Dear Ed and All
There are articles on Martin Shepherd's site and also on
Aquilla's site by Mimmo Peruffo, and remarks by Dan Larsen and
Ephraim Segerman at nrinstruments on this topic.
http://www.luteshop.co.uk/stringshistory.htm
http://www.aquilacorde.com/articlesindex.htm
http://www.nrinstruments.demon.co.uk/LuSt.html
http://www.gamutstrings.com/article/article.htm
One might think that the study of the holes in the bridge could give
a good idea about the diameter of strings used.
However, the number of surviving lutes in their original state may
make this difficult, many having beeen transformed or partially
destroyed.
Also string diameter does not give a direct idea about the string
tension unless you know the exact quality of the gut used.
Is the gut a twist of sliced gut (as it usual is today) or a single
piece of young castrated ram's gut, hgh twist, low twist, etc--?
Could it have been weighted with metal oxides like Aquilla's loaded
strings, as Mimmo Peruffo argues.?
It seems that information from paintings can be used, see
particularly the articles of Mimmo Peruffo above
http://www.aquilacorde.com/iconography_index.htm
and written texts are also a source of clues.
http://www.aquilacorde.com/historical_index.htm
The problem, I think, is that most are open to varying interpretations.
I am not a specialist, these are just a few passing thoughts that
jumped to mind.
Regards
Anthony
Le 8 fevr. 07 =E0 15:44, Ed Durbrow a ecrit :
> I'm just curious as to what makers have to say about this idea. Isn't
> it possible to get an idea from the construction and material of a
> historical instrument what approximate optimum tension the instrument
> was designed for?
>
> On Feb 8, 2007, at 8:19 PM, Anthony Hind wrote:
>
>> However, the solution may be to use
>> lower tensions. There was a thread recently (I believe begun my
>> Martin Shepherd) about the advantages of lutes strung at low
>> tensions. It seemed that with gut strings, a lower tension was not
>> necessarily a problem.
>
> Ed Durbrow
> Saitama, Japan
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> http://www9.plala.or.jp/edurbrow/
>
>
>
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