Dear Rob,
This is a very subjective question. Many people say they can't possibly
play any of this music on a string length of more than 58cm, and that
may be true for them - but I doubt it. Issues of technique and habit
feature strongly.
I'm sure someone will come up with a FdaM piece which can't be played on
a long string length but just from memory I would say there's nothing
which I would not be happy to play on a lute of about 67cm, and many
pieces which would be perfectly possible on a longer lute. As you know,
my hands are probably smaller than yours, so you can draw your own
conclusions.
Gordon liked his 68.5cm Frei (built 1992) so much he ordered another one
about thirteen years later, and it interested me to compare the
instruments (and my ideas about how the instrument "should" be) more
than a decade on. Hearing duets played on these two lutes is
fantastic.... I'm hoping to make a home recording of this in due course.
Many of us with experience of these "big" lutes feel that the "left hand
stretch" issue is not really a problem and the depth, sonority and
flexibility of these instruments makes us wonder why people have been
(and still are) obsessed with a "lute in G, 60cm".
All the best,
Martin
Rob MacKillop wrote:
I don't have a 6c and have never read Francesco's works on such an
instrument, but I would like to know from the collective experience here at
what length of string does it become very difficult to play his works? The
lute in the portrait of him playing (if it is indeed him) seems to have
quite a long string length, and many of the 6c instruments on, for instance,
the Barber/Harris website are for very long string lengths, 72 cms or upper
60s. I vaguely recall Gordon Gregory playing me some Francesco on a
long-fingerboard lute, and it sounded beautiful. But at what string length
does it become just too awkward? Fuenllana, for instance, really requires a
short vihuela, 55 to 60 cms. Not so with Francesco?
Rob
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