> The new d-minor tuning is said to have cristalized out of all those > transitional experimental tunings, for being the "best, easiest" to play.
Seems to be a modern evaluation. Not my cup of tea. > Has there been any research into the when, how and why of transitional There was a splendid talk about this topic, held by Anthony Bailes before the British Lute Society in April 2006, to be read in Lute News # 85, April 2008, p. 8–22. > and why they eventually resulted in D-minor? It didn't. The D minor tuning's first appearance in print was in two different prints of the same year, i.e. Pierre Ballard's Tablatvre de Lvth (Paris, 1638; used in pieces by Dubut) and in Pierre Gaultier's Oevvres (Rome, 1638). In both collections, the D minor tuning is one among other transitional tunings. > Has anyone backward transposed d-minor into vieux tuning to find out if > Ennemond in fact wrote in it? I did, though not in order to find out if Ennemond wrote it. Out of sheer curiosity, I chose his courante La Belle Homicide in A minor and literally transposed it to the French flat tuning according to Mace who seems to be a good witness to Gaultier's days, although Mace's book was published so much later. It turned out and didn't come as surprise that the French flat version sounds better with even smoother a fingering than with the D minor version. I hasten to add that this is my personal view. Mathias To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
