----- Original Message ----- From: "Michal Gondko" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "[LUTE]" <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2006 11:56 PM Subject: [LUTE] Re: more than 6 courses
>> 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? I would say, probably more than you think! And also 11 string to be able to play baroque lute music... > 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. The Lyon 1553 book is strictly 6-course. Around 1555 would perhaps be a feasible estimate? When you look at the Phalese-Teghi late 1540s there is some 6th course scordatura. IMO they found out about then that a 7th course would make sense. > Cracow Lute Book: finger-breaker, risky stage music, great for practicing. > I > especially like the fantasias: wonderful, first class polyphony. I agree wholeheartedly, but personally wouldn't dare face an audience yet with those pieces! To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
