Depending on what kind of string you choose for the deep basses, unwanted sympathetic resonance may or may not be so much a problem. Overwound strings might tend to vibrate more insistently than loaded gut. (I notice it sometimes on my baroque lute on which I'm using wound basses, but not on my 10 course, which has gut bass strings.)
On the other hand the wound strings can be substantially cheaper. In any case it is easier to play 6 course music on a 10 course instrument than to play 10 course music on a smaller instrument, though an 8 course instrument is, as they say, a good workable compromise. In the end I think the quality of the instrument will matter more than the number of strings. -Carl Donsbach --On Thursday, October 20, 2005 10:29 AM -0400 Miles Dempster <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > For playing 6c music on a 10c lute, how about putting a small damper > under the 7-10th courses? This would remove the " unwanted" sympathetic > resonance. > > Any thoughts about this as a solution? > > > Miles Dempster > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Charles Browne" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "Alexandre Bonatto" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu> > Sent: Wednesday, October 19, 2005 18:51 > Subject: [LUTE] Re: Playing renaissance (7, 8 courses) repertoire in a > 10c lute > > >> Dear alexandre, >> the 10c lute is a beautiful instrument and the later repertoire for 9/10 >> courses is well worth exploring. There are a number of arrangements of >> both >> french and german baroque music for 10c lute and these often sit as well >> on the >> 10c renaissance-tuned lute as on the d minor tuned baroque lutes. The 13c >> baroque instrument didnt appear until the early 18c. There are some >> luthiers >> who make a 10c lute that can be easily adapted to a 11 c french baroque >> lute >> and this might be worth exploring. The 'downside' of a 10c lute is that, >> unless >> the string length is short it will be tuned with the top course at f# or >> f (a==440) and this will make it difficult to play in ensemble with >> other 'g' >> lutes. It can be done -either by re-arranging the music or by using a >> capo. The >> width of the finger-board will be wider and this can be more problematic >> if you >> have small hands. 6c music may not sound so 'clean' as there will be some >> element of sympathetic vibration from the diapasons. It is worth looking >> around >> before you buy and if possible borrow a 10c lute, as well as an 8c, and >> see how >> it suits. >> Best of luck! >> Charles To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
