Dear Martin, You may recall that quite some years ago it was generally accepted that the vihuela (but not the viola) was strung in unison - I believe this was a misreading of an early source and was explained through the great wealth of Spain in the periof whereby such expensive strings could be generally afforded.
We seem to have moved on from this to at least generally allowing an octave on the 6th course of the vihuela. Do we have any early vihuela source which describes octaves (or unisons) on the 5tn and 4th courses? One of the practical difficulties might be the occasional contemporary use of playing passages on the 5th course with an accompanying bass on the 6th course: in these circumstances it is tricky to avoid the finger plucked 5th course upper octave dominating if one is used - or perhaps this was one of the charms of the instrument ( a bit like re-entrant tuning on the later 5 course guitar)?......... - or when two courses were to be plucked simultaneously, is one expected to use the same thumb stroke to cover the two courses?.... regards, Martyn PS Can't get out more - the snow's too deep over the moor tops..... --- On Sun, 20/1/13, Martin Shepherd <[email protected]> wrote: From: Martin Shepherd <[email protected]> Subject: [LUTE] Re: 6c stringing? To: [email protected] Date: Sunday, 20 January, 2013, 19:52 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 <[1][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 >> >> -- >> >> >> To get on or off this list see list information at >> [2]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > > -- References 1. http://us.mc817.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected] 2. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
