Hi, I am afraid it's a really looooong story. - Italian theorbos were, as far as I know, always 6 (fretted) + 8 basses. - 7 + 7 are kind of hard to find n Museums and collections, but existed. Extremely helpful when you need an occasional G sharp :-) - 8 (fretted) + 6 basses are apparently very common nowadays. Not even one original in museums and collections, as far as I know, BUT Franc,ois Campion (1716) in his treatise states that most of his colleagues have a theorbo configured that way and they call it "theorbe `a la Maltot" from the name of his predecessor at the Royal Academy of Music. We have strictly no other infos about a musician and theorbist called Maltot, unfortunately. Of course this last configuration is very confortable for many good reasons, as you can finger an F sharp AND a G sharp, plus - of course - many other chord patterns. Best, Luca Anthony Hart on 20/02/14 13:59 wrote:
Theorbos can be set up up as 6+8, 7+7 and 8+6. Does anyone have any preference and reasons? Thanks Anthony -- To get on or off this list see list information at [1]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html References 1. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
