Unfortunately the source - the Gallot ms. - gives no information about the
stringing or tuning or for that matter the pitch. Therein lies the problem. The
method of stringing suggested in the article eliminates all the quirks in the
music, in particular the skip of a 7th in the bass line which
Why are the first five open (unstopped) basses thought to be at the
lower octave? - is the source absolutely clear and wholly unambiguous
about this (I've not yet seen the EM article myself)?
Leaving aside the length of the long basses required to extend the
range down to contrabass
Well - the pieces in the Gallot Ms. - the only known source of music for the
instrument - are all solo pieces and are in C major or C minor. Some are found
in other arrangements in other sources - one of them is in Scottish Lute Ms.
“Pamure 5” and is on your CD.
The two lowest course seem to
Sorry if it is not clear. It is a twelve course instrument. There are five
courses on the fingerboard and seven unstopped basses.
>From 1st course down the tuning is
e' c' g c B (1-5 on the fingerboard); unstopped courses are F E D C B,(B below
the bass stave) a g; 6-12 unstopped.
There is a
To clarify - the fifth unstopped course is an octave lower than the fifth
course on the fingerboard. In Helmholtz notation the low b is shown as B, =
i.e. upper case B with a comma after it - this isn't very clear in my message.
It is not entirely unusual to have the two lowest courses a tone
Monica, this tuning seems very odd? Fifth course a semitone lower than fourth
course? Same note B on two courses (fifth course on fingerboard and fifth
unstopped course)?
On 12 June 2019, at 12:08, Monica Hall wrote:
The latest issue of Early Music has a short article on the guitarre
The latest issue of Early Music has a short article on the guitarre
theorbee suggesting an interesting tuning/stringing method different
from the one suggested by Donald Gill and myself - to witt -
on the fingerboard - e' c' g c B
1st - 5th unstopped courses - F E D C B,
