>"... please excuse my ignorance." I don't know about any excusing, but ignorance is not an issue here except my own. I just came up from the lab, where I did a feasibility study for fingering purposes only. 7 string, steel-string guitar; dropped the 4th & 5th as per "G" tuning (which of course it is, with A=370) and 7th at D where always is anyway. The "envelope" has the same limits, just a "Who moved my cheese?" feeling in regard to the major 3rd interval. Surprisingly congenial fingerings for most of the chords, a few need more barring fingerings- it can be worked out. Scales no problem- just catch the where the 3rd is at the 5th to 6th string crossing. While obviously developed for continuo/ensemble work, I tried a few Dowland solos for giggles. "Earl of Essex" galliard wasn't bad. The big G major fantasia works very well. Then problems with Lachrymae and some other minor key pieces, but most things might be workable. Surprising thing is how well it sounded on an instrument with fixed metal frets- seemed to be a subtle improvement in the chord tunings, richer thirds- and more of them on open strings. Equal temp. on the steel string guitar never did sound quite right anyway, and some of the sound just now was a relief.
Looking forward to the updates and examples. Dan >I have worked on it on and off for about a year, this is the short version. >A more complete version will follow with musical examples that you >can listen to with the lute alone, and then the lute, organ and viol >playing together. -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
