> > > Most intriguing is one of Bermudo's guitar tunings: c, e, g, c', e', > > g'; he writes, "This is a good tuning for a _guitarra grande_ strung > > with 6 courses, like a Vihuela, or for a _discante_." (translated > > from Bermudo, f. ciiiv). This tuning is, of course, the same as the > > tuning of the wire-strung English guitar, popular in England more > > than 200 years later than Bermudo. I wonder if there is any > > connection between the two, and if so, how the Portuguese instrument > > fits in? > > Good question! Hovering at the back of my mind for some time is the > question - is the instrument Bermudo refers to as "guitarra" really a > guitar? Could it actually be a mandola/mandora? Or a vandola which = > pops up > again in the 18th century? Bermudo also includes chapters on the > bandurria - a lute type instrument which also pop up again in the 18th > century. > Stewart,
Are you sure about this c,e,g,c,e,g tuning in Bermudo? I certainly haven't read the original but, years ago, when I was researching into the guittar, I never found that tuning (nor transposed) before the 18th century. I remember finding references (e.g. in Bermudo) to tunings close to it, but never that tuning itself. The usual story of the Portuguese guitarra is that it was an adaptation of the English guitar (itself an adaptation of an earlier German instrument). ----------------------------------------- Email provided by http://www.ntlhome.com/ To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
