On Tue, Jul 8, 2008 at 8:12 AM, Ed Durbrow <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> If you can use the Baroque lute why not just string it up with single > strings? At least there will be enough pegs and the RH spacing would be in > the ball park. > This is a reasonable option, exactly equivalent, however, to what I'm proposing to do with the EMS LLO. For my lute, I'd put a much wider bridge on, build a buttressed support for a wider nut, and space the strings at the right hand at whatever passes for standard for a single-strung theorbo. Note that this has been declared wrong and inadmissable by at least three people already, although your mileage may vary. (mine does.) Since the diapasons aren't fingered, and my LLO has eight courses, I can support the equivalent of 8x6 or 6x8 this way. The point of trying to get the theorboed lute fixed is that it does have the extra body size and diapason string length to get the vaunted "real theorbo" sound, although memory (and compressed disks) may be conspiring to make me remember it as longer than it might be. (I have mentioned this in responses to private emails, but I don't think I've said so on the list yet: I asked Dr. Rice about the possibility of meeting him before the end of the school year so that I could at least survey the condition and string lengths of the theorboed lute, but the only response I received was "I'll look forward to your audition in the fall".) Sometimes, chicken-and-egg problems require creative solutions. The baroque lute, incidentally, has a chanterelle rider and the top two strings are singles. I hesitate to consider trying to modify its pegs for larger strings with reentrant tunings. (Also, let me take this rare opportunity to correct a misapprehension: I am not basing my audition for the Collegium on lute and/or theorbo: I play viols, recorders, shawms, krummhorns, baroque oboe and bassoon, 'cello, string bass (although the college doesn't have a violone and I can't play it if they get one) and can even sing. I've been doing these things for over 30 years, though, and I'd really like to make my time with the collegium profitable. For me, at this point, that is spelled "continuo". The rest of the madness flows from this root.) ray -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
