Hi All,
I agree with Sam on three points: I've never found it "necessary" to
have an octave on the 4th course, it's difficult to get a unison 5th to
work well (in gut), and unison 6th I've never liked. The only person to
mention unison 6th is Dowland in 1610, and he's talking about his 9c
lute. No one else seems to have done it - it seems to have been usual
for all kinds of baroque lutes to have octaves starting at the 6th
(though Mace might be a counterexample).
As far as 6c lute is concerned, I think there's plenty of room for
conjecture. Early tablatures (e.g. Spinacino) have plenty of internal
evidence for octaves on courses 4-6. Unison stringing of more courses
is said to have been introduced by Fabritio Dentice, who died c.1600 -
we might therefore suspect that particularly in Italian music of the
second half of the 16th C, unisons may have been more widely used.
Octaves seem to have persisted longer in England than anywhere else
(Dowland says as much) and there is internal evidence in the music of
Cutting, Johnson, Holborne etc which seems to confirm this.
Whether the octave "sticks out" is another matter - it's a lot to do
with strings and even more to do with technique. For instance, all my
Francesco recordings were done with octaves on courses 4-6, but I don't
think you would always know from listening. The music is mostly written
as though the octaves were not there, and the main objective is to
realise the counterpoint effectively.
Best wishes,
Martin
On 20/01/2013 18:01, Sam Chapman wrote:
Dear Bill,
I generally make these kind of decisions depending on what kind of
strings I have available and what sounds best on my lutes.
Since I play very little early 16th-century repertoire I never use an
octave on the 4th course: whatever string I use for the 4th course,
I've never felt that the sound is so dull that it needs a high octave
to brighten it. Like you, I think it would get in the way in much
repertoire (though I know that there is probably some earlier music
which requires the octave 4th course to make sense of certain
contrapuntal figures).
I've found that I can use unison stringing effectively on the 5th
course only with the very best-quality pure gut strings. If the course
sounds dull I would use an octave on it, whatever the repertoire.
I've never been satisfied with unison stringing on the 6th course.
Even with modern wound strings, I've found that they tend to clash
together (though I'm sure there are some types of historical wound
strings which work better). So, I always use an octave on the 6th
course, simply because the course sounds better like that and is
easier to control. I imagine that those historical writers who talk
about using unisons on the 6th course (and below) must have had access
to better strings than I've been able to get hold of!
All the best,
Sam
On 20 January 2013 16:21, William Samson <[email protected]> wrote:
Dear Collective Wisdom,
I believe that 6c lutes are often strung with octaves on the 6th, 5th
and 4th courses.
Would you use that stringing for all parts of the lute repertoire that
needs only six courses, or would other arrangements be appropriate for
parts of the repertoire?
I'm particularly fond of the 6c English music that is found in many
mid-late 16th century sources. Playing with an octave on the 4th
sounds intrusive to my ear, but maybe I need to train my ear to accept
it?
Bill
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