When I was a total newbie, I read the same item on Martin Shepherd's web site where he says to not even bother to play 6 course music on a 10 course lute. My first "real" lute was a 10 course loaner and I approached the early 6 course repertoire with trepidation. Of course, it is all playable, with the following caveats, in order of importance from most to least (to me that is):
1) 10 course lutes often have a longer string length making some of the LH stretches found in Milano and Capirola almost impossible for me 2) String spacing is usually tighter on a 10 course, making the beloved Eb major chord (with the first finger holding down first fret on courses 2 and 3 below an open 1st course) impossible for me without cheating 3) It's a lot of extra tuning of unused bass courses that will sound bad in sympathy if not tuned 4) There are some cool effects, especially when accompanying a singer, with the 6 course octave tuning I did eventually buy my own 10 course to complement my main 8 course lute, because I enjoy Vallet's music so much and his sequential bass runs just don't do it for me putting the notes up an octave. On Sunday, April 03, 2005, at 11:23AM, Vance Wood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >I think sometimes we get too caught up in the historical accuracy of what it >is we do. That does not mean that we should abandon all historic accuracy >but try instead,to put some sort of logical sanity to it. If one could put >themselves into the shoes of a period player who may not be professional but >like many players in England, and ourselves for that matter, were skilled >amateurs. > > Even then lutes were expensive items not to mention the cost and hassle of >strings for each Lute if more than one were possessed. It seems >unreasonable to me to assume that if one of these individuals desiring >to play one of Milano's pieces on an eight course Lute would object to the >practice,understanding that a good deal of Milano's music was found in >sources from Dowland's time, I have found several in the Cambridge >Manuscript Dd 2.11. Having said that, they may even have been tempted to >utilize the extra courses to fill in some of the base notes that much of >Milano's music seems to imply. > >I think that we forget it is about the music and the desire to play it and >if we do not have the instrument it was written for we play it on the >instrument we have. It's like the old "Pop Song" if you're not with the one >you love, love the one you're with. > >riginal Message ----- >From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: "Tim Beasley" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu> >Sent: Sunday, April 03, 2005 10:20 AM >Subject: Re: Newbie Question #2 > To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
