In Robert Lundberg's book "Historical Lute Construction" there is a
photograph of 5 lutes (pp.8&9); small-octave, descant, alto, tenor and
bass. He lists the tunings for them as being d", a', g', e' & d'
respectively.
While I always thought of the g' tuning as being a tenor lute,
apparently it's an alto lute, and (I think?) the most commonly
played. But - somewhat confusingly to me - the string length of the 7
course descant lute is shown as 58.4 cm. This seems close to the
string length used by many makers for lutes in g'. The alto lute (by
Wendelio Venere) has a string length of 66.7 cm. This seems rather
long, (though my Hauser model lute has a string length of 64 cm). My
Meadow 8 course (g' tuning) seems comfortable with a string length of
about 58 cm. I would think a string length up in the 60's would make
much of the solo literature quite difficult to play for anyone without
quite large hands. I guess guitarists manage it, but with much
narrower necks.
Ned
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References
1.
http://personals.aol.com/articles/2009/02/18/longer-lives-through-relationships/?ncid=emlweuslove00000001
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