Dan, I have very much enjoyed your explanations of how you came to
terms with the double top course, and how this improved your TO
technique. It gave me more hope actually, as I am struggling somewhat
with TO at present.
Le 21 déc. 08 à 19:37, Daniel Winheld a écrit :
No need to apologize Anthony, we are in "disparate" straits indeed
as any single factor affects all other factors; and we are
processing & correlating many disparate bits of wreckage-
tantalizing clues, contradictory artifacts, and the opinionated
opinions of long dead musicians, string makers, & luthiers who were
as cantankerously human as we are. (And let's remember the sheep;
whose 16th century guts were genetically the same as now, but is
the breaking point really unaffected by diet & processing?)
I suspect at bottom they had the same love-hate relationship to the
troublesome trebles as we do- are they worth the double expense,
the double trouble with tuning & need for absolute concordant
trueness from open to 12 fret? For some music a singing, single
treble string really is the best, while for polyphonic music and
some accompanying tasks the even tone color, seamless transition,
and perfect blending favor the doubled treble.
That is a very good point, but I wonder how you decide the cut-off
point between the two, but I suppose that is the same question we
are always asking ourselves, even for TI/TO.
Tell me if I am wrong, but I think Vihuela players usually keep to
TO? Would this have something to do with the double top? If there is
a reason for associating these, then we might have a reason for
Dowland's adopting TO, while also using double tops.
Yet TO in lute music is often associated with the break from a
certain type of polyphonic music. Indeed, if the reason for the TI to
TO shift should be sought in its musical function, and if that should
be increased "treble bass polarity", as suggested by J. Edwards,
(1997), then this seems to go in the opposite direction of the
polyphonic homogeneity function (seamless transition and even tone)
that the double top would bring.
There is something, here, that escapes me; but I do spend much of my
time in almost total confusion, so there is nothing new there.
My own attempts to get a handle on the doubled first go back to
1986, when I commissioned a multi-rib 8 course lute from Richard
Fletcher; beautiful instrument that I now wish I had kept, but a
number of personal difficulties forced me to part with it.
Oh so I was wrong again. I thought you must have been using a 9c.
Since then I learned historic thumb-out RH technique for playing 10
course, archlute, and 13 course lutes (Nicolas Vallet's vitriolic
remarks about thumb-in-under frying my tender ears) and did not
address the double-first problem successfully until I got my
Chambure copy vihuela from Barber & Harris- the instrument you can
see & hear me play on the Vimeo site. This instrument seems to
"want" slightly higher tension than lutes, the Universale double
chanterelle is .42 mm on a 64.5 SL, pitched as a nominal g, but
A=392 (alright, "f" damn it) for an approximate tension of 35 N.
With a single first it can sound good at 415, but is a little
strained. I have decided on TO for this instrument, as much for arm-
wrist ergonomic reasons as being in accord with "Figueta
Castellano". Getting good tone on any course, double or single,
was initially much easier for me with thumb-under- but now that TO
is comfortable the archlute & d-minor lute sound clearer & cleaner
played TO. The 6-course lute- single first- (one Marco recercar on
Vimeo) will always be a thumb-under instrument. I do not now own a
nine-course lute, that is number one on my cosmic wish-list.
Do you try to keep your TO as a slight shift from your TI, as Jakob
Lindberg declares he does in his interview with Ed Durbrow, or do you
try to maximize the difference. I am not sure which tactic is easier.
t present I am shifting between the two, as I show in my message to
Martin.
I hope you get your 9c in your stocking or for the New Year!!
Best wishes
Anthony
I appologize for the disparate nature of my remarks.
Best wishes
Anthony
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