Thanks Sean - that is helpful. I've yet to experiment with tastini. Apart from ET, the only other fret positioning system I use is Gerle's (as given in the handy Excel sheet on the American Lute Society web site). I have to say I'm not sure exactly what this is - some kind of mean-tone other than quarter- comma? or an irregular system like the much later Mersenne and Werckmeister 'well temperaments'?
Andrew On 13 May 2008, at 17:46, Sean Smith wrote: > > Dear Andrew, > > Yes, theoretically. But meantone's saving grace on the ren lute is > that the "keys" of G, C, and their minors use much of the same > keyboard so you don't really have to change any fret positions > (mostly white keys on the piano w/ a few Bb's and Cb's). So you're > essentially safe in 85% of the music --w/ a few exceptions of course. > > But. When you move to a key in A or Amin, E and Emin, Fmin and > Bbmin, then things start to get wonky (ie, a lot of flats or sharps). > > Think about that 1st course, 1st fret. If you're playing an Ab on > it you're ok for most of the rep. If you need to play a G# that > means the fret has to be in the other position (closer to the nut: > the tastini position). Same goes for 2nd course, 1st fret: if > you're playing an Eb, that's fine usually but if it needs to be a > D# you have to put the fret in the tastini position again. > > I know this is a generalized way of looking at only one small > aspect of meanton on the lute. And I don't mean this at all to be > applicable to the baroque lute whatsoever. I hope this helps in > some small way. > > Sean > > > On May 13, 2008, at 8:13 AM, Andrew Gibbs wrote: > >> The whole idea of moveable frets allowed relatively easy shifts >> between temperaments? e.g. mid-concert between a suite of pieces >> in one key and the next suite in another? >> >> Andrew -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
