dear stewart - to complicate matters further, i've seen the charango referred to as "the lute of the andes."
i had a slightly larger, pear-shaped charango made for me recently and with this "g-bead" tuning it sounds like something halfway between a lute and a mandolin. delightful. everything is not everything...but it's hard to be precise about the distinctions sometimes. thanks for your reply - bill On Venerd́, giu 11, 2004, at 12:51 Europe/Rome, Stewart McCoy wrote: > Dear Bill, > > You ask an interesting question. Does turning the 3rd string of a > guitar from g to f# turn the guitar into a lute? I would say no, > because of the shape of the instrument. Although changing the tuning > may give a guitarist access to lute music, it doesn't turn his > instrument into a lute. > > Similarly, if you tuned the 3rd course of your renaissance lute up a > semitone, you may try having a crack at a Villa Lobos Prelude, but > it wouldn't turn your lute into a guitar. > > So changing the tuning won't of itself change the instrument. Yet > what if I buy a large archlute in g', and retune it a tone higher, > but with the first course or two down an octave? Does my archlute > become a theorbo? > > If I have a common or garden bass viol, and play consort music, is > it a consort bass? If, on the other hand, I happen to use it to play > a viol solo (reading from tablature), does it become a lyra viol? > There is some evidence to suggest that a so-called consort bass was > larger than a lyra viol, but applying the term "lyra viol" to an > instrument is generally determined more by its function (playing > chordal music written in tablature), than a specific size. > > I have often been surprised at how important the word for something > is. The word may even become more important than the thing it > represents. From time to time I play my theorbo in a concert. > Sometimes people ask me what the instrument is called. When I say, > "It's a theorbo", they walk away. The word is all they need to know. > It is almost as if by knowing the word, they fully understand > whatever is represented by that word. > > Best wishes, > > Stewart McCoy. > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "bill" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "lute society" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Thursday, June 10, 2004 11:15 PM > Subject: a rose by any other name > > >> i've just been given a tuning for my charango that makes it > possible to >> play music written for the mandola (g-b-e-a-d.) it's also a banjo >> tuning, i note. >> >> it's wonderful. >> >> at what point, however, does my charango stop being that and > become a >> mandola or a banjo? if i were to use a renaissance tuning on my > oud, >> would that make it a fretless, renaissance lute? >> >> does an instrument get its name from the sum of its parts or is it >> tuning or contours and shape that makes it what it is? >> >> - bill >> >> > > >
