Dear Anthony and All,
My comments are below yours:
On 09/02/2011 09:01, Anthony Hind wrote:
So, you do consider they are thin and therefore could indeed just be to
compensate for a raised neck? Yet is this not the relative thickness (like 3rd
or 4th course) that Dowland suggests for fret 1 and 2 (according to Martyn)? So
are they exceptionally thin (or rather, was Dowland's suggested fretting
exceptionally thin)?
(Of course, Dowland did not suggest that all the frets should be of that
thickness).
Dowland says the first two frets are the same as the 4th course, so I
reckon this is roughly consistent with the Holbein painting.
Yes, I agree the strings do seem smooth, and we might have expected some sort of
roping
on 6c. Although, we don't know at what pitch the lute might have been tuned.
Of course it might be tempting to take the slightly brownish hue of the 5 and 6c
as some sort of loading, but we have all seen that thicker strings are often
more brownish in colour.
Yes, with modern strings the thicker ones are often browner. On the
basis of my recent experiences with modern high-twist strings I can't
see any need for a rope - at least for a 6th course (two octaves below
the first). In fact I have come to the conclusion that ropes make a
duller sound because they are not so "solid".
"I think there's no need to look for any imperfections in the
lute beyond the broken string, the symbolism of which would have been
perfectly clear to anyone" Martin
Yes, according to my browsing, the symbolism, here, can be fairly self evident,
as with the broken string, or the copy of Peter Apian's book of calculations for
merchants open on a page "which shows three examples of long division which
open with the word “Dividirt” which, when combined with the appearance of the
fraction “1/2″ could symbolise political and religious division and disharmony
(...)"
I think even non-specialists could understand these symbols; but others, if
true, call for a far more specialised knowledge. I am thinking of the symbolism
of 27 claimed by John North, for which it seems necessary to understand the
setting of various instruments of measure that would all point to the angle 27°,
and then to realize that 27º (according to North) was the altitude of the Sun at
a few minutes past four on Good Friday 1533 and “that it is precisely
the angle at which the foreground anamorphosed skull is drawn, so that the
skull may be treated as a visual record of the shadow cast by the Good Friday
Sun at the end of the hour following Christ’s death on the cross."
http://tinyurl.com/6yqvhxn
I have no idea whether this is generally accepted (although highly entertaining,
as David says), but if so, it seems far more sophisticated than any symbol
relating to a poorly strung lute; but I admit that one can over do the search
for symbols, for which it is very difficult to find proof, unless the same
symbolism re-occurs over a number of paintings; but it seems the Ambassadors, is
rather unique.
I'm no expert on painting, but is it not possible that a painter like
Holbein might have incorporated some elements which would not be
apparent to anyone, perhaps? A bit like a medieval composer writing a
piece 360 minims long, or Machaut or Josquin writing their cancrizans
canons. If music can contain inaudible elements, perhaps paintings can
contain elements which are invisible, at least in terms of their meaning?
Best wishes,
Martin
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