I have been too scared to retune for the de Visee suite, and have never heard it performed. I wonder if retuning was involved or re-stringing? French lute players (much earlier than de Visee) searched for different resonances, and that lead to unmeasured preludes as they explored what was unique about each tuning. Modern acoustic guitar players also have many different tunings - different resonance and different campanellas, different keys also. See [1]http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/WarrenAllen/tunings/tunings .htm
It seems that most plucked instrument players, and bowed (come to think of it), get bored (possibly - boredom is a very creative force) with standard tuning. We often discuss baroque guitar matters as if the player only had one instrument. Professionals and those who could afford it would have had quite a few instruments, some with different bourdon settings, and possibly some with different tunings. Monica states that 'they completely alter the sound quality of the instrument' - well, that was the whole point, I imagine. Rob 2008/8/17 Monica Hall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Yes. Recently Gerard Rebours sent me an article which he has written which mentions this. He makes an interesting point which is that if you follow the instructions literally i.e. starting with the 3rd course, the 1st course will have to be tuned up a minor 3rd to G. He finds himself that this isn't very practical. The instructions shouldn't be taken too literally. He suggests tuning the 3rd course up a semitone or a tone to keep the 1st course at a reasonable pitch. The thing I have noticed about using these scordaturae (if that is th correct plural) is that they completely alter the sound quality of the instrument. Also it takes a while for the instrument to settle in the new tuning although that may be my ears or my guitar. And you can't play anything else for the time being. Constantly re-tuning is tiresome to say the least. I do wonder why they used them. Santiago de Murcia has re-arranged the pieces by Campion he has included in Passacalles y obras for the standard tuning. The other thing which is curious is that I don't know of any example where the 5th course is tuned down to G to increase the overall compass of the instrument which would be the logical thing to do especially when accompanying a bass line. Of course if you do this it makes the fingering of the standard chords more complex. And would be pointless with re-entrant tunings. Monica ----- Original Message ----- From: [3]Rob MacKillop To: [4]Monica Hall Cc: [5]Stuart Walsh ; [6]Vihuelalist Sent: Saturday, August 16, 2008 9:41 PM Subject: Re: [VIHUELA] Re: alternative tunings for Baroque guitar And the suite by de Visee in his first guitar book, page 50. Rob MacKillop -- References 1. http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/WarrenAllen/tunings/tunings.htm 2. mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 3. mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 4. mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 5. mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 6. mailto:[email protected] To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
