In case someone doesn't know it, there's an enjoyable paper by Ross Duffin online:
"Why I hate Valotti (or is it Young?)": http://music.cwru.edu/duffin/ Regards, Stephan Am 19 Nov 2007 um 18:03 hat Stewart McCoy geschrieben: > Dear David, > > The temperament known as Valotti was presumably invented by the eponymous > Valotti. > > If keyboards are tuned to Valotti, one should tune one's theorbo to 6th > comma meantone, which will mean that all the white notes sound well > together, but the black notes won't sound so good on the keyboards. As long > as you avoid dodgy enharmonics on the theorbo, the plucked strings will > sound sweeter than the same notes played on the keyboards. > > Asking players to switch from A=415 to A=411 and back in the same concert is > plain daft. > > If you have to play chords of G# major and C# minor at A=448, is there any > mileage in tuning your theorbo a semitone lower? It would mean those chords > would then be played as A major and D minor. If that creates more problems > than it solves, forget it. > > One of the problems of tuning one's theorbo to a higher pitch than normal, > is that there is an increased strain on the neck of the instrument. My > theorbo is tuned at A=415, and is not designed to go up to A=440. However, > if I need to play at A=440, I get round the problem by turning the 14th > course (G) down to nothing, and the 12th course (B) down to G. That takes > the strain off the neck, and enables the other strings to go up to A=440. > The disadvantages are that I lose a low B, which is no great loss most of > the time, and the low G is rather weedy played on the 12th course. > > Best wishes, > > Stewart McCoy. > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "LGS-Europe" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu> > Sent: Monday, November 19, 2007 11:41 AM > Subject: [LUTE] tuning blues > > > > Bad tuning karma weekend. Saturday Alexander's Feast by Handel. Baroque > > orchestra at 415 Valotti. Who invented Valotti? Not a lute player I > > presume. In the break we had to move to another part of the church, > > unheated, to play a Handel organ concerto. At 411. After the break back to > > 415. Actually we managed to remain stable, but there was lots of > > complaining in the orchestra. Understandably. > > > > Sunday, other church, other orchestra. Buxtehude, Hollanders and > > Charpentier at 448. Baroque string players were struggling, strings didn't > > break, but were not stable. Organ in ET. Cello was way of in his sharps. > > He just couldn't match it. Perhaps because of the high pitch, perhaps of > > the ET. But some of the music was in C# minor (how does one play G#-major > > chords on a theorbo in A?), so there wasn't really another option than ET > > anyway. > > > > Next week Maria Vespers at 440. 1/4 comma MT, presumably. Should be fine > > again. > > > > David > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
