That first fret above the 12th is a whopper!
dt
At 05:02 PM 11/10/2009, you wrote:
>Hi David,
>
>Thanks for the interesting picture. I suppose it only makes sense
>but I noticed that the frets above the 12th duplicate the spacing.
>
>morgan
>
>
>----- Original Message ----- From: "David Tayler" <[email protected]>
>To: "lute-cs.dartmouth.edu" <[email protected]>
>Sent: Tuesday, November 10, 2009 7:59 PM
>Subject: [LUTE] the cittern in meantone
>
>
>> Everyone loves the cittern. But suppose you want to play in meantone?
>> Specifically, alternating major and minor semitones such as in this
>> delicious photo?
>> [1]http://www.cittern.theaterofmusic.com/old/img_1600/34cm_citternscale
>> .jpg
>> Let's look at a few possibilities.
>> The French 4 course tuning
>> aa'a' gg'g'd'd'e'e'
>> and the Italian
>> bbggd'd'e'e'
>> And let's assume this is tastini free--puh-leeze--
>> Right away, we see the the G makes an A flat on the first fret of both
>> tunings. Rats, shades of F minor.
>> And right away we see that the Italian tuning is no good because there
>> is a both a B and a G.
>> But if we tune the French tuning up a fifth--and adjust the strings--
>> we get the pitch set
>> E D A B
>> Which gives the following scales
>> E F F# G G# A
>> D Eb E F F# G
>> A Bb B C C# D
>> B C C# D D# E
>> This gives good meantone for chords, and has both an E flat and a D
>> sharp, although for solo music the the E on the top course is a bit
>> high, this is mitigated by the the lowness of the open string.
>> For the Italian tuning, a single extra fret would help the G sharp, as
>> it does on the baroque guitar.
>> dt
>> --
>>
>>References
>>
>> 1.
>> http://www.cittern.theaterofmusic.com/old/img_1600/34cm_citternscale.jpg
>>
>>
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