I think relativeley rare is about right, maybe
medium rare. There are enough examples that we
know that there was a presence, and not truly
rare, but not enough examples to think in terms
of "either or". Some very interseting iconography
for earlier instruments as well.
It is a terrific sound, and in some sense is
easier, because you can strike the courses pretty close to the same way.
I also think that from a technique point of view,
that the double top course prevents some of the
more moderm styles od striking the string from creeping in.
dt
At 03:24 PM 12/19/2008, you wrote:
Dear Anthony and All,
The double top course is found on everything
from 6c lutes to Mace's 12c lute, and everything
inbetween. Three of our most popular 7c lutes
from the Venere workshop, the 44cm C39, the
58.7cm lute in Bologna, and the 66.8cm C36, have
their original bridges and pegboxes and a double
top course. The double top course seems to have
been relatively rare on 6c lutes, and by the
late 17th C the author of the Burwell tutor
explains the single 2nd on the 11c course by
claiming that they could hardly ever find two
strings "to agree" - a problem which would have
been even more acute for a first course. But I
think it is fairly certain that the single 2nd
originated as a conversion feature (from 10c to
11c), and iconographic evidence suggests that a
double 2nd was also quite common on 11c lutes.
On 9 vs 10 courses - it's surprising how much
music there seems to be for 9c, and often in MS
sources you can see where the piece has been
written for 9c, then adapted for 10. Just for
the record, the pieces by John Sturt and Jacques
Gaultier used only 9 courses, no need to stop
any basses to get extra notes, though the source
(ML) is one which is fairly consistently notated
for 10. For these pieces, the 8th is Eb and the
9th Bb (nominal G tuning) - a very practical
tuning which makes the keys of Eb and Bb quite
accessible. Another nice 9c tuning is 8th to Eb
and 9th to C, which is good for pieces in C
minor. Of course you can't play all 10c music
on a 9c lute, but there's lots of
possibilities. Vallet indicates for each piece
how many courses it needs, anything from 7 to
10. Perhaps the main disadvantage of the 9c
lute is that you need to do more retuning of two
or more of the basses for different keys,
whereas on the 10c your main dilemma is whether to have the 8th at E or Eb.
Gut basses are easier to retune than wound ones, by the way...
Best wishes,
Martin
Anthony Hind wrote:
On lutes, would it only have been nine course
lutes that had this double first course (as the
one Martin Shepherd recorded with recently, and
Dowland is said to have played), or were 10c,
or even some 11c lutes strung that way (even if
there are no extant ones, can we be sure, they
just did not survive, or is there some
reference to them as dated or old fashioned)?
If I remember correctly, Martin was recently
playing 10c Jacques Gautier music with his 9c,
so I suppose the ninth course is tuned to C-10,
and has to be stopped down to obtain the D-9?
Can most transitional 10c lute music be played
on such a lute, a little like playing 8c lute
music on a 7c lute, with the 7c tuned to D (as
I usually do)? Would this work well with most
transitional music (Cuthbert Hely, for example
who seems to have been a contemporary of
Jacques), or might there be a sort of break off
point, where the double top or the 9c would be more incongruous?
Anthony
Le 19 déc. 08 à 23:06, Daniel Winheld a écrit :
Slightly lower pitch, and slightly lower tension; it's two strings
now and the whole course should feel (and sound) balanced vis-a-vis
the other courses. It need not have literally the same tension as the
second course; but the feel of "balance" should be a steady increase
from bass to treble at a certain point- 4th or 3rd course, usually-
not a sudden jump in tension. I have been bothered by the
double-first issue for many years, and it was not until I had an
instrument built on commission to a historic design that I could take
advantage of the doubled first. Well worth the effort- one should at
least try it; one can always remove a string. -Dan
Yup--
The double first course is sorta the sleeper
in historical lute performance.
Along with the double course theorbos.
The top course doubled sound terrific at a slightly lower pitch,
seamless transition among the top three courses.
dt
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