Interesting to hear that someone plays a double string theorbo. I've never heard or seen it. Does it sound louder or maybe with more refinement than the single strung version? Does it have octaves on 5th and 6th courses?
Could it be possible that the double course was used for solo music and the single only for continuo practice? Than we could argue that for solo music a small double strung instrument is enough, while continuo requires just the opposite. Regards. 2011/6/1 Christopher Wilke <[1][email protected]> 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 [2]www.christopherwilke.com --- On Wed, 6/1/11, Hilbert Joerg <[3][email protected]> wrote: > From: Hilbert Joerg <[4][email protected]> > Subject: [LUTE] Double stringed on a theorbo? > To: "lute List" <[5][email protected]> > 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, > Joerg > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > [6]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > -- References 1. mailto:[email protected] 2. http://www.christopherwilke.com/ 3. mailto:[email protected] 4. mailto:[email protected] 5. mailto:[email protected] 6. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
