David,
My guess is that is not what we would call a theorbo at all, but rather a
bass lute probably tuned theorbo-like. All the strings would therefore be on
one neck and those chromatic basses could be fingered. Whether the tuning was
in A, G or something else and whether one or both of the upper courses were
down the octave is anyone's guess.
This is almost certainly the same type of instrument Kapsperger used for
his first chitarrone book. I seem to remember that HK doesn't use more than 11
courses in this book and he also requires an apparently fingered G# bass note
as well as the open G-natural in Toccata VI.
Chris
--- On Fri, 3/5/10, David van Ooijen <davidvanooi...@gmail.com> wrote:
> From: David van Ooijen <davidvanooi...@gmail.com>
> Subject: [LUTE] Caccini's theorbo
> To: "lutelist Net" <Lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
> Date: Friday, March 5, 2010, 9:19 AM
> Do we know anything about the
> instrument(s) Caccini played? His bass
> lines sometimes need G as well as G#, (and I believe F as
> well as F#)
> in one piece, which is impossible on a 'standard' (...)
> theorbo in a
> with 6 strings/courses on the fingerboard. If Caccini were
> just
> another composer, and I'd transpose the bass at will, but
> knowing he
> was a theorbo player, I'm a wondering about his setup: how
> many
> strings on the fingerboard and what nominal pitch? There
> are many
> practical solutions, but did somebody make a study into
> Caccini's
> lute, perhaps?
>
> David
>
> --
> *******************************
> David van Ooijen
> davidvanooi...@gmail.com
> www.davidvanooijen.nl
> *******************************
>
>
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