Dear Stuart, Long necks make a lot of sense. Fingering chords and polyphony w/ the left hand can get difficult up the neck --don't you just hate 'i's on the 6th course? Single lines are much easier and you still have that low range if you need it. Also, w/ a longer string length you get a larger space between the 12th and 11th fret, for example, than those little short necked turtles.
I've often heard that those glued-on high frets are a modern invention. Is that still the prevailing theory? I wonder if early lutes offered more than 9 or 10 frets on the neck? I've often seen vihuelas w/ 10 tied frets and my ren guitar has 11. Maybe that was the waisted instruments' lure.... Sean On Mar 12, 2006, at 2:03 PM, Stuart Walsh wrote: > Sean Smith wrote: > >> I think some pieces in Spinacino are modified 5c reductions since they >> are high on the neck >> > > I've just got hold of Woodfield's book, 'The Early History of the > Viol' (1984). Woodfield says that, by the mid-1480s the vihuela...'with > its long neck' ...was firmly established. He gives several > illustrations > of long-necked instruments. I've mislaid my copy of 'Lute News' where > Jon Banks outlines his case that some music in the Segovia MS and > elsewhere, is for lute trio but I'm sure he suggested that the music > was > for lute - OR - for similar plucked instruments. > > A plucked instrument with a long neck offers the possibility (musical > and/or purely theatrical) of playing in different ranges of it. Maybe > Spinacino was emulating the practice of viola/vihuela players? > >> and only sneak in the 6th course rarely for a Bb >> on the 6th course (eg, Vostre a maistres, O venus bant, Amours amours >> and others). Never in those pieces is it an open 6th course which >> could >> have moved the tessitura of the song down a 4th making them SO much >> easier. These are very decorated versions of 3-voice chansons so >> perhaps w/ less decoration 4-voice songs were also possible. >> >> I suspect that what we don't know about this era and the lute would >> fill a very educational book. >> >> all the best, >> Sean Smith >> >> >> >> >> > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
