A subject close to my heart! Precisely as Burris explains - and as my own readings of Baron, Mattheson, and Weiss would confirm - the d-minor theorbo did not have a re-entrant top f'. I am not aware of any source that backs this up, although of course absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
At any rate, I have tried Stephen Stubb's suggestion (he made it to me years ago) and it does work very nicely (more of an Italian theorbo effect, predictably), but of course it does rather change the logic of the fingerboard: after all, the d-minor tuning is so logical and Cartesian, so turning the tuning into a re-entrant one doesn't in my mind stand to reason on stylistic grounds - and of course one cannot simply play as though it were a baroque lute with the f up an octave at any rate. Other advantages of losing the high f string: - strumming is so much easier without the top f since it is not necessary to make the big stretches to double the thirds on this course - c minor, for example, is an ouch with this tuning. And all this annoying amount of physical effort is, remember, just to double the same third you are already playing on the other (unison) f string below... - on proper-sized theorboes (85cm and up) it is vastly more ergonomic to only have to stretch across 5 courses and not 6....no mean thing. Finally, this tuning (d' - a - f - d - A) is a legitimate baroque guitar tuning employed by both Granata (1659) and by Botazzari (1663), so you don't necessarily need to change everything around if you have to double on baroque guitar for continuo gigs....(although, for the record, "regular" b-guitar tuning is more HIP; still, the d-minor guitar tuning is, to my mind, a viable historical option.) My thoughts! Benjamin On 4 July 2010 14:34, Roman Turovsky <r.turov...@verizon.net> wrote: > Tim Burris wrote a nice dissertation on the subject, with a CD on a Dm > theorbo as part of it. > I'm sure he'd have a betterly informed opinion apropos. > RT > > > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Christopher Wilke" > <chriswi...@yahoo.com> > To: "lutelist Net" <l...@cs.dartmouth.edu>; "Baroque Lute List (E-mail)" > <baroque-lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>; "David van Ooijen" > <davidvanooi...@gmail.com> > Sent: Sunday, July 04, 2010 7:35 AM > Subject: [BAROQUE-LUTE] Re: d-minor theorbo specs > > >> David, >> >> I had a conversation with Stephen Stubbs the other night (us having a >> great deal in common by virtue of our both having owned theorbos with >> fingerboard lengths close to 100cm, but a great deal less in common by >> virtue of our respective abilities on said theorbos) and the subject of the >> d minor theorbo came up. Stephen claims that there is a wide spread >> misconception about the tuning. He says that it is not a baroque lute >> without the first course, but rather a d-minor lute with the first string >> down the octave (reentrant). >> >> The first six courses would therefore be: >> f - d' - a - f - d - A >> >> I don't know about Stephen's historical evidence is for this, but I admit >> that it does conform to Baron's statement that the German lutenists did this >> so that they could use the exact same chord shapes they knew from their >> regular lutes. At the very least, it would no doubt make life a little >> easier for the modern lutenist who already does continuo on a d-minor lute. >> >> >> Chris >> >> >> Christopher Wilke >> Lutenist, Guitarist and Composer >> www.christopherwilke.com >> >> >> --- On Sun, 7/4/10, David van Ooijen <davidvanooi...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >>> From: David van Ooijen <davidvanooi...@gmail.com> >>> Subject: [BAROQUE-LUTE] d-minor theorbo specs >>> To: "lutelist Net" <l...@cs.dartmouth.edu>, "Baroque Lute List (E-mail)" >>> <baroque-lute@cs.dartmouth.edu> >>> Date: Sunday, July 4, 2010, 3:51 AM >>> The definition of a lute player is an >>> instrumentalist who's always one >>> instrument short. For me, the current missing instrument is >>> a d-minor >>> theorbo. >>> What should be the specs? I know there a few of you playing >>> such >>> beasts (Benjamin?). >>> I'm looking for enough chromatics in the bass to play Bach >>> continuo >>> without too many compromises, St John Passion obligato part >>> as >>> written. Large enough for gut basses on the fretboard, >>> small enough >>> for highest course d'. >>> >>> First proposition >>> on the fingerboard: d' - a - f - d - A - G - F >>> diapassons: E - Eb - D - C - B - A - G >>> >>> Single or double strings? >>> Model? >>> Historical examples? >>> Anyone with experience? >>> >>> David - where to find the money ... >>> >>> >>> -- >>> ******************************* >>> David van Ooijen >>> davidvanooi...@gmail.com >>> www.davidvanooijen.nl >>> ******************************* >>> >>> >>> >>> To get on or off this list see list information at >>> http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html >>> >> >> >> >> >> >> > > > -- Dr Benjamin A. Narvey Institute of Musical Research School of Advanced Study University of London t +33 (0) 1 44 27 03 44 p/m +33 (0) 6 71 79 98 98 Site web/Website: www.luthiste.com
