Thanks everyone for the responses so far! The info on wind instruments and the prevalence of +/- 392Hz etc. is clear....but I am just not convinced yet... For most string instruments, the usual method was to tune the highest note as high as comfortable, and go from there. Especially when used for solo work of course. We hear many stories about how wonderful the old strings must have been, etc. so I can only suppose that their gut trebles didn't break as easily (perhaps) as ours do. I can now use gut f' at 415Hz and 68cm for about 2 weeks before it breaks.
If their strings were so much better, than likely this would be a longer period.....Or, it could mean that they were using a higher pitch to begin with, since their strings were so much better? I think everyone using full gut would agree that the basses just need the extra pitch raising to 400 or 415 to sound really optimal. One must always trade off the sound of the chanterelle and the bass notes in my personal opnion.. Sure, my lute sounds great at 392 in full gut; but in trying to find out/experiment/fantasize about what was typical back then, I really wonder if the pitch wasn't higher than we imagine...despite all the wonderful recordings in low pitch 392. Are we merely accepting something because it has been done that way so often? From: howard posner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2008 17:03:08 -0800 To: baroque Lutelist <baroque-lute@cs.dartmouth.edu> Subject: [BAROQUE-LUTE] Re: Pitch for French music On Feb 13, 2008, at 3:46 PM, Edward Martin wrote: > Generally, the lute in mid to later 17th century France was the d > minor > tuning. The top string was usually at "f". For a length of 68 cm, > generally, a gut treble can go to f at a=415. If you exceed 68 cm, > the > standard for "a" probably dropped a bit, as with my many years of > experience, the treble will break prematurely. > > For example, if your lute is 72 cm mensur, the standard should be a > bit > lower, .e. a = 392. No lie. 392 seems to have been the standard pitch. at least in Paris, judging from the woodwind instruments that came from there in the later 17th century. You might want to give it a try even on a 68 cm lute and experiment with the lower tension. In spite of what you may have heard recently in this part of cyberspace a propos of theorbos, French musicians generally and lutenists in particular probably were less concerned with loudness than their Italian counterparts (contemporary accounts indicate they didn't play nearly as loudly), so in stringing there are aesthetic considerations at work other than the breaking point of the high string. -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html --
