> it would also be quite interesting to find out when the > 7th course had a second revival in the mid 15th c. when polyphonic > intabulations probably demanded it (as maybe also better luthier skills > (materials/tools?)
The choice of a 6-course instrument looks to me to have been more or less a matter of a standard - as is the choice of a 6-string guitar nowadays. Not everyone had access/felt need for an expanded range, save perhaps a handful of professionals and dedicated amateurs. How many classical guitarists play 10-string guitars nowadays? To me an interesting question is: how did Bakfark come about a 7-course lute? Peter Kiraly writes in the New Grove Dictionary that "In late summer or autumn 1571 [...] Bakfark left Transylvania for Padua where his family had remained [...] The Bakfarks¹ neighbour and executor of Bakfark¹s wife¹s will, the famous lute maker Wendelin Tieffenbrucker [= Wendelio Venere], compiled an inventory of their goods [...]. The inventory records [...] Bakfark¹s own Kraków lutebook [...]". Venere's multirib 7 course (now in Bologna) would be a fitting instrument for Bakfark, despite its late dating to 1592. Are there any 7-course lutes in Maler's inventory? I don't have D.A. Smith's book at home. > Didn't a pupil of Bakfark's order a 7-courser > around -56(?) The 1565 Cracow is a great lutebook, but hard to play? Hans Timme, indeed, in 1556 - 9 years earlier than Cracow was printed. He must have been inspired by his teacher, in which case Bakfark's contact with a 7-course lute would have been prior to 1556. Cracow Lute Book: finger-breaker, risky stage music, great for practicing. I especially like the fantasias: wonderful, first class polyphony. To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
