Dear All, Very interesting thread. I have a very accurate reproduction of the huge d-minor Schelle "German" theorbo from Nuernberg, and this instrument has doubled courses on the "petit jeu". I did briefly have it set up some years ago in this way and it sounded like a lovely and huge baroque lute, but I do find that it projects better with single strings. (I must admit however that I really didn't explore the double-string set-up sufficiently and am very tempted to do so now.) That said, with regards projection, some soloists/directors actually prefer a vague lute "presence" in the background that doesn't get in their way to actual "projection" (despite what they tell you to play louder), so this is not necessarily a bad thing depending on the situation and who is hiring you... I think the real problem with double-stringing is the tension. Even with light stringing, if you start doubling the courses you can be at 90Kg before you know where you are...a colleague of mine just avoided having his theorbo implode under double stringing. This, of course, does not mean we shouldn't be double stringing our theorboes where the situation calls for it (early Italian monody and opera principally), but rather simply makes me wonder about what kind of glue luthiers of old were using! I should note that double stringing was, of course, primarily an Italian phenomenon (indeed most surviving Italian theorboes were double strung). French theorboes tended to be single strung. Best, Benjamin -- [1]www.luthiste.com t +33 (0) 1 44 27 03 44 p/m +33 (0) 6 71 79 98 98 --
References 1. http://www.luthiste.com/ To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
