Dear All:
Are we really agreed on a double first course being best for pol=
yphony? I like to think of a lute as having three voices: the top
string is= the soprano, the doubled second and third courses are the
altos, and the o= ctave fourth, fifth, and sixth are the tenors and
basses. With three distin= ct sounds from three types of courses, the
polyphony might be clearer, thou= gh perhaps not as "blended." Any
thoughts on this?
Also, on a completely different matter. When the outdoor weather= dips
below freezing and the humidity drops, I turn on my humidifier. I try=
to keep the humidity in the rooms where the lutes are above 40 percent.
Do= any of the luthiers or other experts know what the "ideal" humidity
is?
Cheers,
Jim
Dec 21, 2008 12:39:17 PM, [1]dwinh...@comcast.net wrote:
=
No need to ap= ologize Anthony, we are in "disparate" straits indeed
as
any single fac= tor affects all other factors; and we are processing
&
correlating = many disparate bits of wreckage- tantalizing clues,
contradictory artif= acts, and the opinionated opinions of long dead
musicians, string maker= s, & 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 & proc= essing?)
I suspect at bottom they had the same love-hate relationshi= p to
the
troublesome trebles as we do- are they worth the double expens= e,
the
double trouble with tuning & need for absolute concordant tr= ueness
from open to 12 fret? For some music a singing, single treble st=
ring
really is the best, while for polyphonic music and some accompanyi=
ng
tasks the even tone color, seamless transition, and perfect
blending=
favor the doubled treble.
My own attempts to get a handle on th= e doubled first go back to
1986,
when I commissioned a multi-rib 8 cour= se lute from Richard
Fletcher;
beautiful instrument that I now wish I h= ad kept, but a number of
personal difficulties forced me to part with i= t.
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
addre= ss the double-first problem successfully until I got my
Chambure
copy v= ihuela from Barber & Harris- the instrument you can see &
hear
= me play on the Vimeo site. This instrument seems to "want"
slightly
hig= her tension than lutes, the Universale double chanterelle is
.42
mm on = a 64.5 SL, pitched as a nominal g, but A=3D392 (alright, "f"
damn
it) f= or an approximate tension of 35 N. With a single first it can
sound goo= d at 415, but is a little strained. I have decided on TO
for
this instr= ument, 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 & cleane= r played TO. The 6-course lute- single first- (one
Marco recercar on Vi= meo) will always be a thumb-under instrument.
I
do not now own a nine-c= ourse lute, that is number one on my cosmic
wish-list.
>I= appologize for the disparate nature of my remarks.
>Best wishes
&= gt;Anthony
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References
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2. 3D"http://www.cs.dartmou=/
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