On Thu, 14 Aug 2014 18:39:55 +0200, BENJAMIN NARVEY wrote > Dear Luters, > > I notice that almost everyone keeps the seventh course of their Italian > theorboes as a stopped string on the first pegbox, mind all the sources > I know point to having only 6 on the stopped strings, and 8 diapasons. > What source (if any) gives the disposition 7 + 7 for an Italian > theorbo? I assume this predilection is a modern tradition. Are there > any historical sources for having 8 short and 6 long on Italian > theorboes? > > Obviously Weiss and Baron, et al., had 7 stopped stringsA since they > were in baroque tuning without the top f'. Campion may have had 8 > stopped strings, but then his "theorbo" was in fact a double luth. > > Any thoughts?
Being able to fret the seventh course is a concession to the needs of (modern) continuo players (and modern performance situations - i.e. not being able to change the theorbo tuning during a performance). Cheers, RalfD To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
