Dear Luca,
You're generally right: leaving aside 'French' large theorbos and
modern fashionable affectations, very few extant large instruments (ie
those actually requiring a double re-entrant arrangement) have other
than the usual configuration of 6 stopped courses (more often double)
with 8 single basses. Nevertheless, there is indeed some iconographic
and other evidence to suggest that seven fingered courses were
occasionally found (eg Mace for the 'English theorbo - though Talbot
only notes six fingered courses in his reports) and other rare examples
include Puget's famous (French) 1687 painting showing one single and
six double fingered courses (with octave strung doubled long basses!).
The Schelle of 1728 has a bridge (original I think) for seven courses
(all double except for the first) and seven single basses - however the
lower peghead has fourteen pegholes and the upper has eight! It's
possible that the relatively shortish fingered string length (85cm) of
this large theorbo allowed for the Weiss/Baron Dm 'German' theorbo
tuning (ie first course at non-rentrant nominal d' at low pitch) - if
so, hardly a typical theorbo.
Other than Campion's suggested arrangement (was it ever actually
employed?), perhaps the closest to the 8 fingered course instrument you
mention as being increasingly used by some these days, is Praetorius'
(1619) Paduanische Theorbo which he shows with eight fingered and eight
basses. None of these are now known and I can see no trace of other
early evidence for them (note the very short open basses on P's
engraving - one feature certainly not copied these days.....)
Finally, as I'm sure you'll know, many early theorbo intabulations show
octave jumps where chromatic semitones are found in the bass (most
common is the fingered F or F# on the fifth course and the same an
octave lower on the eighth course) - so clearly numerous 'Old Ones'
faced the same issue and didn't respond by adding one or two fingered
course in the bass.
regards,
Martyn
PS. Having said all the above let me express a mea culpa - like you
(and, I find, so many others) I also have a seventh fingered course for
the very useful low G# on my large (93cm) single strung theorbo.
However, for my largeish (89cm) double strung fingered course
instrument, the seventh (single) course is on the long peghead. This
seems to work well: I think because a double strung fifth course gives
an added depth and bite to the f (or f#). MH
__________________________________________________________________
From: Luca Manassero <[email protected]>
To: Lute List <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, 19 August 2015, 8:59
Subject: [LUTE] Theorboes and their stringing
Dear List,
I really do not mean to start some sort of "war", but I noticed that
more and more theorboes in YouTube videos and/or pictures (and
concerts...) are built with eight single strings + six basses.
While I certainly understand that an f# can happen (at least to us)
apparently out of nowhere, I do not know of any historically
surviving theorbo with that configuration.
To get even worse, I am not sure to be aware of surviving
instruments
in a 7 single courses + 7 basses setup, are you? (I play a 7 + 7,
anyway)
Talking about the Chitarrone / XVII c. Theorbo (therefore keeping
aside
the French theorbo or the "thA(c)orbe A la Maltot" with 8 courses +
6
basses, as mentioned by FranAS:ois Campion in 1716 / 1730) I know
the
iconographical evidence for 6 single courses or 6 double courses, but
honestly I couldn't find ANY painting showing a seven single courses
theorbo like mine, not to mention an eight single courses instrument.
Any hint, suggestion and/or direction to follow?
Thank you in advance,
Luca
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