Jorg,
I can only partially answer your question from experience. At one time I
owned a huge theorbo (single strung) with a 99cm string length. Now I have
thankfully gotten rid of the beast and play on a double strung "toy" with a
76cm fingerboard length. I usually use synthetic strings, but have used gut in
the past and I feel that there is no sacrifice in terms of volume with the
small instrument. If anything it is much louder, but this has something to do
with the player.
I play close to the bridge, which I can only do on the small theorbo. With
my giant lute, if I tried to pluck by the bridge it was physically impossible
for me to fret notes in low positions. (I'm six feet tall) By stretching my
arms out I could only just manage to pluck over the rose. This gave a pleasant
tone, but one that was easily covered in virtually any ensemble. If the piece
gave me enough time and I could alter my posture and position so that I could
pluck a bass note closer to the bridge, it sounded fantastic. Unfortunately, I
found rarity with which I had time to manage this to be musically unsatisfying.
And then there were the mistakes from the ungainly lunge back to "regular"
position! I never had double stringing on this instrument, but I imagine that
the strings would easily jar together because of plucking closer to mid-point
of the string length
As for slurring and what not, I find this no more difficult with double
stringing over single, but again I'm doing this on a smaller instrument. I
find it very effective for strumming, which sounds, fittingly enough, like a
big guitar.
Chris
Christopher Wilke
Lutenist, Guitarist and Composer
www.christopherwilke.com
--- On Wed, 6/1/11, Hilbert Jörg <hilbert.jo...@t-online.de> wrote:
> From: Hilbert Jörg <hilbert.jo...@t-online.de>
> Subject: [LUTE] Double stringed on a theorbo?
> To: "lute List" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
> Date: Wednesday, June 1, 2011, 3:27 AM
> Dear collected wisdom,
>
> as the old italian theorbos seemed to be quite huge and
> double stringed (for 1-6), I am not aware of anyone to play
> such an instrument in my neighborhood. I recently had the
> possibility to test an instrument of about 90 cm, which was
> amazing but single stringed. Does anybody know such a double
> stringed instrument? Does it really make sense for continuo?
> Are there other experiences in terms of power, playability,
> slurs, comfort etc.?
>
> Thank you very much,
> Jörg
>
>
>
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