> -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On > Behalf Of alexander > Sent: Friday, April 01, 2011 9:40 AM > To: Martyn Hodgson > Cc: [email protected] > Subject: [LUTE] Re: Stability of lute in playing fast. > > My apologies, my interest in 19th century guitars is long gone. The lack > of time reduces the interest even farther. 685 mm is the longest guitar > from circa 1810s i have measured, from collection of Leningrad Museum of > musical instruments (in 1970s). 635 mm as far as i remember were more > often the case, with some from 65 to 67 cm. Then, the ladies, or terz- > guitars, quite a bit shorter and smaller. The younger guitar loving people > should be the ones concerned with this though...
[Eugene C. Braig IV] Well, I have no idea how my age compares to yours, Alexander, but this is a topic that appeals to me. Who were the makers of the instruments you measured in Leningrad? These lengths do seem to favor the long side and seem more typical of what I would expect of 5-course guitars into the 18th c. Is it possible you're remembering measurements associated with 5-course guitars? Is it possible they were early "Russian" guitars for 7 strings? There are abundant extant 19th-c. guitars from all across Europe. I have measured many (and own more than one) myself. As Martyn cites, ranges from 60 up to 64 c. seem quite common amongst European makers. Those longer, less so. Those shorter (possible "terz", also less so. A fair number of Viennese builders, e.g., seemed to favor just over 60 cm on their standard instruments, at least early in the century; under the influence of Staufer/Stauffer protégés (like Scherzer) Viennese builders climbed to more like 64 cm. later in the century. Europe-wide, consider, e.g., the well documented pieces by Stauffer/Staufer, Lacote, Panormo, et al. Best, Eugene To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
