Dear Benjamin and Markus Le 14 janv. 09 à 10:49, Markus Lutz a écrit :
> Miguel has told me something about different barring of French > eleven course lutes and later baroque lutes. So that might also be > a difference of sound. Maybe others can say something on that. > Unfortunately I also haven't been able to test that ... > > Best regards, > Markus There have been discussions on the issue of barring (fan versus J- barring) on this list, but I don't think there is any automatic relation between swan-necks and fan-barring, and rider lutes with J- barring. It might be difficult to be sure, as many such lutes may have been retabled and rebarred at some time. I think there may be several theories about the reasons fro the development of fan-barring. Hypothesis 1, mechanic: Stephen Gottlieb told me that fan-barring developed simply to counteract the pulling force that additional number of strings apply to the sound-board through the bridge. Hypothesis 2, musical, increased bass: both increasing the bass courses and adopting fan barring were part of the same research into the bass register (plumbing the depths) in late German Baroque music. Removing the J-bar releases more bass resonance, possibly at the expense of some clarity. The fan barring allows the table to move almost as a piston, which could reinforce the fundamental, while the J-bar would tend to break-up the fundamental into its components waves giving richer harmonics. Wolfgang Emmerich said the following : "Generally the j-bars on Renaissance lutes were used to break the bass into its treble-parts to keep the leading role especially of the chantarelle - to have an optimal balance between treble and bass. With fan-barring the bass gets stronger and accordingly treble loses in relation towards a stronger bass. But in baroque music it must have been more important to" revel " in chords." van Edwards : "Internally, the barring structure behind the bridge was altered by these makers. Starting with an increase in the number of little treble-side fan bars, finally the characteristic J bar on the bass side of the renaissance lutes was removed and various kinds of fan-barring were introduced right across this area of the soundboard. These seem to have the effect of increasing the bass response. The main transverse bars were also made slightly smaller and more even in height, maybe with the same intention." Don't lest us forget that the thickness of the soundboard is distributed differently with both barring types: generally, I believe, with fan-barring, the soundboard is thicker towards the bridge and to the middle; while with J- barring, the soundboard is thicker on the edges and thinner to the middle. I imagine, if this is so, it could also play a role in determining the way the resonances are amplified by the movement of the soundboard. It is possible that if it is thicker to the middle, some of the more complex wave patterns might be damped, while if it is thinner in the middle, perhaps a more complex pattern can develop. Hypothesis 2 would suggest that it would be likely to find swan- necked lutes with fan barring, as both tend to reinforce the bass register. Hypothesis 1 might suggest that fan-barring would be likely on any lute with a large number of courses, be they swannecked or rider, depending on the tension at which the strings were kept. Hypothesis 3 musical, increased sustain : Bailes tells us in lute news No 81 that old lutes with mature wood (so beloved by French Baroque and even later German Baroque lutenists) give much more sustain than new lutes can hope to do (unless possibly they have their tables loaded with salts, Mimmo Peruffo). Around 1730, there could have been a penury of such lutes, if so, perhaps lute-makers attempted to discover a new way of obtaining this sustain by altering the barring. It seems that fan-barring does give greater sustain, but in some cases at the expense of clarity. Michael Bocchicchio said in relation to the question concerning the Rauwolf fan-barring " Thinning the edges of a sound board and leaving the center thicker ( approx. 1.8 mm at center tapering to 1.3 at edges) does cause the sound board to act as or similar to a speaker cone. It stands to reason that fan bracing would lend itself to this type of thicknessing. With this type of thicknessing and fan bracing, the sound board resonates more like a singe plate causing a more homogeneous sustained sound with fewer partials. ---Very pleasing to the modern ear." (Mimmo Peruffo told me that he had made two 13c Baroque lutes that were identical except that one had fan barring, and the other J- barring. In the case of the fan-barring he found the basses were too free and unbalanced and out of control.) However, this does not always the case, Jakob Lindberg says that his Rauwolf has excellent sustain and clarity (but it is also an ancient lute), and Wolfgang Emmerich says that Railich types lutes give excellent clarity with fan-barring. It could be that a lute with fan- barring should not be too deep, but I leave that to others to comment. This was what MB said on this topic: "Although I wasn't able to attend the Lundberg lectures (I do posses the notes, though), I was fortunate enough to correspond with Mr. Lundberg often in his last few years. Bracing was one of our subjects of conversation. The way I understood his position was that, operating with a lack of research and little historical data, there were attempts at fan bracing Renaissance lutes made in the late 60's early 70's. These, he said, were a failure. I didn't get the impression that he condemned the entire concept. Here is just a theory. Taking a lute such as C34, with a deep body or large air cavity for its size and with a narrower vibrating plate, and enhancing or loosening up the bass side by removing the J bar (adding fan bracing) would result in a "boomy" unchecked bass response that would sound hollow and "muddy". In my opinion, this result would be a complete failure. Having said that, put the aforementioned setup on Dieffopruchar with a large vibrating plate (allowing the frequencies to ring out) and shallower body, and I would expect a very different result. These will be time consuming but fun experiments. Due to my enthusiasm about this topic, I may have overstated its potential affect on modern lute sound." MP made a test himself on a Gerle lute structure, and found that with the Gerle shape, fan-barring was a failure. Benjamin Narvey should be in a very good position to discuss this issue as I believe his 13 course Widham has undergone this J-bar to fan-bar alteration. However, it is well known that auditory memory is rather short term. I myself have heard the two versions of this lute, and I would not dare to try to describe the difference. For one thing, I had not heard the two versions in the same listening room, and I am sure the room could have almost as much effect as the barring. Regards Anthony -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
