Dear Monica, There are many schemes for designating the various octaves of musical pitch. See _New_HDM_, page 640, bottom of the first column. CC indicates the C with two ledger lines below the bass clef, C the C in the bass clef and c as middle C, octave above that c', then c" etc. It is a system of indicating pitch used by English organ builders and dates back to 1519. (See _New_Grove_, "pitch nomenclature," Example 1/2.) Sounds like a system that the Galpin Society would use in their publications. Lute News hasn't reached me yet, so you've piqued my curiosity. Arthur. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Monica Hall" <[1][email protected]> To: "Vihuelalist" <[2][email protected]> Sent: Friday, February 18, 2011 6:52 AM Subject: [VIHUELA] Arch-cittern > Those of you who belong to the Lute Society will have received the > latest number of Lute News. (Apologies to those of you who aren't > members). This has a reproduction of the portrait of the actress > Dorothy Jordan playing an arch-cittern - which looks a bit > like an English guitar with additional diapasons. There is a > commentary by Peter Holman. > > > > There are one or two things which I think experts on these instruments > might be able to clarify for me. > > > > The first of these is where he mentions the possibility that the colour > coded strings are harp strings and then says "this would mean that > Jordan tuned them in a diatonic sequence rising from CC. > > > > According to both the Oxford Concise and Harvard Dictionaries there is > no such thing as CC. C alone would indicate that the lowest diapason > was tuned to the note C below the bass clef - i.e. with 2 leger > lines. C1 is an octave below that which seems a bit unlikely. > > > > So what is the lowest note? Is "CC" a misprint for "C". > > > > The other question is about the music on p.7. I'm assuming that both > parts are supposed to be played on a single instrument. If so the > notes on the lower stave will occasionally overlap with those on the > upper stave. Are we supposed to read the lower stave an octave lower? > > > > Hope I have made myself clear. > > > > Monica > > -- > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > [3]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html --
References 1. mailto:[email protected] 2. mailto:[email protected] 3. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
