In working my way through David Talyer's graduate thesis on Dowland (great fun) I came across the statement regarding Dowland's stringing (p.82): "The very highest string, tuned as high as it could stand (modern players, incidentally tend to make do with one half to two thirds this tension), was by far the loudest string, each string below sounded softer."
The question that comes immediately to my mind, is what about the tension of the rest of the strings? Were they all at higher tension during Dowland's time, or just the first? It does seem to me that string tension has a very significant effect on right hand technique. Also, having done some playing with gut strings, the reference to diminishing loudness as one goes from treble to bass rings true. From this I draw the conclusion that a player with synthetic strings needs to be very aware of the treble/bass balance he/she strives for when playing Dowland (or other contemporary composers); that is, if one wants to have the music sound something like Dowland et. al conceived it. ( I happen to love the bass register - I also play the cello - so I really have to restrain a tendency to over-play it )! Ned -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
