Dear Stephen, It is always hard to get a dollar out of 99 cents. If you have fewer courses than the instrument for which the piece was written you can deal with it in a variety of ways. My approach has been either to play the bass note an octave higher, select a different inversion for the chord, or modify the piece in ways that are hard to describe without referring to a specific piece. Sometimes you encounter uncomfortable left-hand positions that can get tough when trying to make your new version as complete as possible. You have to make choices. You will be able to come up with a workable version that will be more difficult to play on 6 courses than it was to play on the 7- or 8-course instrument for which it was written (unless the 7th and 8th courses were not used, in which case it would be difficult to argue that the piece is for 7- or 8-course instrument.)
An extreme example of this is my arrangement of Dowland's "Come Again" for 4c mandolin. Yes you can do it, but it requires excellent technique. It is never as much fun to play a piece written for X courses using an instrument that has X-A courses as it would be for the original instrument. The challenge increases as you increase the variable, 'A.' It is like bringing a knife to a gunfight :) (That was a joke just in cases anyone reading this who lacks a sense of humor did not notice it.) I can't be sure how lutenists of past centuries handled the problem but their options were pretty much the same as ours are today. If you could cite a specific example of a piece maybe it would be easier to decide what to do. Did you have in mind anything in particular? Good luck with your arrangements and let us know how they turn out. Best regards, Marion -----Original Message----- From: Stephen Fryer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Apr 2, 2005 1:46 PM To: Lute List <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu> Subject: 7-course -> 6-course Already in the early 16th century there were some pieces being written for 7-course lute. Since at that time most lutes were 6-course this could have been a problem. Is there any eveidence of how players dealt with playing 7-course (or 8-course) music on a lute with only 6 courses? -- Stephen Fryer Lund Computer Services ************************************************** The more answers I find, the more questions I have ************************************************** To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
