Dear David,
The question was: what size of lute would a French lutenist around
1670 have generally expected? The question was not, is it possible to
play the music on a significantly larger lute? (clearly, as I wrote in
Lute News 94 - it is); or even, what size of lute would one want
to use now if one wished for a 'darker' (lower pitched) sound and were
not interested in the size the Old Ones generally expected?
My extended letter in Lute News contains a summary of the sources of
information which I mentioned below. The size range, 68 +/- 2 cm,
emerges from this historical evidence.
Of course, the 11 course continued to be played well into the 18th
century, but not so much in France, and larger instruments certainly
seem to have been widely used in this period. But not exclusively: eg
Von Radolt's instructions for various sizes of 11 course lutes lute
ranging from approx 54cm string length (his very small lute) through a
middle lute around 61 cm to his proper common lute at 72cm (See FOMRHI
Comm 737).
MH
--- On Tue, 31/5/11, David R <d_lu...@comcast.net> wrote:
From: David R <d_lu...@comcast.net>
Subject: [BAROQUE-LUTE] Re: Top luthiers of 11-courser?
To: "Martyn Hodgson" <hodgsonmar...@yahoo.co.uk>
Cc: baroque-lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
Date: Tuesday, 31 May, 2011, 16:51
On May 31, 2011, at 10:08 AM, Martyn Hodgson wrote:
> Also see my correspondance with Bailes in recent issues of Lute
News on
> the sizes of French lutes c.1670: the evidence (iconography, early
> measurements - especially the Talbot MS, extant instruments)
> indicates that a string length around 68cm (say +/- 2cm) was what
these
> particular Old Ones expected. Although Bailes used a 1722 Wenger
> instrument (possibly originally a gallichon - the instruments for
which
> Wenger was best known) recently converted to an 11 course lute
with a
> string length around 76cm on a CD of French lute music from around
> 1670, he conceded that 'As Martyn Hodgson quite rightly points
out in
> his letter in the last issue of Lute News (No 94), a lute the size
of
> the Wenger should not find acceptance as being ideal for the
> performance of 17th century French lute music'.
The iconography shows some pretty big lutes!
Is there really no evidence at all that the French played lutes of
sizes other than +/- 68 cm? And if so, why that particular size? We
know they played solo and ensemble music on theorbos of all sizes and
stringings. Wouldn't they have been going for the darker, more
sustained sound of a larger lute?
DavidR
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