Indeed Martin - and what other reason for the invention of the 13
course German theorboed lute than that 18th C players desired to retain
the sound of plain gut but also wished for rather more
sustain/power possible with the longer (and thinner) basses.
Martyn
--- On Sat, 10/1/09, Martin Shepherd <mar...@luteshop.co.uk> wrote:
From: Martin Shepherd <mar...@luteshop.co.uk>
Subject: [BAROQUE-LUTE] Thirteen-course conundrum
To: "baroque lutenet" <baroque-lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Date: Saturday, 10 January, 2009, 2:58 PM
Dear All,
Just a note on the strings issue: it is a mistake to assume that just because
wound strings were available, lutenists used them. Some kind of wound string
seems to have been available in the 1660s, yet they are not mentioned by Mace
(1676) or Burwell (c.1670). They are also not seen in lute iconography - Mimmo
has the details - though they are sometimes seen in paintings of bowed
instruments. I don't think Mouton's strings (c.1690?) are wound,
either. Even in the18th C, one has to ask why bother with the
"swan-neck" design if you have wound strings?
I think the only piece of physical evidence that a wound string of any sort was
ever used on any kind of lute is the string fragment on the Mest lute, and even
then there are the usual doubts about exactly how old that fragment is, what it
was used for, etc.
If it really is the case that wound strings were used on bowed instruments but
not lutes, why?
One possibility is that lute players were quite happy with the strings they had
and saw no reason to change. Bowed strings need more tension, so would have
needed very thick all-gut strings - the availability of a thin wound string
would then have been welcome.
Another aspect (brought to my attention by Mimmo) is the wire used for the
winding. The winding needed (at least for a close-wound string) for the 6th
course of a Dm lute is very thin, far thinner than was possible using the
wiremaking techniques they had. If you couldn't have a wound 6th, there
would have been a big problem of a dramatic change from the last all-gut string
to the first of the wound strings.
Best wishes,
Martin
To get on or off this list see list information at
http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
--
