David Rastall wrote: > If the solo theorbo, being by definition an instrument of shorter > playing length, is known to have been tuned with only the first > course in re-entrant tuning, presumably there was some amount of solo > repertoire for that tuning.
I believe the notion of "solo theorbo" comes from French sources (or James Talbot, writing in the 17th century about French theorbos), and refers specifically to a "theorbe pour les pieces" which was tuned just like any other French theorbo (double re-entrant), but a fourth higher. The single-re-entrant theorbo was pretty much an English instrument (leaving aside Andrea Damiani's theory, recently voiced here by Chris Wilke, about a double-strung theorbo with the second course at both octaves in Pittoni and Melli, about which I express no opinion). Mace remarks that the English theorbo is just "our old English lute" (i.e. in the old renaissance tuning) but too big to tune the first course at lute pitch. The tablatures for the English theorbo tend to be song accompaniments that often avoid the first course altogether, perhaps to allow them to be played on either lute or theorbo. > Where can it be found? The only solo > repertoire I know of is written for a theorbo with courses one and > two in re-entrant tuning. The gap, dear Brutus, lies not in your knowledge but in the repertoire. The pieces by John Wilson in Bodleian Library Ms. Mus b. 1. are thought by some to be for lute, and by others to be for theorbo (the Wilson pieces have been discussed at length several times on this list; they are well worth playing through, and some are achingly beautiful). Many of them don't use the first course, making the question less pressing as a practical matter. -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
