Strikes me it's a little off-base to claim that double reentrant theorbo tuning was simply a necessity--ever. These guys weren't complete idiots, and probably didn't make those damn behemoth theorboes without any idea of how they were going to tune or string them, and then spend weeks breaking non-reentrant first and second courses before coming up with the re-entrant tuning. Moreover, re-entrant tuning remained standard on French theorboes for quite a while, like it wouldn't have if it wasn't simply a good, workable tuning. They cycled through enough transitional tunings on all manner of other lutes at the turn of the 17th century that, in my opinion, it's quite worthy of note that double reentrant theorbo tuning lasted about as many years as d-minor tuning, that is to say, until people quit playing the instrument altogether. I believe that this is because double reentrant theorbo tuning is an incredibly practical, player-friendly tuning--the melodic styles of Castaldi and de Visee, for instance, exploit it magnificently, as the campanella gimmick lends itself to a legato otherwise barely attainable on lutes--and for continuo playing, double reentrant tuning darn near eliminates any difficulty in maintaining at least unobjectionable voice-leading (parallel unisons don't chafe, parallel octaves do). In the interest of full disclosure, I mostly play on a tiny (I think the fingerboard strings are about 73cm) theorbo with double reentrant tuning. Yours, John Lenti
> Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2009 19:17:51 -0500 > To: [email protected] > CC: [email protected] > From: [email protected] > Subject: [LUTE] Re: Straight Answer Please > > On Feb 23, 2009, at 5:27 PM, Daniel Winheld wrote: > > > Wonderful! You are getting closer, grasshoppers. > > Ah, but do not forget, glasshoppah...stopped string lengths of low > 80's make for toy dreams only. > > > "What does modern Western popular wisdom know about the power of > > objects? Has it ever heard the voice of a shamanic drum speaking? > > Sam Rizzetta once walked out of a jam session because he didn't like > the sound of my bohdran. > > So it goes... > > David R > [email protected] > > > > > -- > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html __________________________________________________________________ Windows Live Hotmail(R):more than just e-mail. [1]Check it out. -- References 1. http://windowslive.com/explore?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_t2_hm_justgotbetter_explore_022009
