Dear Chris, can it be, that the historical original to your old theorbo survived, because it was so big? A luthier just told me some days ago, that we may just know the more or less extravagant instruments of the old days, the representative ones with ivory or impressing ornaments etc. The normal (and maybe the better) ones were played till they couldn’t be used any more, so we may just know the top of the range and not the every-day selection. Interesting idea ...
My own instrument may be quite similar to your current one, and the need to play close to the bridge is a real good point. Thanks for answering so detailed! Jörg Am 01.06.2011 um 14:43 schrieb Christopher Wilke: > 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 >> >> >> >> To get on or off this list see list information at >> http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html >> > >
