Dear Robert,
This is an interesting question. Off the top of my head:
I don't think Spinacino (1507) mentions octaves in his introductory
material, but there are some classic examples of octaves in his
intabulations, especially in the opening of "Haray tre amours" (Book 2,
f.15v.) where the opening flourish finishes, not on the open 2nd course,
but on the second fret of the 5th course.
Attaingnant's tuning instructions (1529) tell us to use octaves on 4-6.
His arrangements of chansons for voice and lute also suggest pretty
unambiguously an octave on the 4th course (e.g. cadences which go from
c4a5 to d3a4).
Not sure whether Hans Newsidler's instructions (1536) talk about it, but
the woodcut of a lute showing the symbols of German tablature clearly
shows octaves on 4-6. There is also evidence of octaves in his
intabulations.
Adrian le Roy's Instructions (English translation, 1574), in discussing
the intabulation of "De corps absent" on f.42(?) mentions using the
octave on the 5th course to solve a problem in the intabulation, and in
passing mentions that this ruse would not be possible with a lute strung
in the manner of Fabritio Dentice and his followers (which is where we
get the idea that Dentice was a leading proponent of unison stringing).
I had a feeling that somewhere Le Roy tells us to use octaves on 4-6,
but I can't find it at the moment.
I have a feeling that Waissel's instructions (1592 book?) use octaves
but I don't have the facsimile - can anyone help?
Barley (1596) prints a version of Le Roy's instructions and also has a
woodcut of a lute which seems to show octaves on 4-6. Can't immediately
find my copy of that either.
When Dowland is talking about octaves in 1610, he recommends using a
unison 6th course, and says that the practice of using an octave (on the
6th course) was used "nowhere so much as here in England". In fact
there are many passages in John Johnson, Francis Cutting, Anthony
Holborne and even Dowland where octaves even up to the 4th course seem
to be implied, so it seems that use of octaves persisted longer in
England than elsewhere and may even have been common in the 1590s.
I hope others can add to this list and confirm (or otherwise) some of my
references.
Best wishes,
Martin
On 16/01/2015 09:10, Robert Barto wrote:
Hello lute friends,
How many sources do we have in all of Europe from @1500-1600 that tell
exactly how the lute was tuned concerning the octaves on the 4,5 and
6th courses?
Thanks,
Robert
__________________________________________________________________
[1][avast-mail-stamp.png]
Diese E-Mail wurde von Avast Antivirus-Software auf Viren geprueft.
[2]www.avast.com
--
References
1. http://www.avast.com/
2. http://www.avast.com/
To get on or off this list see list information at
http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
http://www.avast.com
