Cross-sectional area) is identical for the two strings. MH
Alfonso Marin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Dear Craig, The re-entrant tuning on the theorbo has its origins on the physical nature of gut strings. The long string lengths of this instrument makes impossible to get gut thin enough to have the 2nd and 1st strings at "normal" pitch. This apparent drawback, used with intelligence on continuo playing can actually be of help. The problem is that the re-entrant tuning makes the instrument somehow less logical and [EMAIL PROTECTED] have to study its possibilities carefully to make good use of it. I hope this helps, Greetings, Alfonso The re-entrant tuning on the On 13-okt-2006, at 13:19, Craig Allen wrote: > 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 Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com --
