Dowland's lute is discussed in my dissertation, I basically came to a similar conclusion, although your work is much more detailed, and goes more into the stringing. Simply, I theorized (mind you this was twenty years ago, now) that there were essentailly two lutes, a seven and a nine. The six course is a bit of a red herring, since there are no reasonably authoritative works for six course, plus it is essential to factor in the songs. The songs were of course his main repertory. Although it is somewhat controversial, I still firmly believe that LoST of 1603 represents a collection of solo pieces (since they appear in solo books in other sources, and are described by Dowloand as his lute lessons), and that, along with the holograph masterpiece "Farewell Fancy" (7c), plus all of the songs concurs nicely with a 7/9 interpretation. The Seven Teares also casts doubt on the idea that all the solo works were written before 1600.
However Dowland must have played many lutes, I just don't see him much using the eight or the the six, the ten certainly can be considered due to the fact that the range of the pieces uses all the notes to low C, so he either retuned one of the nine, or used a ten course, or both. I hasten to add the an eight course has a great sound, I would like to have another one. After my 9c. dt At 02:16 PM 7/23/2008, you wrote: >Daniel wrote... >I have always >hated the clunky look of nearly every builder's 10 course lute, and >thought that if I wanted a 10 course custom built I would merely >order one based on the 11 course model. I have been pleased to see >that some 10 course lutes are now, in fact, built on the 11 course >platform- and some can even be configured either way after purchase. > >Just a reminder that the plans for a Hans Frei lute from the Lute Society >enable the builder to make either a 10-course, or 11-course with >treble-rider. > >Best Wishes > >Ron (UK) > > > > >To get on or off this list see list information at >http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
