Ed
I keep my 7c at D, and then stop it down for F. Of
course this means
the7c is no longer open, which no doubt does effect
the way the
string resonates. So there is a compromise,
involved.
I would agree that in gut, the additional 8c is not
so much of a
problem, for 6c or 7c music. However, how many
beginners keep their
lutes in gut?
Probably more important than choosing between 8c and
7c, is finding a
good lute, and then succeeding in stringing it well.
It took me about
two years to find the best stringing for my lute.
Even now, I am still ready to experiment.
Initially, I found my Gerle a little bass heavy, as
Jacob Heringman
told me I would, saying approximately that as the
Gerle had a deeper
body, it would have a plummy bass, an explosive
sound but with not so
much sustain. That is in contrast to the Venere that
might be
brighter with a more sustained sound and possibly
less rich bass.
Using Venice twine has helped balance that out a
little better.
Presumably, in the case of the Venere, it might be
too much of a good
thing, but I haven't tried.
Regards
Anthony
Le 27 nov. 07 =E0 01:26, Edward Martin a ecrit :
I agree fully with Stewart. Although there is
more music for 7
course and 9 course lutes as compared to 8 course
lutes, an 8
course is a good compromise. I have that very
instrument, an 8
course.
A great majority of the music for which I use that
instrument is
for 7 course, but it is so very convenient to have
both a low F
_and_ D, so I do not have to re-tune the 7th
course. I also
sometimes put octaves on both the 4th and 5th
course, so I can play
Continental 6 course music. In gut, it sound
absolutely no
different from other 6 course lutes in gut.
ed
At 11:54 PM 11/26/2007 +0000, Stewart McCoy wrote:
Dear All,
Unlike many of the contributors to this thread, I
don't have a
problem with 8-course lutes. They suit Terzi and
Molinaro, of
course, but you can use them to play earlier
music like Capirola,
and to some extent later music where nine or ten
courses are
required. If you want to buy many instruments, by
all means buy a
6-course for Milano, a 7-course for (some)
Dowland, an 8-course
for Terzi, a 9-course for Francisque, a 10-course
for Vallet, and
then splash out on an 11-course for Mouton, a
12-course for
Wilson, and a 13-course for Weiss. Why stop
there? Why not spend a
few more thousand quid on various sorts of
theorbo and archlute,
and throw in a mandora or two?
If, instead, you want to compromise, and not fill
your house with
lutes, simply buy one 8-course lute, at least to
start with.
Having low F and D as open strings is useful for
Dowland, you
don't have the complexities of a lute with lots
of strings, and
you can happily play anything from the 16th
century. If a note is
too low for one's instrument, either play it an
octave higher, or
re-tune the lowest course down a tone (e.g.
8th-course D to C), as
Capirola did (from 6th-course G to F).
More significant than the number of strings, is
the tuning of the
strings, i.e. whether or not to tune the 4th and
5th courses in
octaves. That makes far more difference to the
sound than the
number of courses.
If I might add to what Ron has written, the
heart-shaped Pesaro
manuscript copied in the 15th century, contains
music for a 7-
course instrument; the music in Osborn fb7 is for
a 7-course lute,
and dates from about 1630. Plus =E7a change, plus
c'est la m=EAme
chose. Do we have any evidence of a 16th- or
17th-century lutenist
refusing to play a piece, because his lute had
one or two courses
more than necessary?
Best wishes,
Stewart McCoy.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Ron Andrico"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "G. Crona" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Michael
Bocchicchio"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Sent: Monday, November 26, 2007 10:42 PM
Subject: [LUTE] Re: Is 8c really the standard?
Dear Michael, G=F6ran & all:
While G=F6ran gives an eloquent summary of our
received notion of
the development multiple courses on lutes
throughout the 16th
century, there is evidence that the matter was
not quite so
clearly defined. No surprise.
H. Colin Slim, in his excellent article,
'Musicians on
Parnassus,' (Studies in the Renaissance, Vol. 12
(1965), pp.
134-163) describes the poem Monte Parnasso by
Philippo Oriolo da
Bassano. Bassano appears to outdo Rabelais'
Pantagruel in the
art of name-dropping within the poem, which Slim
dates to circa
1519-1522.
Cantos XIX, XX and XXI name several theorists,
composers and
instrumentalists, including Spinacino and
Francesco da Milano,
Canto XX describes a contest between two
lutenists playing lutes
with 13 and 17 strings. Presumably, the poet
was counting
individual strings of the courses. Slim notes
that Sebastian
Virdung also mentions lutes with fourteen
strings as early as 1511.
We seem to have a collective need to create neat
categories and a
progression of events for historical music but
the real story is
always less systematic and more complex.
Best wishes,
Ron Andrico
http://www.mignarda.com
Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 13:48:43 +0100> To:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]> CC:
lute@cs.dartmouth.edu> From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [LUTE] Re: Is 8c
really the standard?>
Hi Michael,> > when I got my first lute in
the
