Thank you, Richard Kolb, for the article on tempered tuning for lute
players in the latest LSA Quarterly! I've recently read two books on the
subject of temperament: Duffin's "How Equal Temperament Ruined Harmony" and
Isacoff's "Temperament". The former was fun and informative; the latter
informative but oddly insistent on the notion that fretted instuments like
the lute were always in ET because they had fretted fingerboards and there
was nothing else to be done (!). I didn't like the latter, though he
confesses to loving the sound of pure intervals. But (my point) neither
volume, being keyboard oriented, really gets to the point of how to do it on
a lute, so thanks again Richard, for explaining how it works with frets.
Oddly enough, perhaps synchronistically, just days before I received
the Quarterly I discovered on my own that the "good" and "bad" intervals on
my 1/6 comma meantone ren lute can be visually spotted. [I'll use (course
#/fret letter) to designate fingerboard positions] The major third g-b
(2f-1e) is a narrow (more pure) third: a raised fret up to a lowered fret.
The g flat-b flat (2e-1d) goes from a lowered fret to a raised one: a wide
and unpleasant third. Similarly, one can spot good/bad minor thirds and any
other tricky intervals and adjust as needed for key.
I've found that once I have my frets set, I can tune courses 1 and 6
right on; 2 and 3 a tiny bit flat; 4 and 5 a tiny bit sharp (compared to
ET). I test with some octaves, and, for some reason the following works for
me as a test for those strings that "cross the third" (3,4,5): I play the
chord 5f 4e 3d (f major) and it should sound pretty good (in my limited
experience).
Regards,
Leonard Williams
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