Hi Joshua,
I have 6 and 9 course orpharions and find that almost all mainstream
renaissance music works on the 6 course. There are some pieces where
you need to move low Ds and Fs up an octave, but after a while you do
this automatically. Where the 6 course is limited is the few pieces
where the low D of a 7 course piece has fretted notes.I have run into
very few fretted notes on a low F course (sometimes the 1st fret and
sometimes the 3rd) and these notes can often be moved up an octave.
It's similar on music that I play on my 9 course. Even when the bass
notes run step-wise up or down, I can still move the low C up an
octave. Or in a few cases the basses required are C E (or E flat) and
F. There are a few pieces that really do need all 10 courses, and some
where they retuned the low C to B flat.
Nancy
I do come to the lute from the guitar, though with a hiatus of 6 or
7 years in between, so I am not finding the learning curve too
steep, even though I was not a particularly accomplished guitar
player. Fortunately I'm a freelancer who works from home and so have
a lot of time to practice, I've been averaging a couple hours or so
a day (great for my playing, not so much for my work). I did find
the 8-course I played a little awkward, but I only played it for
briefly so didn't have much of a chance to get used to it. But I as
I have been exploring the entire lute repertoire through CDs, I have
really fallen in love with the early Renaissance music, as well as
Dowland and some of the Elizabethan stuff which was what had first
attracted me to the lute. A 7 course seems like a good compromise to
play all this (I considered also and 8c or even a 6c to start, but
perhaps it's best to split the difference and go with 7?). Besides,
I'm only 28 and hope to have many lute-playing year!
s ahead of me, and it seems I am already quite infected with this
malady, so to speak, so I'm sure this won't be the last lute I buy.
Best,
Joshua
On May 2, 2012, at 6:06 PM, Daniel Winheld wrote:
> Your post explains why the 8 course lute was developed, or as I
like to call it, the "Double 7" . I have never found a string
material of any sort that would stand up to a scordatura range
exceeding a whole tone. Even going for a compromise tension (say an
ideal E/E-flat) would still be unsatisfactory for me, but you could
try tweaking that one. Some strange remedies to this conundrum have
been attempted- including a mechanical kind of hook through the neck
to pull down the low D at the 3rd fret. Only on some old, heavily
built compromise lutes.
>
> As a beginner, I would suggest having a 7th course dedicated to F.
Unless you come to the lute with say, an advanced guitar left hand
it will take a considerable amount of time & practice before you are
able to fluently finger a 7th course- much 6 course music is already
as difficult as it gets in lute land anyway. Many beginners find 8
courses confusing, and besides, the historic 8 course lute was a
somewhat short lived version on the end-of-the-Renaissance lute's
march to the 10 course version & beyond. When you achieve left hand
mastery, switching out the low F to a low D will make for a 7th
course that is more accessible anyway, (and a very widespread
historic set-up) and not having to jump over a low F. Some players
will reverse the 2 courses on an 8 course lute for this purpose.
>
> But, again, for many of us, the 8 course lute just solves more
problems than it creates. If I had my druthers and more money,
space, and time than I deserve I would own both 7 course and 9
course lutes (miss that low C in some favorite Holborne & R. Johnson
pieces) for covering just the late Renaissance, Elizabethan/post
Elizabethan repertoire.
>
> Good luck with this one. We have dealt with this one before on the
list.
>
> Dan
> On May 2, 2012, at 8:39 AM, Joshua Burkholder wrote:
>
>> Dear lute-listers,
>>
>> A question from a beginner:
>>
>> First to introduce myself, my name is Joshua and I've been
playing the lute for several months now; I have been on the list for
a couple weeks and am really enjoying following your discussions. I
have a rental 7-course and I am now in the process of taking the
plunge and buying a lute of my own. After much reading, pondering
and agonizing over the best number of courses to start with, I've
come to the conclusion that a 7-course best suits my needs. So onto
to my question:
>>
>> I know that some people re-tune the 7th course from D to F as
needed, but on my rental lute this seems quite impossible. The
diapason is stung to F and if I drop it down to D it becomes far too
wobbly and flabby. From this I assume that if I were to restring it
to D, which I'd prefer on the whole, it would likewise be impossible
to raise it to F. Currently the lute is strung with Pyramid strings
so the basses are metal wound. Is it only possible to change from D
to F on the same string if one uses gut strings (Poulton remarks to
this effect in her tutor that if it's strung to be tuned at D "it
will only be possible to raise it to F if gut strings are used")?
Otherwise I have to re-string? Or does someone use some other
stringing solution, besides just keeping it D and fingering the
third fret for F (or buying an 8-course lute...)? I've read enough
about stringing lutes to understand that it will be a while before I
understand anything about stringing lutes...
>>
>> Thank you for taking the time to help out a newcomer.
>>
>> Best wishes,
>>
>> Joshua
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> To get on or off this list see list information at
>> [1]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
>
>
>
Nancy Carlin Associates
P.O. Box 6499
Concord, CA 94524 USA
phone 925/686-5800 fax 925/680-2582
web sites - [2]www.nancycarlinassociates.com
[3]www.groundsanddivisions.info
Representing:
FROM WALES - Crasdant & Carreg Lafar, FROM ENGLAND - Jez Lowe & Jez
Lowe & The Bad Pennies, and now representing EARLY MUSIC - The Venere
Lute Quartet, The Good Pennyworths & Morrongiello & Young
Administrator THE LUTE SOCIETY OF AMERICA
web site - [4]http://LuteSocietyofAmerica.org
--
References
1. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
2. http://www.nancycarlinassociates.com/
3. http://www.groundsanddivisions.info/
4. http://lutesocietyofamerica.org/
