At 2:31 PM -0600 11/20/04, Edward Martin wrote: >These are good points, and good inquiries, Ed. The entire topic of >tension of baroque lute stringing is fascinating, and we really do >not have all the answers at this point & time.
What also interests me are the implications for Renaissance lutes. If Baroque lutes were lower tension, conversely Ren lutes were higher. Could it be that thumb under and playing nearer the rose are related consequentially to the higher tension of Ren lutes and that as courses were added and tension lowered the change to thumb out occurred? And how did string making technology contribute to these changes? >I have had experience with this topic. In the 90's, I bought a new >lute by Dan Larson; .... I pondered at the idea of converting this >7 course 63 cm. Frei into a 67.5 cm. 11 course French / German >baroque lute. In consulting Dan Larson, he thought it was a great >idea, and as there is precedence for doing this, he did it. Wow, historical re-enactment! >The results are magnificent. I do not know what he did to change >the braces, but it worked. Did he set the new neck and bridge symmetrically? I find it very interesting looking at the pictures in the journal how they had no qualms about taking a 150 year old masterpiece and making it lopsided. I'm not casting aspersions on them for doing that, they were living in a different time. Part of me, of course, is screaming 'how could you do that?!' They were very practical, the aesthetics seemed to take a back seat to the end result: beauty of sound for their kind of lute. >the surviving baroque lutes do not have largely bored holes to >accomodate thick strings. This perhaps has less to do with >"densifying" strings than it has to do with using conventional >strings using a smaller diameter, with resulting lower tension! Very, very interesting point. >I have not seen Toyohiko do this, but judging from the sound of this >Weichenbreger CD, the results are very, very clear and beautiful. > >I have not personally tried this approach, as : >1. It would cost a lot of money to buy an entire new set of strings >in low tension, and >2. I have avoided the time it would take to develop a new technique. How about moving all the fretted strings over one position and the basses 2 or three over? Then you'd only need a couple of new strings. >This topic has the potential to revolutionize the way we approach >baroque lute, just as much as "thumb under" did for the renaissance >lute back in the 70's. Viva la revolution. -- Ed Durbrow Saitama, Japan http://www9.plala.or.jp/edurbrow/ To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
