The music Harwood was probably thinking of was the solos in Dd.2.11.
Aside from the difficulties for the left hand, another factor to
consider is how it sounds. My experience is that some music works on the
D bandors we have now if you don't play too fast and it they have most
of the faster notes of the higher pitched strings. Fast running notes
sound a bit off to me at the lower pitches. There are a couple of
things that support the idea of smaller bandoras - in Harwood's booklet
published by the English Lute Society he talks about the probability
that what we call the Rose orpharion, was a bandora since there is
lettering around the sides saying it is. That instrument if it were
tuned like an orpharion would probably be turned to G. The second idea
that supports a "tenor" bandora is the one about the Morley/Holmes
consort lessons be designed for a higher pitch, so that the tenor part
does not end up need a recorder or flute that is so big as to be
unrealistic, or be played an octave higher than the notation.
Nancy
What is the current thinking on Ian Harwood's closing remarks on the
bandora in New Grove?
"...the technique required in the solo music is considerable,
involving some extreme stretches for the left hand. It seems likely
that such music would have been played on the smaller, high-pitched
instruments, as much of it is virtually unplayable on bandoras of the
sizes described and measured by Praetorius and Talbot."
Harwood argues for the existence of a smaller bandora with a top course
at D rather than A.
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